On Monday 29th June 2015, 17 of us headed out with our very game man Bruce at the wheel (without earplugs), to visit a few places. Firstly, we left the Cottage at 7.45am and headed north. Our first stop was at Maccas at Green Hills for a coffee and whatever we fancied. Back onto the bus and off to Feltfine. Gary and Kris run this wonderful business at Dunns Creek on his property of alpacas. We saw a few alpacas (and very beautiful at that) on our way in and out. Thanks Jenni for being our very beautiful “gate girl”. Reaching the shed at the top of the track, we all piled in and were amazed. What a wonderful sight. Fibre, fibre and more fibre. Beautiful fleeces, wool, batts for felting, silks, torn silks for knitting and weaving, skeins ready to knit and crochet. Gary gave us a talk on washing, carding, mixing and batting, and he and Kris started up the huge drum carder and made up a couple of scrappy batts for us to see. Around the drums it all went, as Kris threw in lots of beautiful fibres as it wound around the drums. It was then cut off and taken to the Needle Felting machine. A few more fibres added and it went through the process. At the end was a fabulous Scrappy Batt, needle felted for easy felting. This takes the work out of things. We were all amazed at the process and the expert way Gary and Kris showed and helped us with everything. Such knowledge, all packed into one shed. We were all so busy and all looking to grab our bits and pieces for our individual items to be just that bit different from each other. All our minds were boggling. (No wonder a lot of us have curly hair, as too much is going on inside the brain). Bruce made sure we all saw the second shed. That had fabulous bits and pieces. Silk cocoons, the sari yarn, all types of spun fibre ready to put your mind to do whatever took your fancy.
After a couple of hours there, all aboard and off to beautiful Morpeth. We had a walk and looked at a few of the shops open, then headed off to East Maitland. The drive was lovely. We all had a fabulous lunch (the $10 specials) at the Windsor Castle and then over the road to Glendoon Cottage Patchwork Shop. This shop used to be in Morpeth and moved into East Maitland. Carmel, who owns the shop, knew we were coming and had specials out on the table and as we purchased, she gave us a lovely pack she had made up of fat quarters etc. to each of us. This was extremely generous of Carmel and a very touching thought. Carmel’s hospitality was wonderful and a recommendation from all of us to visit her shop in the future. The pub’s car park was a perfect position for the bus to park. There we met up with a couple of ladies from the local area (pre arranged) and sold off our table looms and a spinning wheel. (Now we can get a nice new table loom.) The deal was done (you have heard of people selling things in pub car parks, but that could have been a new one with Spinners and Weavers equipment, not being the usual in a pub car park). All of us having a tummy full, chatted out, all our purchases in hand, had an enjoyable trip home. Thanks to Bruce for driving us and his entertainment. Everyone is now planning the next trip. That should be around November. How could you not have a great time with all the terrific company and personalities on board. Thanks to everyone who come along. By Lyn A.