On the road.....

Today Tania and I are heading off to St Leonard's for a few days R & R.....we stopped in Geelong to visit Red Desire, a beautiful shop we found last time through, run by the lovely Sophie,she is on the second level of the shopping centre and her shop is well worth a visit.

these are the little bottles I got at Sophie's shop, love them on the window sill.

We called in to the Blanket Box and met Zoe the owner and her Mum...who remembered Tania from last time, because she was sooooo excited to find French General fabric she had been looking for, for ages. We had a great browse in the shop and came home with this....

for me  a table runner with little stitcheries in the middle, surrounded by paper pieced shapes, little stitchery quilt labels, a fat quarter and a LED folding desk lamp!

Tania has a stash of William Morris fabrics and blue's and taupe's for a baby hexies project in the future and a lovely bottle of buttons.

We had a look at Clifton Springs - I hadn't been here before and found a great beach although it was a bit wild and windy today.......actually very wild and windy!!

there were 3 old piers along this part of the coast line, just the stumps remaining, we found out later one was a bathing pier with change rooms out at the end....separate changing rooms for men and women!! Another was where the steamer boats docked when they arrived from Melbourne......people came to take the waters and enjoy the sulphur mineral spa.....mineral water from here was put into green torpedo shaped bottles...was very interesting to read about this area.

The sea was roaring in!

Tania taking sea photos...it looks calm here but believe me it wasn't!

And finally this is the project I am attempting to work on today.........if I get around to it because it is now G & T time!! Cheers!!

A few weeks ago I was on facebook and had a look at the The Quilted Gumboot and was lucky enough to win one of their spot prizes

I won a $20 voucher but opted to get a surprise in the post and am now the proud owner of two new patterns - one dogs and kangaroo....not sure how a kangaroo comes from NZ but not to worry!  The other a raggy Christmas tree. Am keen to have a go at them!

Goodies from the post

I had a browse around last week and found some things I could NOT live without!!

Lovely goodies from Hatched and Patched....

A finish!!!

I finished this table cloth for Jenny for Halloween - she goes all out over in NZ, dresses up, has lollie bags for the visiting kids and decorates the house, so thought this might come in handy.

the skeletons glow in the dark!

this is an international piece - the top fabric is from the US, the backing from the LQS (Gisborne) the skeletons are from the UK!  Yay for internet shopping!!!

Tip toe thru the tulips

I had a lovely morning at Tellelaars Tulip Farm at Monbulk last Monday, great weather acres of tulips, was very busy though, the joys of the school holidays!

Such  lovely colours and shapes

tulips as far as you can see!

there were a lot of sculptures around the tulips - this one I loved - it is made with knives......

and this one has handles of spoons or forks on the chest, the lower part is mosaic pebbles sheeting I think! Very clever!

and we got to see a barn owl at one of the tents - this one was watching and listening to everything going on. A most beautiful bird.

Mill Rosie Friends

Well last Saturday was blogging friends meet up day at the wonderful Mill Rose Quilt shop at Ballan. We had a day of laughter, chatting, eating and drinking, more chatting..not a lot of stitching, but it was wonderful to catch up with everyone and see what they were doing

the paparazzi were in attendance during the swap openings!! 

Marg with a beautiful bag she got in the swap

Barb's sister Ann with a beautiful box with a stitchery on the front and goodies inside

Mel with her swap items

Shez making a wish!! LoL!!

With her swap item a beautiful doll made by Marg

paparazzi moved to the other side of the table now!!

all the beautiful swap items - Michelle Ridgway inspired...

Marg's doll, some beautiful stitchery there!

We, the Gisborne Girls as we seem to have become known, decided to have a joke with Shez, she has a great sense of humour luckily and we presented her with a book on Mug Rugs (how to make) and we each made her a mug rug from the book. Now we know Shez is NOT a fan of mug rugs...but we had a really good laugh and Shez (after the initial shock) had a really good laugh. Now she has more items for her present box!!

Mug rugs on display!!

and this is some of the show and tell on the day

How is this?? Sharon's amazing quilt top!!

Barb's crochet rug

Tania's mini quilt

Elyte and her mini quilts

Christine and her gorgeous embroidery...love the kookaburras!!

Sue's quilt

Lots of chatting down the table...

Robyn working away at her quilt top - all to be hand sewn!

We had such a great day, I am looking forward to the next meet up!

Wild day out

Last Friday Margaret and I took the toy voyagers to the Ballarat wildlife park to meet some Aussie animals.

One of the local residents

Marg making firends

Sidney L meeting some native Aussies from Kangaroo Island

Such a cute little guy!

Marg being the centre of attention!!

I can't remember this koala's name but she was a she and was very pretty

tourist!!

we saw a Tassie Devil

Marg made more friends.....

and more friends......

and was over whelmed by friends!!! lol!!

For some it was all too much and needed a snooze!

MooseS met a wombat - this little (28kg!!) girl was brought out to meet the tour group and then wanted to come out for a run around!

Sidney L had instruction on how to use the toilet in Australia!!  After touring the Park we went for lunch at the Antiques Centre

I loved this beautiful glass vase

and this old church window made into a mirror..chance for a play with the camera!!

and Sylvia met John Wayne!! We did go and visit the Ballarat Patchwork shop...but I didn't take any photos, it is closing down soon so there was very little left on the shelves, but having said that we all came out with some goodies!! Will have to add a photo at a later date!