Travel | Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Quilting Adventures Spring Seminar: Day 1: 4 March 2012

7 03 2012

Sunday 4 March 2012

I found the venue for the quilting workshops — the T Bar M Resort, just outside New Braunfels. Gorgeous location and grounds. I checked in to my room, then went to check out where we had to register for the workshops etc. Kim (one of the organisers) welcomed me with a big hug (we’ve chatted quite a bit via email) and the ladies at ‘The Quilt Haus’ store knew who I was too, as they are hiring me a machine for the week. What a pleasant welcome!

I chose a table in the room where I’ll be spending the rest of the week, and started setting up my gear, including the loan Elna sewing machine (brand new — it will become a demo model for the store once I’ve finished with it). I met a few of the other ladies in my workshop (it looks like there are about 15 of them). Then it was time for drinks, where I met a few more ladies who are in different workshops. GOOD Margaritas, with plenty of tequila! 😉

After drinks was a Texas BBQ dinner (not an open fire BBQ — more BBQ-style beef [brisket?] and chicken and a HOT sauce). Delicious.

Then we had a general session for everyone — I counted about 45 people including the instructors, who will be spread over 5 different workshops. I cracked a special mention for coming the furthest! Most of the ladies are from Texas, with a few from further afield, such as Oklahoma City, Florida, Connecticut, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

After the general session we went to our workshop rooms, where our instructors for the week did a 30-minute intro session. My workshop is with Lenore Crawford, and I got to look at some of her amazing quilts close up.

Then it was back to my room to write up this post, upload my photos (click on a small photo to see it larger), and to TRY to get more than 2.5 hours sleep, which is all I’ve had the past two nights… Damned jet lag…. (Actually, I didn’t upload this blog post or pictures until Tuesday night, which when I first got internet access that worked).

Click on a small photo to show it larger.

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Categories : Quilts and fabric stuff, USA

They breed ’em big in Texas!

7 03 2012

And that includes the insects….

Here’s one of the ‘friendly’ gnats that are hanging around New Braunfels, TX this time of year.

Big gnat

Fortunately, they don’t bite, so while they look like an over-sized mosquito, they don’t have the power of mosquitoes to carry nasty diseases… or so I’ve been told!

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Categories : USA

Old friends and new

7 03 2012

My trip south from Dallas included a stop north of Austin to meet up with a friend I hadn’t seen for 10 years. Shari and I had worked together (via the internet) for several years, for our professional organisation, and it was great to catch up with her.

Next stop after lunch was Helotes, on the northern outskirts of San Antonio, where I was to meet Kelli’s parents for the first time and stay overnight with them. Who’s Kelli? you might ask. Well, to cut a long story short, she’s a gal who lives in Colorado who I ‘know’ via Twitter. One of her colleagues in Phoenix, where Kelli used to live, put us in touch several years ago as we both do crafty things with fabric. Kelli’s Mom is a quilter and her parents are a similar age to me, so Kelli introduced me to her Mom via email and it all snowballed from there once I knew I was coming to Texas to their part of the world.

Suffice to say that I didn’t know Kelli’s parents at all, but figured they must be nice people as they raised such a ‘together’ daughter. They must’ve figured I was OK as I was a friend of Kelli’s (even though Kelli and I have never met), seeing as though they invited me into their home to stay overnight prior to my quilt workshop week in New Braunfels, Texas (about 40 miles away).

I arrived around 4 pm and I don’t think Kelli’s Mom and I drew breath until we all went to bed around 10:30 pm! We have a LOT in common, not just the quilting. Kelli’s Dad had trouble getting in a word edgewise 😉

Sunday morning was leisurely with a late breakfast (and more chatting) with Kelli’s parents, followed by me hitting the road and driving north again to New Braunfels, where I was meeting a distant cousin for breakfast. Tom and I met last year in California and we have a common ancestor from about 1750! We had lunch at the New Braunfels Smokehouse, which does traditional German-style smoked meats. Tom and I both had the Reuben sandwich, and caught up on our respective news.

So, it was a good 24 hours of meeting an old friend, making new friends, and catching up with a relative.

Next stop — the quilting workshop!

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Categories : USA

Hyatt Regency DFW

3 03 2012

After my long flight from Australia, I stayed overnight at the Hyatt Regency at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. You HAVE to call and get the shuttle to pick you up. Even though the hotel is at the airport, there’s no easy way to get to it from Terminal D (international terminal).

The reception people were most helpful in answering some questions I had, as was the concierge in finding out that T-Mobile has a store in the Grapevine Mills Mall, which was a lot closer to the hotel than the Irving Mall I was going to take a cab to. Also, the Grapevine area had an hourly shuttle service for $5 return, which dropped me right near the correct entrance to the mall for T-Mobile. Within 10 mins of checking in to the hotel, I was on the shuttle, and once I got to the mall, I had a US SIM card for my phone all sorted within 15 mins. The staff at the Hyatt saved me an expensive cab ride to the Irving Mall!

The room was nice and typical for that level hotel. I had a view over the Terminal C tarmac so could watch the planes come in and out (not that I did that for more than 30 seconds!).

I had dinner in the hotel’s Grill restaurant — an excellent Roast Chicken and Tortilla soup, and a ‘wedge salad’, which was a wedge of iceberg lettuce, with crispy smoked apple bacon, blue cheese and blue cheese dressing, and a decent slab of grilled skinless chicken as well.

Here are some photos of my room and the meal (the colour was a bit washed out for the food photos); click on a small image to see it full size:

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Categories : Food & Wine, USA

Stamford Plaza Hotel Sydney Airport

2 03 2012

On my way to the US, I stayed overnight at the Stamford Plaza Hotel at Sydney Airport. The room was HUGE, as was the bed — plenty of room to swing a cat, and even herd a few ;-). The shower had good pressure and good temperature controls. The bed and pillows were comfy, and the air conditioning temperature controls were accurate, with a low fan speed that was unnoticeable. The aircraft noise was minimal, but I could hear it, unlike the Hilton (now something else) at Melbourne Airport or any of the Hong Kong airport hotels where there was NO aircraft noise at all.

However, as is typical with Australian hotels, the Stamford’s internet fees sucked — 55c per minute to a maximum of $29.95. I’m not sure if the $29.95 was per 24-hour period or per stay — I was only staying for about 15 hours, so I didn’t ask. If it was $29.95 per day, that’s an absolute rort.

Anyhow, I decided to try tethering my phone and using it as my link to the internet — and it worked well! I already pay for 1 GB of data per month on my phone, and rarely use anywhere near that amount as I’m usually linked via my home wireless network, not direct to the internet via 3G.

Here are some photos of my room at the Stamford Plaza (click on a small photo to see it full size):

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Categories : Australia

Qantas flights: Sydney direct to Dallas

14 09 2011

I have to keep looking this up, so figured I’d add it to my blog so I knew where the answer was!

I’m investigating flights from Australia to Memphis and a viable option is the Sydney to Dallas non-stop flight (QF7). However, the flight only leaves four times a week and I keep forgetting which days, so here they are:

Monday
Wednesday
Friday
Saturday

All flights leave SYD at 15:40 (3:40 pm) Sydney time and arrive at DFW at 13:50 (1:50 pm) on the same day. The flight is about 15 hours, which saves at least an hour or so because you don’t have to stop in Los Angeles, go through Customs and Immigration, wait for a couple of hours and possibly go to another terminal, then go through another security check before getting on the 3+ hour flight to DFW.

Coming back, the flight (QF8) is from DFW non-stop to Brisbane NOT Sydney. It leaves at 22:00 (10 pm) on the Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and arrives TWO days later at 05:15 (5:15 am), with a total flight time of around 16 hours. You then connect from Brisbane to whichever Australian city you’re going to.

(Details from the Qantas website site and accurate on the date of this blog post)

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Categories : Travel

Hilton Del Mar, California

22 03 2011

I stayed at the Hilton Del Mar, near San Diego, California for the Eleanor Burns Quilting Academy in March this year. Here are some pictures of my room at the Hilton when I first opened the door (it never stays like this!) — click on a small image to see it full size.

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Categories : Quilts and fabric stuff, USA

Quilting Academy: Day 3, March 2011

20 03 2011

Last day today… And it was time to be let loose on the overlockers (or sergers as they call them in the US). This time the task was to make a complete quilt top out of a Jelly Roll of Moda fabric, with enough left over to make two more smaller quilts (though only one quilt top was the aim of the day). Oh, and we were to make it ALL on an overlocker — no sewing machines were to be seen in the classroom.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a Jelly Roll is a set of around 40 two and half inch strips of pre-cut fabric. The fabric usually follows a theme — typically a colorway (e.g. all fall tones) or a set of coordinating fabrics from a manufacturer. We had a choice of two Jelly Rolls — either the muted, more ‘country’, more ‘adult’ fabrics from Moda (creams, teals, terracottas, greens, paisleys, florals etc.), or the brighter, ‘juvenile’, colorful fabrics also from Moda. I’m fond of brights, so that’s what I chose (though I have to say that after working with those fabrics all day and combining them like we did, I did find them a little nauseating to look at by the end of the day!).

Our teacher Suzie took us through some of the basics of the Babylock Evolution sergers (I have an old Bernina FunLock at home and it’s pretty much the same except I have to thread the thing by hand — which is mighty painful. These sergers had auto threaders… and a price to match!).

Then she let us loose on the fabrics! We followed one of Eleanor Burns’ patterns for a Jelly Roll quilt, but as we were using sergers instead of sewing machines, many of the stitching and cutting techniques didn’t apply.

And yes, we made an entire quilt top in 6 hours (well, probably 5 hours by the time we got started, had some breaks, etc.). It was quick and easy and using an serger would be a great idea for knocking out charity quilts quickly.

Here are some pictures; click on a small picture to show it full size.

Eleanor Burns: American Barns Trunk Show

18 03 2011

After the first day of the Quilting Academy, we were invited to Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day store, and attend her 90 minute American Barns Trunk Show.

She was just like she appears on TV, except even more personable. The American Barns Trunk Show was full of information and techniques and some history of the barns , the quilt blocks, and the project to get quilt blocks painted onto barns (some 3000 barns now have them). The evening was full of fun, laughter, song and dance (yes, really!). Her whole family is involved, with her son, brand new daughter-in-law and granddaughter all performing or being featured in some way.

While she may try to come across as a little hokey, behind that facade is a very bright and astute businesswoman!

Some pictures from the Trunk Show; click on a small image to see it full size.

Tomorrow is the day I spend in her class — after tonight’s performance, I’m really looking forward to it.

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Categories : Quilts and fabric stuff, USA

Behind the scenes at Quilt in a Day

18 03 2011

After the first day of the Quilting Academy, we were invited to travel to San Marcos (about 30 minutes away, but maybe less if we had taken the right turn!) to see Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day store, and attend her 90 minute American Barns Trunk Show.

The store was like many others, though it did have quite a lot of fabric on sale (Yes, I bought some! At sale prices of $4 and $5 a yard, who wouldn’t? especially as fabric in Australia is upwards of $20 a metre.)

The highlight though was the ‘backlot’ tour conducted by Eleanor herself. This is a MAJOR one-woman brand industry! Most of her sales are via the internet and the back area is HUGE. Even at close to 7 pm, many staff were still working, packing orders, cutting fabric for packs, testing new designs, etc. They even have their own art department (for magazines, books, and web), and their own digital printing press for short-run books on demand. Oh, and she has her own recording studio, which is where she held the Trunk Show (and I suspect it was video’d as the full studio lighting was turned on when she came out to perform.)

Some ‘backlot’ pictures; click on a small image to see it full size.