The day before we returned to Sydney we made a mini tour of a couple of Colonial towns in the Hunter Valley region. I love this area with its many old towns & interesting buildings. No matter how often I visit I always find additional points of interest.
In East Maitland, old Town Hall shown above, Absolutely Quilts & Crafts was the first stop where I purchased an assortment of bargain priced Aussie quilt magazines.
No matter that they were older issues, I hadn't seen any of them!
Then onto Morpeth, a really quaint little town where every building has a story to tell & houses another unique store.
I spent some time & made a purchase in the Australian Alpaca Barn where many items are woven on site, & are made from alpaca yarn from Aussie alpacas. Some of the goods have a combination of alpaca, merino wool, silk etc, & some are also woven in Peru.
All the apparel is quite beautiful, luxuriously soft, warm, lightweight, elegant & altogether very wearable & the lady in the shop is friendly & helpful. In fact everyone we encountered in Morpeth was extraordinarily kind to us.
In the wine shop where there is a selection of Hunter Valley wines, I bought some local cheese made from yoghurt & flavored with herbs & olive oil, very tasty! The historic Sourdough Bakery had just closed- they were "sold out" unfortunately so I was spared that additional temptation!
Next stop was in Glendoon Cottage where I found a friendly proprietor & the only real Aussie fabrics I had encountered.
These are authentic Aboriginal designs & I have to tell you that DH encouraged me to buy not just one but two of these selections! I do plan to share some of these with my quilting friends.
This shop has a nice selection of quilting fabrics & a sale table too as well as patterns & other crafty items.
Our final night in Aus. this trip, we stayed in the beautifully preserved & restored old Manor House a few minutes ride from the Sydney CBD.
The home originally was built by the very first Lord Mayor of Sydney & the accommodations are beautiful, furnishings appropriate to the era & chandeliers galore!
This is the chandelier in our room showing also the elaborately decorative plaster ceilings common throughout the building.
