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Judy
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My name is Judy Stansfield. I come from Auckland, New Zealand but lived in Sydney, Australia from 2002 until 2006 before coming to Dubai in September last year. I have dabbled in most crafts for some years and spent quite a lot of time on folk art and paper tole. When my sister Pam took a patchwork class, I thought I would give it a go too as I had inherited a couple of packs of Laura Ashley hexagons from a friend who was moving overseas. These hexagons are still waiting to become something along with about 20 other UFOs. I did not sew and no one was more surprised than I, when I have become a quilter. I think I am more of a designer and purchaser of fabrics, notions, magazines and books than someone who actually completes quilts. However I try and this year’s New Year’s resolution (and the last couple of years) is that I cannot start a new project unless I complete a UFO first. I am doing a little better this year and I am making steady progress on my sampler quilt – 12 out of the 20 hand sewn blocks are finished. I originally started quilting at a shop in Auckland called Patches of Ponsonby. It was a wonderful place to quilt as it used to be an old bakery and had been converted into a shop so it had lots of atmosphere. There were two floors and the ground floor was used as the shop with the classes held upstairs. Excellent shopping opportunities. Whenever we didn’t have the right fabric, we just trotted downstairs to fabric heaven. Our teacher was Dawn Isherwood and she was running a beginners class. The class participants all jelled and we quickly became a group of good friends. We convinced Dawn to keep extending the course both throughout the year but also the hours, instead of 7.00 – 9.00 p.m. it became 5.00 – 9.00 p.m. We worked on our own projects with Dawn offering assistance when we needed it. Dawn also does wonderful work and always had something on the go so she was very happy to sew as well. What good times we had with some wonderful quilting retreats as well. When I moved to Sydney I didn’t know anyone, so initially I was sewing on my own. Strangely enough I did actually complete a couple of projects during this time. Before moving to Sydney however I had booked in to attend New Zealand’s quilting symposium in Christchurch. What an absolutely wonderful experience this was – almost a week of sewing, shopping, lectures, exhibitions, award dinners and anything else you can think of quilting related and made more enjoyable because of friends and the fellowship of quilters. We had just bought a house in Sydney and were due to move just after my return. Imagine my surprise, when I opened the welcome pack and read the newsletter, to see a letter from a group of ladies from Sydney who had come over to Christchurch for the symposium. They belonged to a quilting group that met around the lake from where we had just purchased our house. Imagine my delight. I very quickly made contact with them and arranged to attend the next meeting. This turned out to be another very fortunate moment for me because again I made some wonderful lasting friendships and enjoyed a couple of quilt camps as well. So now I am repeating the experience
in Dubai. The very first thing that I checked out when the possibility
of moving to Dubai arose was to Google “quilt” in Dubai.
I made contact with Marianne Sheldon who reassured me that quilting
was alive and well, so as far as I was concerned that was all I needed
to know to give my go ahead to the move. Again quilters are living
up to their reputation and proving to be very kind, generous, caring
and sharing people. Thank you to my bees, Calico Fans and Night Owls,
for making me feel so welcome and at home.
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