On the Road: Australasian Quilt Convention, April 2019

I’m sort of getting used to the flight to Australia. This was my third trip Down Under, and while modern air travel is never a joyful experience, I know what to expect when I board a plane in Los Angeles and will be on it until we land in Melbourne 16 hours later.

This trip was made a little easier (certainly when it came to lugging bags!) by my special traveling companion: my husband Tom, who accompanied me for the first time on one of my teaching trips. I travel so much for work, yet this was the first big trip we have taken together in eight years, so we built in some time before and after my teaching for sightseeing.

My previous visit to the Australasian Quilt Convention (AQC) had set a high bar for what to expect. The venue, the vendors and classes, the gala dinner and cocktail party, the metropolitan setting, and, lest we forget, the quilts—all make for an experience that is much more than just a quilt convention.

My quilts “Tickled Pink” and “Polka Dodo” were included in the exhibition of tutors’ work. There were several very nice special exhibits, and many spectacular quilts on display. I wish I would have had a bit more time to take them all in. A little time before class began and then a little more at lunch was all I could manage. I couldn’t even give the vendors a thorough look!

Since I can’t give a well-rounded report of the exhibit quilts, I picked one of my favorites,  in slide show with details below, entitled “Return to the Rock Platform.” It caught my eye as I was skimming along, and I was pleased but not surprised that it was created by my friend and fellow art quilter Jenny Bowker, a highly respected and totally lovely Aussie tutor honored me by taking my class this time around, instead of working.

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AQC takes place at Melbourne’s historic Royal Exhibition Hall, which when it was built was one of the largest wooden structures in the world, and now the only surviving of it’s era.

The building is full of art nouveau designs, including painted ornamentation and panels of sylphs symbolizing the seasons and philosophical ideals.

Expertise Events, run by husband-and-wife team Gary Fitz-Roy and Judy Newman, organizes AQC, which brings in vendors and teachers from both Australia and the wider world. What sets AQC apart from other events that I have attended, however, is the party-like atmosphere that the organizers create. The cocktail party where we tutors are introduced to attendees is accompanied by video and music. Each international teacher is welcomed to the stage with their own theme song based on their nationality. I was serenaded by Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”. A Japanese instructor’s theme song was “Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto.” “Land Down Under” welcomes the Australian instructors.

But the capper, as it is each year, was the original musical number, which we tutors as a group on stage are encouraged to sing along with, a la karaoke. This year’s song was “We Quilt this City on Rock and Roll.” I’m not exactly a sing-along type of girl, but Tom says I made a good showing and didn’t embarrass myself.

The Gala Dinner on Saturday night is attended by hundreds of quilting ladies, dressed to the nines. This year the dinner was introduced by a Dame Edna impersonator (pictured above with my friend and fellow tutor, Gloria Loughman), who handed out gladioli to her favorite attendees. After an awards ceremony, the rest of the night was taken up with dinner and dancing. The headline band was an Elton John cover band. And I do love “Crocodile Rock.” 😉

You know how in some events such as weddings or class reunions, it takes a while for the dance floor to fill up? Not here. As soon as the first chords were struck the dance floor was full. Tom stripped off his coat and tie to join me, being one of the few men on the floor, or in the room as a whole, actually. Late in the evening, Expertise Events assistant 24-year-old Nick and (not 24-year-old-anymore) Tom teamed up for a memorable dance off to “Sweet Home Alabama.” Tom’s still got it.

Class

My only wish is that the convention was a day longer. It’s a challenge to squeeze material for a five day class into four. To make the 20-student class a little easier to manage, I limited the subject matter to the animal kingdom, which is still a pretty wide range of subjects, but it at least keeps the focus from being distracted by landscapes, flowers, and the more time-consuming people portraits.

I love a messy classroom. There should be heaps of fabric on every table. If there isn’t a blizzard of scraps on the floor after a class then I haven’t done my job.

My students were from all over the large country of Australia, from Darwin in the North to Brisbane in the East to Perth in the West, and of course those closer to Melbourne in the South. They were hard working and cheerful. Who could ask for more from students? Check out their work below.

Student Work

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Classroom Angel Tracey Leonard

Great Ocean Road

The first thing we did upon landing in Melbourne was pick up our rental car and drive south toward the Great Ocean Road (remembering to stay on the left-hand side of the street!). Built mostly by hand by soldiers returning from the First World War, the GOR route runs 150 miles along the southern coastline, hugging the land between sheer sandstone bluffs and sand beaches (including some world-famous surfing spots).

But the main attraction of the GOR has to be the Twelve Apostles, a series of sandstone pillars standing in the sea. It is a huge tourist draw, but well worth seeing even among the crowds.

Lighthouses, Twelve Apostles, The Arch, London Bridge, The Grotto

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But there are plenty of other attractions along the way. We visited Split Point Lighthouse in Airey’s Inlet-Fairhaven then at dawn traipsed the nearby beach. We stopped at Kafe Koala on the Kennett River to see sleepy koala’s high up in trees and to hand-feed the ducks, parrots, and cockatoos.

Some Animals of Australia

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A highlight of our trip was the dingo encounter at Great Ocean Road Wildlife Park. I was kissed and sat on by a dingo—a great honor, I felt. Dingoes have a bad rap in Australia, like wolves in the western United States. Most of us don’t understand or fully appreciate their importance in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem.

A Dingo Encounter

Zip Lining and Tree-top Walk

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After visiting the Twelve Apostles and the other nearby attractions such as the Arch, London Bridge, and the Grotto, we headed inland for a zip-lining and tree-top walk adventure. After that we took a tour on Lake Elizabeth to see one of the strangest creatures in existence, the platypus, an egg-laying mammal with venom in their claws that looks like a cross between a duck and a beaver.

Platypus Tour

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What a full four days we had! I guess it’s a good thing, though, as we didn’t slow down long enough to get tired after the long flight.

St. Kilda and Melbourne

We had one full day in St. Kilda—an afternoon, overnight, and morning—a suburb of Melbourne before checking into the hotel for my teaching in the city proper.

Around St. Kilda

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St. Kilda Veg Out Community Garden

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St. Kilda Graffiti

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While Saint Kilda has wonderful restaurants, a funky public garden, and cool street art, my main goal in staying in town was to see the fairy penguins. Also called little blue penguins, they are the smallest penguins in the world. We had seen them from a distance at dusk on the Great Ocean Road. St. Kilda offered the chance to see these pocket-sized penguins up close.

St. Kilda’s waterfront is dominated by a pier connecting to a dock and a stone breakwater or jetty. This manmade barrier was built for the summer olympics in 1956, encompassing a body of smooth water for rowing competitions. It also created a nice habitat for penguins, who moved in only a few years later. The loosely stacked rocks create great shelters for the burrow-dwellers.

The colony at St. Kilda is one of two man-made structures used by little blue penguins. They are a huge tourist attraction, as you can imagine. A dock has been constructed that runs alongside the jetty. We showed up at dusk and the penguins had already begun to return after a day of feeding at sea. Soon there were penguins everywhere. And they were not bashful. They hopped up on the rocks and began preening themselves. They were very vocal and, ahem, affectionate as it was the beginning of the mating season.

After St. Kilda, I had little time for sight-seeing in Melbourne itself, but Tom and I did have most of a day to wander before I began my teaching and other responsibilities. We saw some of the street art/graffiti that parts of the city are famous for. We also spent some time in the Melbourne Museum, especially in the science section and the Aboriginal history exhibit.

Melbourne is a wonderful, multicultural, easy to navigate and growing city—a perfect place to hold a convention. It is full of restaurants of all kinds, beautiful parks, shops, markets, and activities of all sorts to fill any spare moments you might have.

Melbourne Graffiti

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Melbourne Museum and Aquarium

At the Melbourne Museum, above.

From our hotel room on the thirteenth floor we had a wonderful view of the city, which we shared with the various critters I collected. The Grand Exhibition Hall was visible in the sunrise reflection on the building across the street.

Out and About in Melbourne

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One of the highlights for Tom was attending an Australian Rules Football match, also called “footie.” My friend Jenny Bowker’s husband Bob is a fan of the Collingwood Magpies and treated Tom to the match. Tom especially enjoyed “barracking” for (never say “rooting for”, it means something impolite) American footie player Mason Cox, a former college basketball player.

While Tom attended the match (above), I watched the footie on TV in our room (below).

While I brought home the bacon, Tom snuck off for a day of paddling on the Yarra River, running from the suburbs into the center of Melbourne.

After Melbourne

When the convention was over, we stayed a few days with my friend, quilter Gloria Loughman and her husband Tony at their home in Queenscliff. They showed us all their favorite beaches and sites. They even took us on the ferry across the “Rip,” the narrow inlet between Queenscliff and the Mornington Peninsula at the mouth of Port Phillip Bay, the large, protected body of water on which Melbourne sits. On our way to the hotel near the airport, we visited the Melbourne Zoo for a special evening light show.

Queenscliff, the Mornington Peninsula, and the Melbourne Zoo

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As I’ve said before, I’m lucky to have a job that allows me to travel to such interesting places. I was doubly lucky this time to be able to include Tom in my adventure. We’ll both get rested up after our trip and start planning the next one.