Gisborne retreat

Enjoying our last retreat for the year at Gisborne,

I have been working on an Aussie Hero quilt today, the top is finished

Blogger has decided to out the photo sideways, sorry, will fix it at the end of the week when I go home - now fixed .

Margaret visited today and worked on her applique

And finished up this section.

Sue got her quilt top together

Maxine is going to put another two sections on her bookcase quilt, I will get a photo tomorrow of her beautiful tiny blocks.

So that is me up to date, off to sew some strip blocks now.

Happy stitching.

Life's ups and downs

A good friend of ours Eve, passed away just over a week ago, it was sudden and not expected but Eve did not suffer, had no long lingering illness or dementia, so for that we can be thankful!

Eve and Basil the Bad a few years ago when we were out and about finding garage sales.

I went for a long walk this morning, past the nesting galah, who had popped out to see what I was doing, while I was watching to see what it was doing!!

I tried to get a close up photo, but between extreme zoom lens, the wind and my shaky hand I nearly chopped the poor galah off!

These guys, I think they are oyster catchers, were down in the shallows are were being chased by another two oyster catchers, maybe these were the girls and the others the boys?? I have no idea!!

I went walking along the track on Edwards Point, have not been down here for a long time

stopped and read some of the signs

enjoyed the views and avoided the puddles left from last nights rain

crossed the salt marsh on the board walk.

and cam out on the beach.....the timed exposure didn't know where to focus!

the wind was waving up the water

Off I go along the beach heading back home.

on the way I stopped and picked another big bunch of freesias

back home they went into one of Mum's rose vases.

Some tidying has happened in the sewing room, mainly because we have been switched onto the National Broadband, it happened over a week ago we had internet but no land line. The tech came today and said we were operating on the wifi from the sim card in the new modem box...I was confused by this point!! He tried to connect the land line and then said we hadn't been connected properly, so off he headed down the road to a box under ground, back he came, yes her said we had not been connected properly. He said there are some right duffers working for the NBN, but thank goodness for that as they keep me in a job!! o now I can happily say we are really connected to the internet and we have the good old fashioned landline working!

Yesterday I did some free range quilting on this beautiful applique Ingrid gave me. I just have the squirrel to go...one of today's jobs!

Oops, the not so tidy side of the room...hee hee. The Supervisor has been following me from room to room...when are you going to settle woman he is saying!

a blurry photo of secret sewing, I need to finish it  and get it in the post. Can show more later.

The next Old Time Kaleidoscope is under way, kind of hard to see on the stable table, this one has been a challenge to sew together the right way, but I am slowly getting there.

Ok I am off to do the things I should have done two hours ago.

Happy stitching.

Retreat day 3

More lovely things to share today

We had a walk down to the beach this morning

Was lovely and calm, just a little breeze

My quilt top is done..happy dance!! The second half went together much faster then the first.

Margarets Caswell blocks coming together

Linda's beautiful  paper pieced block

Carleen's blocks for her grandsons quilt

Maxine working on her beautiful applique

Maria is making a quilt with amazing flying geese

Abd Linda is now making lovely batik paper pieced blocks.

I am joining bias strips to make the bias ribbon for the Doing the Rounds quilt

This is a learning curve for me but I have lots of help here.

Had better go and do some more.

Happy sewing.

Another weekend zips by

My goodness the days are zipping by so quickly! I am still doing secret sewing here, so can't show much but

I did manage to iron the pin head under the applique! Oh dear, luckily I could pull the fabric up, get the pin out and start again!!

we have had some dull mornings

some misty mornings

The Supervisor ventured in for a swim one morning

the oyster catchers gathered by the waters edge

this beautiful heron was puddling along with one foot and catching what ever came out of the sand, not sure how it ate a live crab, but it did.

the old cypress trees in the mist.

two packages arrived from Sandy for Doing the Rounds (Yep I am behind now!!)

lots of beautiful fabric there.

Yesterday afternoon was beautiful so we took a break from sewing and enjoyed the fresh air for a while

the Supervisor is never far away

the knitting is coming along well, I am on the second ball of the Lincraft cake, loving how the colours look in the sunshine.

It is sewing day at the Bellarine Quilters today so I am off to get ready.

Have a wonderful day.

Happy day

I wrote myself a list this morning, of things I needed/wanted to do, and I am pleased to say it is all done, well if you can swap vacuuming for dusting, then it is done!! Might move the dust about tomorrow.
I have finished the sewing on the clamshells...yay!!! Now it is ready to get a backing sorted.

I had found several places where I must have snipped the applique thread on the clamshells while I was removing the gathering thread, hopefully they are all repaired now.

I made the teeny tiny hexies for the centre of Doing the Rounds, now I need to figure out how to get the card out of the fabric!

I have two of the shapes appliqued down so far

another heap of circles have been prepared ready to applique.

I have also done lots of washing today, is the perfect drying day, warm sunny and breezy, also cut the deadheads off the agapanthus plants...all in all a good day.

Happy sewing.

Monday

sees the start of meetings at the Bellarine Quilters and there was a good turn out today, there was a show and tell

I don't know whoes quilt this is but there is to be a class making the window sections at Bellarine next Saturday

this is a quilt made by Rae, with panels and she tried out different quilting in each square..it looks fantastic.

Di basted this quilt in the morning, it was from a class she did when living in NZ

Sue made these tables covers for her grand kids to take to school..love the fabrics!

I did a few more leaves and now have moved on to a flower, I think I have four flowers and one bird to go!!

Yesterday hubby and I decided to go for a walk in the afternoon, so we drove, in a round about way (yep we did a tiki tour as I got lost!!) to Point Impossible, just past Breamlea.

From there we followed a road

not very interesting, and came out on another road, then we turned left and went to a beach, as we could not find the walking trail we were supposed to be following. It turned out the beach was a nudist beach, so hubby said keep your head down and do not stare!!! Lol!! So I did and we walked to Torquay 

Glimpse of the sea

we walked from WAY past that headland you can see in the distance

we got an ice cream at Torquay at the surf club and then headed back...walking on the sand is not easy, I had some sore muscles when we got back to the car and two blistered toes! The biggest challenge was walking back along the nudist beach for a short way and not looking at two men going for a stroll along the beach in nothing but their hats!! I hope they had sun screen on!!

I am off to do some sewing, or maybe cutting for sewing before getting dinner.

Happy sewing.