Today

hubby and I have been for a wander in the car or a tiki tour...a tiki tour because I drove for most of the day and yes I missed a turn off and so we got to see some country side we hadn't planned to see, not such a bad thing to happen!! Just added another 30 minutes to our trip home.
There is a little town north west of called Waterloo. My hubby is a war gamer and a big fan of the Napoleonic Wars, so had always wanted to visit Waterloo. He has seen the real thing so decided today was time to see the Aussie version.
I worked out on the map where we would be diving and looked up geocaches we would be able to gather on the way...hubby is not a keen cacher but is slowly warming to the idea.
We stopped in

Inverleigh and saw this ancient gum tree

with it's historical marker

then I went for a wander up the river

to find a cache near this amazing old river gum.

The because hubby was in charge of where we stopped for a short while we jumped to this place, Lake Goldsmith, only there was no lake!! We found the cache though!! This lake covers a huge area but is very shallow, would be amazing to see it with water.

Finally we arrived in Waterloo! There was a cache here by the old water pump, this pump supplied everyone in the town with water back in the gold rush days.  In it's hey day this town had 13 hotels, several shops, a church, a school and a mechanics hall with a library. Sadly none of these buildings exist today. There was a huge mullock heap over the road left over from a mine that as there back in the 1800's but I forgot to take a photo.

Proof we were there, woops an eyes closed photo!! 

Oh dear!

We had a wander around the cemetery, used in the 1800's and today

Has a lovely vies but it was very cold today.

this marker was tucked into the corner, I wonder how Ellen found life in Australia in 1850.

I am linking this post with Wandering Camera

Lots of interesting posts over there.

Ok I am off to sit on the couch, await the pizza that is coming and do some stitching.

Have a wonderful weekend.

A finish

Woo hoo!! Last night I finished another block in the Old Time Kaleidoscope

Always a good feeling to have a finish, not exactly as  it is in the pattern  but I can live with it.

I think it might be time to get on with the KOGO blanket, the supervisor has decided it is a great place to rest of an evening!!

The day is drawing to a close now, we have had a cold windy day with some showers and more to come tomorrow!!

Happy stitching.

The week that wasn't

I had big plans for this last week but they didn't happen! Hubby had bronchitis and a horrible cough for most of the week and I had something, sore throat,headache, achy limbs, so I spent a lot of time on the couch and bed reading , maybe my body was saying just rest!!
A few things are under way here and awaiting attention,  as of yesterday,

A collection of KOGO squares are decorating the lounge room floor, nearly half way there.

Blocks for the Aussie Hero quilt and a minion quilt are decorating the ironing board

more minions on the sewing machine

The Supervisor has been keeping and eye on me!

The machine and Aussie Hero quilt waiting for some attention..today is the day!!

Happy sewing.

Retreat and catch up

Last photos from the retreat here

I made a block for the Guild challenge,  the rule was black white and gray, 8 inch block. This didn't get a mention but I was happy I made it. .I made it twice actually as I had sewn the basket the wrong was around the first time!! (Blogger has decided it is a length ways photo!!)

Carleen had a few blocks  more to do for her quilt top

Judy had all her blocks together for this beautiful colourful quilt top.

Maxine got her blocks sashed and sewn together, just the borders to go.

On the way home Carleen and I followed a trail of caches down a side road or two, we looked for and found nine, including the one below

These caches had sayings in the title, this one for instance, was Bite the Bullet,  sadly the bullet is gone, but it gave us a good laugh, and I am sad to say took us a while to find!! Hard to imagine with it looking so obvious once we had found it!!

This was the view from one of the caches.

At one cache we saw this gate to a cattle station

this was the letterbox at the cattle station

and the cache

This old church had another geocache near it.

Last Saturday The Guild had the annual Quilt In and the speaker was Sugy Kim

This is her award winning quilt Retina, many thousands of little pieces in this quilt.

Sugy speaking, Sugy is Korean, was taught quilting in Japan and now lives in Melbourne.

a bit of a dark photo, Tracee and Marg stitching away

The moon last night as it appeared out of the clouds

hard to get a good photo the shaky hands and the camera on high magnification.

Today was sewing day  at Bellarine Quilters, we had a speaker from Kinship Carers

the group presented her with knitted goodies, toys and quilts. The Kinship Carers are mostly grandparents who are raising their grandchildren as their children have drug or alcohol problems. Certainly was eye opening stuff. I appreciate my life very much!

I stopped to find a cache on the way home, the rain had stopped, the sun had come out and it was lovely looking up the beach.

Well this afternoon I was supposed, once again , to be tidying the sewing room, but I have done the grocery shopping, had lunch, caught up with a friend on the phone, done this blog post and it is 4.30pm!! Might go and disturb a few dust particles before I have to get dinner!

Happy stitching.

Retreat day 3

Progress has been made by everyone

Some happy faces to start the day, I was buying this fabric in Spotlight and there was 1.75m left on the roll, the assistant offered it to me for 50 cents a meter.....bargain and of course I said yes I will have it!!

The M I nions areon the back of this strip quilt, another for the Kinship carers.

Maxine is making wonderful progress with her quilt top, it shiuld be finished today.

Judy is busy creating her blocks and joining rows.

Carleen is making blocks for her quilt

Maria found this jnfinished quilt top in an op shop for $10, some hexie flowers completed, some just the hexies and she is well on the way to a finish.

And Margaret, despite not feeling the best, has finished three dashounds.  Hope to get a few things done in the morning before heading home.

Happy stitching.

Retreat day 2

Well the blocks I mucked up made it back out of the do not look at bag and after the think tank got together and had a look new blocks have been made.

Yesterday morning I made 11 One Block Wednesday blocks, that brings my total to 130.

Carleen and I went out for a wander and found ageocache 90 m from where we are staying, easiest one ever I have found!! 😊😊 It was a beautiful autumn day.

A little progress was made on the Aussie Hero quilt, the star blocks are now not stars but still can be used than goodness. The stripy bit acroos the top was made from the cut off corners..no waste happening here 😊😊.

Carleen finished her quilt top..the fabric is beautiful  and looks like flocked wall paper.

Deciding where the names go on the family tree!!

In the evening another 12 OBW blocks were made, total now 142, still a way to go to catch up, but am happily puttering along.

This beautiful quilt is hanging on a wall at the retreat.

I had better get oing, I slept in this morning,  now it is heading for lunch time.

Happy stitching.