Tuesday, 26 February 2019

Back home again!!


After a fantastic few days away, I am back home again. This time I hope to stay for 2 weeks before I travel the countryside again.
It was a full bus that left Mt Gambier on Sunday morning, heading to Melbourne. Our first stop was at Hamilton for morning tea......


                     ......................and then to Beaufort for lunch........


..............where these mustangs parked in the street created a lot of interest. Both were left hand drive cars, which looked quite strange in our Australian streets.


..........................A selfie of my travelling partner and I.


Coming up to the Westgate Bridge and getting closer to the city of Melbourne.


There was lots of colour on the buildings in the city!


Sorry this is a bit blurry, as it was hard to take photos on the bus, through the window.


Some of the architecture in the city..............




We were heading for the Hamer Hall, at the Arts Centre in Melbourne, for a Daniel O'Donnell concert. I took this photo before the start, but photography was not allowed, so I could not take any of the concert.

This photo of the CD, (well one of them), that I purchased will have to suffice.


It was the most amazing evening of entertainment that I have ever been to, and I added to my collection of his music. After the concert, (which commenced at 5pm), the bus took us back to our accommodation, and most of us headed down Lygon Street for an evening meal. (Photo below is of my travelling companions)


We had checked into our hotel before the show, and when Raylene and I opened the door to our "twin room", this is what we found!! We almost didn't say anything, but when we thought about our respective "thermostats", and decided that it might not work to share the bed!! (I like lots of blankets, while she throws them off!!) Management were very apologetic, and another room was found, and thus we both had a good night's sleep!!


After a splendid breakfast next morning, we boarded the bus, and headed for the shopping centre to "window shop". I must say I was impressed at the old houses that were renovated, and not pulled down, like some places do. I am sure there would be a lot of stories to be told in these buildings. Once again, sorry for the photos, it was hard in the moving bus, and through the glass.




At the shopping centre I found this quilt pattern on a table top.


And maybe I did a bit more than "window shopping"!


I love to look out the window at the scenery as we drive, but the trip home was a repeat of the journey over, so I decided to purchase something to read. It has been ages since I bought a patchwork magazine, and this is what I bought.


...and look what I found inside the pages of this magazine!! My quilt, Garden Delight, that was in last year's SA Quilt show in Adelaide!! This quilt won a blue ribbon in it's section.



We arrived back at Mount Gambier about 5.30pm, and soon loaded up the car with our luggage, and purchases, and drove the 2 hours back to Bordertown, with a short stop at Naracoorte for a meal. We arrived back about 8pm, after a great few days. I must say it felt like I had been gone for a week, and not just 3 days.

Today it has been a job to water the garden, and general catching up with things. I picked some more vegies from the garden, and did some cooking to use these up. A few admin computer jobs this afternoon before our Bible Study meeting and quite a few phone calls and another day has gone. Now that newsfromjude is up to date, tomorrow will be time to turn Max on get my 'headspace' back into quilting mode again. Raylene is here until Friday, and is busy sewing up more of my scraps into a quilt.

Blessings, From Jude


Saturday, 23 February 2019

Tourists for today. .. and on the road again!!!

The 4 of us left Bordertown this morning and have toured Mount Gambier and Pt McDonnell today. Tomorrow morning we will be on a bus early and heading over the border to Melbourne. 
The Blue Lake is very BLUE today.

 Visited the Umpherston Sinkhole......


 Found a great icecream shop......


They had a great collection of old tins that took us all back many years...


We had fish and chips for lunch at PtMac.....

And fed the remaining chips to the seagulls....

Drove along the coastline ...very windy day.... sea choppy.....
Went to Little Blue Lake....
Now we have our feet up at the motel.
Be back later its too hard to blog on my phone, but I have time on my hands, so what else is a girl to do?
Blessings from Jude

Friday, 22 February 2019

Time for more quilt photos

Going back in the files today, it seems that another month has gone since I last posted quilt photos, so it must be time for a quilt show. Life seems to be throwing so much in my direction lately, that you could be forgiven for thinking that there is no quilting happening here. But in between all the tripping around the country, some quilting is getting done.

The first 2 quilts were made by Jennifer, and she does lovely needleturn applique on most of her quilts. This dresden was custom quilted.......



..........as was this grandmothers flower garden quilt.



Kathy does beautiful candlewicking, and this quilt had 12 blocks that were sashed, and a border on each side of the quilt, but not the top and bottom.



On each side she had stitched a pattern in the centre with a LOT of space all around to be filled in. I divided the border into 3 borders, a small one at the top and another at the bottom. Then I SID her embroidery, and added a piano key border to fill in the rest of the space. This was hard to photograph in the light I had that day, so you might have to click on the picture to see it clearer.



 This quilt was made by Jenny for a wedding gift, using the Black Tie Affair fabrics, and was quilted allover with Dancing Hearts.




This was also made by Jenny, in a Pick A Case Mystery retreat, and also used the Black Tie Affair fabrics. This was quilted allover with Modern Waves.



 You could have the pattern running up and down the quilt, or across as in the picture above.


Vicki made this William Morris wall hanging from one of Michele Hill's patterns, and it was crosshatched, with 2 border patterns.



Val made this in a Pick a Case Mystery retreat, and was called Up Hill and Down Dale. It was quilted allover with Deb's Swirls.



Di made this quilt and it was quilted allover with a pattern called Arabesque.



Another quilt that was made by Di, and quilted allover with a pattern called Baby Bears.
The bear will have it's features added to his face now that the quilting has been done.



That's all folks. It's time for bed, as I need to be up and ready to head off again by 9am tomorrow. There are 4 of us from Bordertown going on a bus trip to Melbourne this weekend. I will have more details when I return. My bag has not been packed yet. My house sitter has arrived and has settled in for a weekend of sewing.

Catch ya when I get back.

Blessings, From Jude