Your sparkle is your uniqueness. Wear your sparkle and be the best version of yourself you can be said Julie Cross, one of the many inspirational speakers at Queensland Rural Regional and Remote Women’s Network conference in Charters Towers.

We make our own footprints in life. If we place more importance on the opinions of others than our own, we give away our power.

So inspiring to be part the QRRRWN network full of women doing amazing things – including four fellows from the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. Georgie Somerset, below left, the outgoing QRRRWN president. Cathy McGowan MP, Catherine Marriott (wearing a Textile Beat history skirt) and Jane Milburn. 

Ms McGowan said the future is not a destination, it is a journey. She encouraged us to design our own future with purpose and deliberation, by considering the type of future we would like to see 10 years from now. I’m working on that future, one day at a time, with my Sew it Again year.

Here’s Sew 261 made from upcycled wool garments. The black skirt was originally a jumper which I had earlier turned into a short skirt – and have now lengthened by adding another piece of wool fabric at the waistline and reinserted the elastic. I used buttons to disguise and repair holes which had emerged over time. The white collar once was a hand-knitted skirt I made from frogged wool (from an unravelled jumper) but was not wearing. I folded it in half and secured it into a collar.