Cancelled Holidays & back in the sewing room.

 We cancelled our holiday plans earlier this week due to all the flooding thats happening at the moment. Our first week away was to be spent at Echuca on the Murray River as we had not visited that area before. Right now its in record flood and clearly it’s not the place for tourists. Theres also been flooding in Tasmania and with more rain predicted for the next 6-8 weeks we decided it was better to cancel and we’ll wait until next year to do another trip.

My back is much better so I’ve been able to get back to my sewing the last few days. I completed another Summer in the Country block – Geese Pond 

I started working on another block and then just like that, I felt like I need a break from it, I still like it but I’m tired of working on it. So I changed the block to finish it up quickly…

… then I joined up a heap of triangle scraps to make another block quickly

… played around on the design wall for a while …

         … and then packed it all away for later.

My sewing room is quite a mess!  I really need to do some serious stash busting and get some projects quilted and finished.  I keep 5″ blocks in these two drawers, mostly kids prints, & they are stuffed completely full so I decided to make some more children’s blocks as they are fun and easy.

I use a disappearing nine patch pattern, put a picture block in the corners and bright colours around it and then cut.

… and these blocks will end up in eye-spy quilts. 

On the decluttering front I’ve done all but one cupboard in the kitchen and got rid of a lot of excess stuff. It’s good to open the cupboard now and not feel its all going to fall out.  Next big job is cleaning out the pantry/storeroom.

Right now it’s raining heavily again so  its back to sewing machine for the afternoon. Apparently it’s going to rain most of the summer – our third El Nino summer downunder. How is the weather where you are is it different to the usual season? 

Linking up with:

 Quilting Patchwork Applique

Oh Scrap 

Small Quilts & Dolls Quilts

Back home again.

We arrived home a few days ago, just in time for a light dusting of snow overnight. Today it’s a lovely sunny day so hopefully the winter weather is over for the year.

The trip away was great, so relaxing. We visited Moree again where we saw a beautiful quilt made by Moree Quilters group in 2001 for the Federation Centenary. It features various aspects of life in Moree.

There was a brightly coloured ‘yarn bombed’ tree near the sewing shop.

and on our morning walks we saw the colourful murals painted around town, this is just two of many…

We also went up to Warwick and Texas, just over the border in Queensland where the weather really was perfect and the roads were much better than in NSW. We visited a few National Parks for some bushwalking including the Queen Mary Falls which was a good workout for the legs climbing down and back up all those steps. It was nice to just stop where we felt like it and most days we had a picnic lunch somewhere along the way. It was great to see everywhere so green with all the dams and rivers full as we go into the warmer weather.

Now I’m back home I’m about to sort through my orange scraps for RSC, I have already cut some and then I’m meeting a friend for lunch. I’m hoping to start work on our bathroom next week, not a full renovation but a ‘refresh’ on a budget. I’m looking forward to creating some new retirement routines and housework habits as we go into spring.

At the beach

We’re back on the road again, having another week away from the cold weather back home. I guess thats one of the lovely things about being retired, you can just decide to go away on the spur of the moment and off you go!

We’ve been in Coffs Harbour and the weather here is perfect.  Neither of us have been here before and we’ve been impressed with how quiet and laid back it is despite being a popular tourist destination. 

We’re staying across the road from the beach so we’ve been out early to watch the sun come up each day.

You can hear the ocean all the time which is really lovely at night-time.  Theres lots of walkways and places to sit, we’ve been sitting outside for breakfast and lunch enjoying the views.

Yesterday we went up to the Forest Sky Pier which had the most incredible views of the coastline. The lookout bridge goes out over the rain forest & moves in the wind.

It’s not possible to get the whole view in one picture, this is about a third of it.

We have another day here and then we’re off to Tenterfield for a look about. Today we’re going down to the jetty & to Mutton Island Nature Reserve. I’d certainly come back again and perhaps stay longer next time.

Well its almost time for another sunrise so I’m heading back to the beach for a while.  

“To escape and sit quietly on the beach – that’s my idea of paradise.” 
Emilia Wickstead


If you’d like to see some more Australian travel Janice is blogging her trip with some fabulous photos at Jannimary