After a week away

 I spent the last week in Baradine, NSW at a quilting retreat. It was so good to be out in the countryside again. On the way up we stayed with Jen and Alex at Mudgee. It was great to meet up with them again. Jen gave us a huge pile of bits and pieces to bring home as she is downsizing her patchwork activities.

At Baradine we stayed at Camp Cypress which is the camping area attached to the showground. There are cabins and we take over all of them and the dining-kitchen area for 4 nights.

Some of the husbands come as well and set up their camp to enjoy time with the 'boys'. They seemed to be very comfortable. They also went off to various activities and sightseeing each day.

Mick and Janice have a rather large camping set up and the other husbands had beds in one of the cabins.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at Baradine I had a cold starting and it continued to develop as the week went on. Luckily I had a sewing station at the end of the row of tables so could isolate a little more than the others.

By the time we left for home my cold had become a cough and it is still with me.

To travel home we both just wanted to get home with our coughs and colds so we decided to just start driving and see how far we got. Of course, if you get to the bottom of the Blue Mountains there is nowhere else to stop because it is just motorways all the way home. We stopped at Gulgong for lunch and were greeted by this lovely rig coming down the road towards us.

After lunch we said we would get afternoon tea along the Blue Mountains somewhere but by afternoon tea time all the cafes are shut so we just kept driving. When we got to Stephanie's I refused to drive any further (I'd driven nearly 8 hours) and I stayed the night at hers. She had fun looking at all the bags she had made over the week. They will be sold at a stall for charity.

The next day I drove the extra 20 minutes to mine.

Yesterday I had fun unloading everything and seeing what I had. This included two huge bags of 'scraps' from 2 ladies who knew Stephanie and I work with them. One bag will need to go straight to the rag waste but the other has actual folded pieces and will need to be sorted. 

That will probably be done today.