New Long Arm Quilting Centre Open

How do I manage to be such a terrible blogger?

I have a solution, my lovely staff are going to be helping me write this blog, and therefore make it more interesting and more exciting.

I can update you on our year so far.

In April 2015 I held the third and last National Digitising Retreat.  Too much work .... too little time is the only way to sum it up.

Then our family became very busy helping our son James get his Warburton house restorations finished so he could turn it into a Holiday Rental and put it on AirBnB.  It will still take a few months, but I've been busy making some original art (see above Zentangle), and rag rugs.

As well as learning to crochet ... starting by making string bags.

Then our other son (Kev, who is 15 and has an intellectual disability) broke his ankle at basketball.  He has hopes of representing Australia, but the break is through the growth plate, so the healing process is slow.

He had surgery, and is touch weight bearing.  The swelling is the biggest problem.  He also missed out on the State Special Olympics, where his team won gold.

I also became a detective, while attempting to pull together everything we need to get my husband's Polish Citizenship, and therefore the older kids citizenship.  All I can say is thank goodness for Google!  I have a lawyer in Poland, a team of investigators in the Ukraine, and an interpreter here in Australia.  I am working with the NZ government, the Polish authorities in Poland via my lawyer and the Polish embassy in NZ.  Goodness!  Along the way I found these amazing photo's of his grandparents and mother (as a young girl).  Their story is amazing, and sad.

In between all that we have been super busy at the shop.

We became Janome dealers, which meant more staff training.  I love the multi needle embroidery machine and can't wait till we have room in the shop for it.

We have gutted a new shop, and set up and opened the first Long Arm Quilting Centre in Australia.

It is an amazing heaven for Long Arm Quilters, and for customers wanting to buy a Long Arm machine.  Staffed by the beautiful Pam, Anne and Jacqui who are all long Arm Quilters, it sells everything a quilter needs, and provides a source of ongoing education and inspiration.

Now we are going to whip the current shop, Ringwood Sewing Centre into shape.  We've added to our brands with Janome and Horn and we so needed the space. We've shifted out all the quilting machines, and the classroom and begin the process of laying out the shop to make it reflect our passion!

More news to come.