The Village Quilters: November 2013

It's that time of the year again, and the Village Quilters had their break-up at the lovely Campaspe House in Woodend. The English-style manor house was built in 1927 and Edna Walling designed the 5 acres of gardens around the house.
The interiors are beautiful, with lots of wood panelling, cosy lounges, and a dining room looking over the pool towards guest accommodation and a formal vegetable garden.
In all this splendor, high tea is served on weekends, and we thoroughly enjoyed the silver service, the ambience, the food, and of course, the company!
Three triple-decker etageres were whisked in front of us - loaded with delights such as mini eclairs, brandy baskets with strawberries and cream, passion fruit cups, the fluffiest scones and cream, raspberry blondies, creme brulees to die for, shortbread biscuits, chocolate mouse cups and brownies, fancy cucumber and egg sandwiches, pastizzis, tomato and cheese mini quiches,

and smoked salmon and herb mayonnaise in pastry cups.
What a feast!
We made short work of most of it , but in the the end all the bounty defeated us and we couldn't finish the last few morsels! The waiters were happy, they polished off the rest.

Well, here we all are, that is, all but one; Christine wasn't able to join us this time.
From left to right: Mary, Kathryn, Alleyne, Jean, and Donna.

There had to be a show-and-tell! This is the quilt Mary had been working on all year. It's a wonderful family tree, based on a photo of where the family used to live near Trentham. The tree has many individual leaves onto which the names and details of all the relatives are stitched. Truly a labour of love! The photo does not do it justice; the amount of detail is amazing, with lots of embroidered flowers, and the little tree branches are also embroidered. Stunning work, Mary!

There had been a challenge, in which Jean and myself participated, and a few people on Facebook and from the Wednesday night class. This is Jean's challenge quilt,
"Winter Wonderland", and it's just gorgeous! On a midnight blue background of many fabric squares, Jean appliqueed lots of snowflakes, made form cotton, lace, and angelina. There was also lots of beading on the snowflakes. Again, the photo doesn't do it justice. Can you see the beautiful feathering on the border? You're such a talented lady, Jean!

Alleyne also had a show-and-tell for us, with her Bali-Pop quilt. The colours were gorgeous, and this was a really good way to use a bali pop. AND they matched her shoes, lol!

There were flowers in the house, peony roses which are my favourites.
We went for a short walk around the gardens, and enjoyed the flags, rhododendrons, and the amazing artichokes in the veggie garden.
Two huge liquidambers dominate the front garden, and they must look spectacular in May, when they turn colour. Must come back then!