In March and April of 2026 I got to take a trip to Australia for three weeks. It was one of those bucket item trips that you would love to do, but aren’t sure you ever will get to check off. I was THRILLED when Handi Quilter asked me to go and represent the company and work at the Australasian Quilt Convention. We ended up going two weeks before the show to do a bit of sightseeing. Here is a little glimpse into our trip!

We left Utah on March 25 and arrived in Melbourne on March 27- that was a little crazy! We arrived at our hotel around 10am and they were lovely- I thought they would just store our bags but they had a room ready for us and we were able to drop off our bags and freshen up before hitting the town. Melbourne is the 2nd largest city in Australia and we were lucky to be staying right across from the Flinders Street Station which is a historical building and the heart of Melbourne. We walked all through the area called “The Arcade” and had a tasty breakfast at a tiny cafe. We walked through several shopping centers/malls and found the Melbourne Central Clock (also known as the Marionette Clock or the Fob Watch) which has a little show and plays Waltzing Matilda at the top of every hour. Then we walked to Victoria Market and wandered through the aisles of food and trinkets. I did NOT buy a thing! Then we walked back towards our hotel and explored Collins Street (of course) We crossed the pedestrian bridge over the Yarra and took a one hour river cruise to see the sights. Luckily this was covered because I WAS FREEZING!!! It was autumn in Melbourne and the wind and intermittent rain made it a bit uncomfortable. We ate dinner at one of the restaurants on the Southbank- under a heater! We both collapsed around 8:30pm, but we met our goal which was to stay up as late as possible!

On the 28th we took a domestic flight on Qantas to Darwin. Most of you probably don’t have a good understanding of just how BIG Australia is but it was a four and a half hour flight from Melbourne to Darwin. And it was HOT in Darwin. It is on the north side of the island- closer to the equator. We rented a car and Mr. Collins did very well. . . but if you see our windshield wipers on, expect us to turn! He is a pro at driving on the left side of the road (from last summer’s adventure in England) but this was the first time driving a car set up “backwards” because last time he was driving our Volvo which was meant for the USA. Needless to say, we survived!!!

We took a few walks in parks, went on a sunset cruise in the harbor, looked for quilt shops, visited the Crocodylis Park which is basically a zoo and drove to Litchfield National Park. Although the beaches are beautiful, they are EMPTY and we soon learned the three reasons why: Jellyfish, Sharks and, most importantly, Crocodiles! Those guys can move really fast for up to about 60 feet so you need to stay out of reach. If there is water, you need to be alert because there are saltwater AND freshwater crocs. Crikey. By the was, it was HOT in Darwin- like the mid 90’s and about 90% humidity. A cyclone had just gone through the week before and there was a lot of flooding.

Public Service Announcement: If you see a sign like this, know that it actually is necessary. When we rented our car they told us not to drive through any standing water and we kind of thought they were kidding, but no. We only had to turn around on a couple of roads (in Litchfield National Park) but many roads were severely damaged by the rains and it was shocking to see the effects of the flooding and how deep the water had been!

We were able to go to Church in Darwin and the building was really interesting. It was built basically around a courtyard and the baptismal font was outside in the middle. The whole complex was fenced securely so it must not be a great section of town, but also, no crocs! We met lots of nice people and Annie and Elwyn invited us to their home for dinner which was lovely.

On April 1 we embarked on a real adventure- we boarded The Ghan in Darwin and took the train all the way south to Adelaide. That journey took 4 days. We had a beautiful cabin (we splurged big time on this. . . and counted it as our 35th anniversary present to each other) and we ate in a dining car with about 30 other people. I met a lovely friend who is an embroidery wizard- Naomi Small and she and I make a pretty formidable team when it comes to trivia. We won some great prizes and ticked off a know-it-all kind of guy from Canada. LOL. The Ghan couldn’t stop in Katharine because of the flooding but Alice Springs was amazing. We learned about the School of the Air (Google it- very cool story) and attended a reptile show with a young lady who much prefers snakes to people. Lots of Australians wear ankle boots and this is to help protect them from snake bites. I will forever call them “snake bite boots.” One of my favorite things was our dinner under the stars. There was great food, wonderful service and a remarkable band. The best part was an Aboriginal man who played the Didgeridoo and used a HUGE laser pointer to show use different constellations. It was my first time seeing the Southern Cross. We also stopped in Coober Pedy and went to the opal mines. Yes. . . I may have come home with one! The flies were so bad that we had to wear fly nets over our heads. Ugh. We got to eat lunch underground and it was amazing.

In Adelaide my friend Naomi took me to a magnificent little embroidery shop called The Bobbin Tree which is associated with Inspirations Magazine ( http://www.inspirationsstudio.com). Then she took us to have Sausage Sizzlers made by a local kid’s Footy team. We have good friends who live in Adelaide so they toured us around and inroduced us to their favorite restaurants. It was nice to have them because pretty much EVERYTHING is shut down for the 4-day Easter holiday.

Then it was another flight back to Melbourne. We settled in and got some laundry done before the show.

The Australasian Quilt Convention was celebrating its 25th event and let me tell you, the Aussie know how to have a good time. The AQC is held at the Royal Exhibition Building which is in the middle of a park. It is a grand old building and a pretty spectacular setting for a quilt show. I loved the vendors because there were several companies there I had never heard of before. There was a big cocktail party the night before the show which was a good time (sponsored by Handi Quilter’s Australian distributor Blessington) and a huge party on the last night sponsored by BERNINA. Anyone who COULD dance DID dance. . . because the Aussies will drag you right onto the dance floor! Even Mr. C danced on his brand new titanium knee!

The quilt show was not as big as you might imagine, mostly because the building is fairly small compared to a modern conference center. But let me tell you- the Australians can quilt! Did you know that there are more quilters for per capita in Australia than there are in the United States? True fact. There were displays from SAQA and a traveling exhibit from the Modern Quilt Guild. We don’t think about it very much, but Australia is very close to Asia and there were a lot of Asian quilters at the show. It’s very interesting to see that influence. I was super happy to see all the sashiko supplies!

Heather Hopkins is a Handi Quilter educator in Australia. Their system is a little bit different than ours because they don’t have the mobile classrooms that we have. She did a great project at the show teaching people to quilt glasses cases from Aster and Anne on the stationary machines. Everyone who walked by was excited to see what was happening and they could sign up for the class for only $15. It was really a great event and Heather is very talented.

After the show we had two days in the Melbourne area to visit. One day we took the train and went to Brighton to see all the colorful beach houses. They are basically little sheds painted in bright colors. A few of them were for sale and they were all about 300K! To own one you have to live in the area- so they are all locally owned. On the other day we took a bus tour to Phillip Island to see the Fairy Penguins. When we arrived we had lunch in town and then we went to see the koalas. I loved them! And they can move faster than you think!  We went to the southern end of the island where it was very windy. We got to see some of the Penguin burrows and we got to see an animal called the echidna. We also saw quite a few wallabies as we were driving around. Then we were off to the Penguin show. It is about a half a mile walk from the parking lot down to the beach and you sit on bleachers about 30 yards from the ocean. Just as the sun was setting two kangaroos hopped along the ridge about 50 feet above us- I will carry that mental photo for all of my days! At dusk the Penguins start coming out of the water in large groups. You can’t take photos of them and you all have to be quiet. It was so crazy to watch 50 or 60 Penguins come out of the water and waddle up the path. All together I think we saw about 150 Penguins in our little area. These little creatures are about 1 foot tall and have blue-ish feathers.

And then it was time to head home. Our flight left Melbourne at 10am and we got to LAX for breakfast! We were home in Lehi by 2:30 that afternoon. What a time warp. I had a HARD time getting over the jet lag coming home.

I just want to thank Handi Quilter and Blessington for allowing me the privilege of attending the AQC and meeting so many of our Australian customers and friends. It was such a pleasure and truly amazing to see that quilting is fundamentally the same on the literal other side of the world.