Dookie - where's that?

Dookie is a little town in rural northern Victoria not too far from Wangaratta. I've just been to a quilting retreat at Dookie College run by the Wangaratta Centre Quilters and it was great. My friendly companion tutors were Gina Burgess and Lorraine Crocker from Adelaide and Deb Louie from NSW. We met up with Heather Ridley also from Adelaide on the first night.

This was our accommodation for the weekend - plasma tv and gas central heating - too good!

The huge site is an ex-agricultural college which is now a research centre. Also used for all sorts of retreats including quilting. There were lots of buildings around the campus like this and beautiful large trees that must have been planted when the college began. Acres of paddocks with farm animals and beautiful gardens. We even saw a fox running across the lawns one lunch-time.

The girls in my class chose to do my Pickled Lillies quilt over the two days and they sewed their socks off! I think they had fun and I know I did. Below is a selection from the workshop. Lots of different colour combos to please the eye.

Sunday just before we left to drive back to Melbourne Airport we had show-and-tell from all the classes.

Here's Gina with a few of her Kaleidoscope students - how clever are they.

Heather's class was making a coral reef - seaweed and fishy stuff - amazing.

Deb taught her free-motion class with great results.

And this is my group's efforts. Sorry Lorraine I seem to have missed out on a pic from your class.

Kay from my class is letting me show you these. She has one in memory of a quilty friend who passed away recently and the other shows how keen she is on sewing! That's dedication.

It was a whirlwind visit for all the tutors but a wonderful venue and great food.

The company was excellent and everyone was so friendly to the interstate visitors. Thanks for having me girls.