RURAL ROUNDUP

Rural Roundup is a bi-annual get together of delegates from SA Quilters affiliated country groups hosted somewhere in the state by a rural group. It is a day of fun, friendship, information, shops, show and tell, lucky draws and more. The day has a theme with guest speakers to complement the theme. The alternate year SA Quilters hosts a similar day in Adelaide called Country Forum.

Saturday, 26th October 2024. Theme: Nuts about Quilting

Barmera Lake Bonney Quilters recently had the privilege of hosting the South Australian Rural Roundup, ‘Nuts about Quilting’, cos we all are, aren’t we?

We filled our venue at the Riverland Field Days Events Centre on Saturday, 26^th October 2024 with over 170 enthusiastic quilter and patch worker guests from across the South Australia for a day of friendship and everything ‘quilty’ and a little local produce.

Our committed team had been planning the event for more than 18 months and the day proceeded with a few behind the scenes glitches but they were quickly overcome. The Events Centre provided us with plenty of room and marvelous facilities such as the commercial kitchen, plentiful and attractive toilets and on grass acres of parking. We hosted four shops for a veritable smorgasbord of retail therapy and our program allowed for lots of time to tempt even the most reluctant stash collector.

Guest speakers included a very entertaining Peter Szabo who talked about his mulberry farm and how he produces luscious mulberries on a vine type trellis. Keryn Gorman promoted the need for us all to shop and eat local from her shop ‘Illalangi’ at Waikerie near the Waikerie silo art. SA Quilters representatives from Adelaide addressed us about the Guild activities and encouraged county crafters to submit entries for the Festival of Quilts and how to enter a winning quilt.

SA Quilters representatives from Adelaide addressed us about the Guild activities and encouraged county crafters to submit entries for the Festival of Quilts and how to enter a winning quilt.

Two local quilters brought their creations; Claire Smith who is committed to repurposing denim jeans and other found materials into bags and creations and Glenys Leske who creates quilts and three-dimensional objects using fabric collage in particular birds. Look out for upcoming SA Quilters workshops from these talented women.

We also invited guests to watch and chat to our demonstrators throughout the day. Sue Farlane, a local Barmera Lake Bonney Quilter, demonstrated her wonderful wool flowers and her eye catching Christmas tree wall hanging. Cindy Massey showed us how to make ‘Wonky Stars’ using teeny tiny scraps of fabric, does she ever throw anything out? Sandra Smith from our local Riverland Embroiders Guild brought a colourful display of work encouraging combining embroidery into quilting.

Catching up with quilting pals from other groups was a highlight for many as was meeting new friends all over the sumptuous spreads for morning and afternoon tea. We’re sure that no one went home hungry!

Almondco, SA Quilters, the Berri Hotel and Nutrien Ag sponsored the day. Raffle prizes were numerous with Bronwyn Atkinson winning the first prize of a quilt. May Westley and Debra Burton were the 2^nd and 3^rd prize winners while Andrea Kalisch won the lucky door prize. There were many other lucky prize winners!

We thank all our guests for making it a great day of socialising and fellowship.

Barmera Lake Bonney Quilters.

Saturday, 29th October 2022. Theme: Colours of the EP

Our group, Cleve Country Quilters accepted the challenge in 2018, to host the 2020 Roundup. Then Covid hit, and all the preparations were stored in a box till 2022.

A committee of five from our group of 25, was formed to plan the day.

We decided on the theme ‘Colours of the EP’. The decision was made to have all our guest speakers from this region, as there are some incredibly talented ladies over this way.

Our guest speakers were:

Catherine Summers, a Cleve member, and noted textile artist, spoke of her journey into quilting .
Next was Jane Vandenbroek, of Earth Pallet Dyes. There were a lot of questions asked about her craft, which she answered so well.
Nola Pearce from the SA Guild, originally from this region explained the process of Quilt Appraisal.
Next was Marie Glover from the Cummins region, who has a tremendous gift with free motion quilting and the work she showed us, certainly gave us the wow factor.
Nola Samuel, who does beautiful work with textile and painting was our last guest to show her work, and I’m sure that all those present went home inspired by Marie and all our presenters.

xxx

We finished the day with a parade of ‘Artyculture,” a feature biannually at our EP Field Days. All the garments paraded by gorgeous children and were made from recycled materials.

The Cleve committee of five designed a raffle quilt, representing our region, with $2,000 being donated to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, who service our region so well.

We were thrilled to have 218 guests from around the state, and held the event in the Cleve Sporting Bodies Clubhouse, a fantastic facility, and members of the Sports club catered for us.

Two quilting shops supported us. Stitch N Bits from Cowell, the Cleve Christian Bookshop, and Earth Pallet Dyes. They were very busy in the breaks! Who can resist a quilt shop?

An excellent feature of the day were ladies demonstrating their craft.

Members of the Embroidery Guild came along, one lady doing gold work, one spinning wool, one with her original design of embroidery and another with her stocking flowers.

Two of our members demonstrated the construction of rope baskets, and work in painting fabric.

We received fantastic sponsorship/prizes from businesses, both local and from outside our district and were lucky to receive Grant money from Bendigo Bank, and from SA Quilters.

A big thankyou to Christina from Melann’s Fabric and Sewing Centre for donating a Bernina sewing machine for the major door prize on the day. The machine was won by Heather Weatherald.

As a interesting foot note, our group were proud to win the Australia Day Community Event of the Year for Cleve and Districts. A good acknowledgement for all the hard work by our little group.

Good Luck to the next group who take on the task of Rural Roundup. You will enjoy the journey, after all it is the craft that we all love so much.

This event certainly put Cleve in the spotlight and was a great advertisement for the entire district, with many intending to return in the future.