FNSI and a few holiday pics

'Last night was Friday Night Sew In. I made this little quilt for Cheryll for her Blankets of Love program.

 I made a quilt for my SIL in this fabric a few years ago and thought the soft blues would be perfect for this project.

I found this matching backing fabric in the quilt store in Cowell, South Australia when we were away last week.

The store has recently re-opened and is called Stitchin' Bits. There was a whole wall full of fabrics marked down to $10/metre. I just couldn't decide what to buy!! I settled on this backing fabric, a few cheap fat quarters and fat eighths and this book. 

They have a long arm quilting machine and a great room out the back for classes. As the old stock sells, they are making room for new fabric and gift ware. Very friendly staff and definitely worth a look.

There are lots of lovely old buildings in this seaside town of Cowell.

Weather the first three days could be described as cold, wet and windy.....at times gale force. Oh! I forgot to mention the hail. Mr. 16 and Miss 14 found a 1000 piece puzzle at the Easter markets for $1 and that kept all six of us (even my parents) occupied for a few days. 

We went driving around the countryside and that helped Mr. 16 log the last few hours in his Learner Driver log book. Found lots of places to eat and generally relaxed after the big drive.

The weather improved and my father took Mr Stitch fishing and squidding in the boat. My mum and I took the teenagers to catch crabs off the jetty. 

Success!!

Miss 14 (our friends daughter who is travelling with us while her parents are overseas) was not sure what to do when she caught her first crab.They caught lots of crabs, a couple were big enough to keep..and eat....yum!

Brave Miss 14 eventually learnt to throw her own crabs back into the water if they were too small to keep. In the meantime, she 'helped' Mr 16. He won't be impressed with that photo. That will teach him not to have a silly expression on his face when I want to take photos of him.

One of the highlights for the teenagers was Schnitzel Night at the local pub. They consider themselves schnitzel connoisseurs and were very impressed by the quality and size of their schnitzels that night.

 You just haven't done everything in a small Australian country town unless you go to the local pub, have a game of pool, a good meal.....

...and top the night off by winning a meat tray from the raffle that supports whatever local organisation is selling tickets that night.

Despite the weather, we had a great time exploring. We travelled over 3400km in ten days. As we drove through the outback, we reminisced with the teenagers about our previous camping trips our families made to Central Australia when they were younger. 

It was amazing watching the colour of the soil change from various shades of brown to red. The wild life we saw included wombats, grey kangaroos and echidnas closer to home. As we travelled West, the red kangaroos were everywhere! We saw families of emus and  wedge tailed eagles (such magnificent birds). 

It was great to catch up with my parents and explore another part of our country we hadn't seen before.

Don't forget to pop over to Wendy's blog to see what everyone else got up to last night. I'm also linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

We Made It!

Just over 1000km in the car today and we arrived at Broken Hill. 

We had a quick drive to the lookout where there is a huge chair to sit on to enjoy the view over the town. Mr Stich,  Mr. 16 and our friend's daughter who is also travelling with us, Miss 14 and I decided to try it out.

Broken Hill is very interesting town where the international mining giant BHP Billiton started its first mine back in the late 1800's. There is  a memorial to the miners there. The memorial pays tribute to those who lost their lives whilst mining in the area from about 1885 to the present in this building at the lookout.

Many died from lead poisoning, crush injuries, falling down shafts and unexpected explosions. Not surprising 100 years ago. However, there were tributes to some miners who died as recently as 2007. So sad for these miners and their families.

There was lots of interesting old mining equipment to looks at.

I did get a bit of stitching done along the way. A couple of stars...

Some border pieces to straighten the sides...

I attached a few of these to the side and added a few more stars to the quilt.

We will be up early again tomorrow. Just six and a half hours to Cowell, South Australia in the Great Australian Bight. Looking forward to seeing my parents there tomorrow.

Tonight is Friday Night With Friends, so I might stitch just one more star before I head off to bed.

I hope you enjoy your Easter break.

 

Stitching With Friends

 Last Sunday my friend Kylie came over to baste her 'Gardener's Journal' quilt on my quilting frame.

The frame is empty at the moment, so it was a good chance to practice basting a quilt. I have to say, I much prefer basting onto the frame rather than taping a quilt to the floor and having to crawl around  on hands and knees. A very relaxing way to spend the afternoon with a friend.

On Monday Fairy Floss and I met at our friend Julie's house.

 Fairy Floss was making cute little bunnies. There will be some little boys visiting her farm over the Easter weekend, so she is going to hide them in the garden along with some eggs. They are going to be SO cute.

Julie and I cut out the border fabric for the 'Lumiere' quilt we started at our retreat at Two Rivers in February.

All of my blocks have been sewn into rows. 

Now that we have cut out all of the fabric, I need to finish sewing the border stripe fabric between the rest of the rows and add the borders. A job for after Easter.

Today I am packing for our road trip. The most important items are ready to go....my sewing and portable lamp of course. 

I am taking my EPP Star Quilt. I cut lots of star and border pieces at Julie's and they are ready in little snap lock bags. The sun visor caddy I made in preparation for this trip is in place. 

First stop, Broken Hill. Just 1011km away. Google estimates 10 hours and 39 minutes to drive to Broken Hill. I wonder how many stars I can piece in that time?