2QAQ, Brisbane, and tiredness…

SO! As Di and Sue have already blogged, we went down to Brisbane on Saturday for the first meeting of 2QAQ - the Queensland Quilters Art Quilters group. And met up with several people who I only knew from email or blogs; and one that I’d known when she was posted in Canberra with the Army (and she’s still as full on and a little bit scary as ever!)
It was lovely to meet Linda - and next time I’ll have some ATCs ready to swap. And the meeting was chaired by Sue Dennis - I’ve admired her work for ages.

2QAQ is already planning a juried quilt exhibition, as well as a journal quilt project, so that gives us a couple of things to work on. I’m looking forward to going to the meetings, I might even *gasp* take my turn DRIVING into Brisbane!

I’ve also joined the main group of Queensland Quilters - so maybe I’ll even have some quilts in their show this year (October).

Before the meeting, we stopped in at The Quilters Store in Auchenflower - which was worth the trip by itself! I didn’t buy much, really - two more King Tut threads - one in black/white grey for the Miranda sewing theme bag, and one in greens and brown for Maria’s Chocolate PaisleyMiranda.

I also bought a new unpicker (since I have worn mine out! Does that tell you much about my sewing skills, hmmm?) and an awl - both of which were about half what I’d pay in Toowoomba. Somehow I don’t think it costs $7 extra PER UNIT to ship a seam ripper up the hill, do you? AND THEY WONDER WHY I DON’T SHOP LOCALLY!!!

Then this evening I had a dinner out with another person I didn’t know before - Jenny, a member of the Southern Cross Quilters, who is currently in Toowoomba for work, but normally lives in Melbourne. There were some awkward silences, I think…

( I am NOT good at social stuff - arrrgh!)

I don’t get out much, so two lots of people things in two days is something exceptional for me. I discovered that Toowoomba on a Sunday night is CLOSED - even the convenience store was closing at 8 pm when we popped around to buy eggs for Jenny’s breakfast! Seriously, she’s been told all these horror stories about “Don’t walk anywhere in Toowoomba, even during the day” - huh?!? We were the only two people on the street, but it didn’t feel unsafe.

I do not understand this town.

Anway, it’s bloody cold here - the current temperature at the airport weather station is 13.7 C (12.5 with the slight wind chill); in reality it’s 9 degrees outside and about that inside our bedroom too - which is about what we’d expect in the absolute middle of winter, not at the start of Autumn.

I’m off to bed… and tomorrow I see the dietician and start on the weight loss program….