I'm back and adding to my fabric stash

Before I start, I apologise for the layout of this post! I spent over an hour trying to get it to look the way I want but Blogger has other ideas! I think it's time to move my blog to W---!
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Life has been full with Christmas and New Year celebrations and the coming and going of house guests.

We've had some summer weather at last!

• We've been on a day trip to the beach.
• WM and DD have taken Younger Grandson for his first swim in the pool.
• Older Grandson is learning some independence in the pool while wearing floaties.

But more of that later.

Today, being my first real post of the new year, I'd like to welcome and thank all my followers. It seems like only yesterday I had 19 followers when I signed up for Lily Quilt's Small Blog Meet Up (in October). This week I hit 40! How exciting! Thank you all so much.

DD and I celebrated the start of a new year of sewing by attending the sales at our local Big Box Store.
Inspired by this book (we can't wait to get starting on our first story quilts)

...we bought 52 half metres of fabric.

 random florals

 random prints

blenders

 brights

 little diamonds

medium sized florals

 red paisleys

tone on tone

tone on tone leaf 

spots

and stripes

Of course, this fabric could be used for other kinds of quilts too; I think we might have a stash now!

Australia in the Round

Yesterday, another teacher and I took our (adult) students to the Blue Mountains village of Glenbrook to view Aitkens' "Australia in the Round".

We travelled by train from Blacktown to Glenbrook then walked for ten minutes from the station to the gallery. The gallery is at the rear of The Blue Mountains Cafe and Gift Shop, in Wascoe St.

Our students are unlikely to travel to some of the places shown in the paintings - some are 4,000 kilometres (2500 miles) from where we viewed the paintings - so it was good for them to look at landscapes they would never see otherwise.

Uluru (a.k.a. Ayers Rock), Northern Territory
from http://www.visitbluemountains.com.au/

But, what was more impressive and educationally perhaps more useful, at least from my point of view, were the simulated landscapes, complete with fauna and flora, in front of the paintings. Real red dust had been brought from Central Australia. Animals had been carefully "stuffed" (apologies to any taximdermists out here) and posed realistically. If the students had been quiet (which, of course, they weren't), they would have been able to hear the soundtrack of nature - Australian style.

kookaburra (a.k.a. Laughing Jackass)
from http://www.aitkenspanorama.com.au/

Photography was not allowed in the gallery so I have downloaded some photos to share with you. These photos do not show the real beauty of the paintings but they do give you a glimpse of what we saw.

from http://www.aitkenspanorama.com.au/

the Jamieson Valley
from http://penrith-press.whereilive.com.au/

I am a strong believer in copyright and uphold the right of the artist (Falk Kautzner) and Mr Aitken (the owner of the gallery) to not allow photos to be taken in the gallery. I also uphold the rights of photographers not to have their work claimed as my own. However, I have no qualms about using these photos - I have stated where they came from and am giving the gallery the publicity for which these photos were taken in the first place.

If you are ever in Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains, do visit the gallery (the food and service at the Cafe are excellent too) but be warned - there is a charge to view the paintings.

If you can't make it, the website is here: you can view all the paintings; which is not as good as visiting but "virtual reality" is better than nothing.