Retreat 2014

Had a lovely relaxing long weekend at Vickery Quilt and Craft Retreat, Alexandra. A smaller than usual bunch but still good times.

I managed to make a cute fabric scraps bucket from my Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild signature fabrics, hand stitch hanging sleeves to two quilts entered in the Vic Quilters Show, do a bit of beanie knitting and start designing and making my quilt for the MMQG challenge. We also enjoyed visits to quilt shops at Nagambie and Seymour and a delicious lunch in Seymour on the way up to Alexandra.

Change from Google Reader to Bloglovin'

Google Reader will cease to exist on July 1st as part of Google’s “Spring Cleaning” initiative. 

Yes, there are other RSS readers out there but I have moved to Bloglovin'.

How to Import Your RSS subscriptions  from Google Reader to Bloglovin’

First, click here:

http://www.bloglovin.com/import/reader

Then it will bring you to this page:

Click that blue button that says “Import from Google Reader”

You’ll have to re-categorize your blogs to how you like them, it just imports all the feeds.

What’s it like reading a load of blogs on Bloglovin’

You get to see a photo, the post title and a snippet of text. 

Annual Connected Quilters Retreat

We had a great time at Alexandra in country Victoria at Vickery Quilt and Craft Retreat over the long weekend.

I basted my Tilda quilt ready for hand quilting and carefully cut and then pieced many, many kaleidoscope hexagons for a "one block wonder" quilt from a gorgeous Kaffe Fassett print.

There were many oohs an ahhs at the enormous range of patterns produced in the hexagons.

Doing the layout will be a nightmare! The hexagons are not sewn across the centres, just pinned, so when it is laid out the top can be sewn in strips.

Change to Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

More Knitted Hats

Another eight knitted kid-size hats to go to charity.

Quilt Top Finished

Another finish for 2013! A completed top in 'French General Rouenneries' fabrics for my Mum for Mother's Day. I made one for Dad for his 80th also using the "Broken Bricks" pattern in greys and taupes. I pieced a backing from the same range of fabrics (still working through a FQ pack I bought from the US when the dollar first hit 1:1 ). The quilt top is off to a machine quilter on Sunday.

Sunflower

Our sunflower continues to change and grow:

It's popular with the bees.

Tea Cozy

We had a belated Christmas lunch for my quilting group, Connected Quilters, and I made (another) tea cozy as my Kris Kringle gift. The pattern is called "Afternoon Tea Party" by Nancy Green of Pink Sand Beach Designs. The only tricky part with the pattern is sewing the circular base to the two rectangular sides, the rest is very straightforward.

As luck would have it, my Tea Cozy was drawn by by the most teapot owning member! Enjoy, Lisa.

One of these days I will get my own cozy made ...

First finish for 2013

My first finish for 2013, thanks to Day 1 of the Australian Open tennis. A hand painted, sun printed and now hand quilted piece of fabric made in the Lisa Walton 'Textured Treasures" workshop held at our Vickery Quilt and Craft Retreat late last year. I will frame it for hanging at Vickery.

Sunflower burst

Our sunflower opened fully today for the first time. 

Lovely day with 29 C forecast.

Christmas

We cooked our first ham as we had Christmas at home for the first time in many years, without the interstate trek. Following my brother's tip we used a lime glaze and it was delicious!

Lovely to have Merryl and Pete join us from the Gold Coast.

Knitting hats

I have started my fourth child's knitted hat (or beanie) for charity donation. My friend Philippa started me off during our time in Tasmania for the orienteering championships. The pattern is very simple in 3x3 rib and easy to do in the car (as a passenger!) or in front of a TV program. Here are the latest two hats.

Royal Botanic Gardens

What a great way to spend "Cup" Monday - a visit to te Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. It was a balmy warm day of about 27 degrees but with cloud cover and a gentle breeze ...ahh. We wandered toward the "renovated" Guilfoyle's Volcano which was an almost forgotten reservoir on the southern border of the gardens. It has been made over as an arid landscape and the design is brilliant! Many of the cacti were flowering as a bonus.

We had a lovely salad and glass of wine lunch at the Tearooms, then, as it started to rain, stayed on admiring the views and swans, with tea and coffee and a scone! Very relaxing outdoors under the verandah ... When the rain finished we walked the rest of the gardens, the perennials and rhododendrons were a highlight.

St Arnaud and Swan Hill

This week we went travelling in our van to St Arnaud National Park and then on to Swan Hill, Victoria. We free camped at Teddington Reservoir for two nights first up. We had at most 4 neighbours in the camping area so it was very quiet and peacefull. We kayaked on the reservoir and walked round it and the next day drove the tracks to a lookout and on to St Arnaud township, taking a picnic with us. We thought the park looked like good orienteering terrain so emailed the details to the VIC president who is looking for new terrain in the Ararat/Stawell region for the Australian Championships in 2015.

At Swan Hill we were in the caravan park with a site right on the river, which was a very pleasant view each day. We visited the Pioneer Village and had a paddle boat ride, visited Lake Boga and the Catalina Flying Boat Museum (my uncle trained at the base in WWII), took a picnic to Nyah Vinefera River Murray Reserve and stopped at a winery where we discovered a rather nice old tawny port (Buller)!

Australian Orienteering Championships 2012

Held in Tasmania around the St Helens region on the east coast, these champs were great fun. My son was in the Victorian Schools team and stayed at a local caravan park with the other state teams. I stayed in a villa complex with many other club members. We had a great view from the balcony.

 The terrain varied and was quite challenging, we did 7 events in 9 days. Unfortunately I made a mistake (of varying proportions) each day except for the event on the junior girls course which I "aced" and for the relay where I learnt from my mistakes to complete the course quite well when many stumbled. I also had success in a couple of the finish split handicaps that our club runs - a bit of fun!

We had a little time for sightseeing as well and enjoyed the Bay of Fires, Pyengana, St Columba Falls and local walks and drives to and from events.

The kids did well with three selected in the Aust. team and two as reserves plus two silver medals for the senior boys team and a bronze for the junior boys. My son had his best champs yet.