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

RSC – Flimsy is done!

 I’ve been busily sewing up my RSC blocks since I last posted (and we had a week away) and I’m pleased to post that I’ve joined them all up.  I spent some time trying different layouts and decided I liked the pattern better not on point.

Heres how it looks on the bed…

I’m so happy with it and I loved making it. I want to add a border, possibly dark blue or yellow – or perhaps both, so I will think on that for a while.

I’ve also taken a bit of break from being online as we had another trip away for a week. Old work friends of mine from catch up ever few years and so a last minute get-together was arranged. I have missed the last few so it was just great to see everyone again. 

DH and I stayed on for a bit of holiday and visited lots of lovely beaches down the South Coast, walked for hours most days and then laid about enjoying the ocean view from our cabin on the beach in the evenings. 

Heres a few pics of our time away..

View from inside our cabin as the sun comes up

… and we just walked down this little track to get onto the beach…

We also did some travelling to a few different places,  countryside is SO green and there is water everywhere. This is at Tilba – the place where River Cottage Australia was filmed.

Tilba is a National Trust Village with lots of lovely old shops and pretty gardens. 

We bought some cheese, jams and chutneys from the Tilba Dairy and I can recommend them – very tasty and plenty of  gluten free products.

The fragrance from The Bath Patisserie was lovely & it was filled with all sorts of luxurious bath products so I picked up some lovely soap for myself.

While we were away Queen Elizabeth passed away. I remember watching her Christmas address every year as a kid, it was just part of our Christmas Day growing up, and singing God Save the Queen each week at assemblies. Each classroom had a picture of here above the blackboard so she was very much part of our lives as kids even though we live in Australia. I think she was a remarkable woman given that she was never meant to be Queen.

So we’re back home now until our next trip in November and I’m feeling ready to get more stuff decluttered. I want to get new carpet put down in the lounge room and give the bathroom a ‘refresh’ – so thats what I’ll be mostly working on as well and finishing up Summer in the Country before I start another quilt.

I’m off to catch up on my blog reading & linking up to SoScrappy  Quilting Patch and OhScrap.

RSC – Joining up the blocks!

There is something special about scrappy quilts. Taking all the small pieces, leftovers from other projects or fabrics that have been in the stash for years and turning them into a beautiful quilt. I never tire of looking at all the different scrap quilts that quilters make.

I’ve been busy sewing more blocks for my RSC Carolina Chain quilt as I only had about half the number I need. This morning I started joining the small blocks together into larger four patches and I am so happy with how it’s looking. 

I want to get all of the large four patch blocks done this month so I know I’ll be spending a lot of time this week at the sewing machine making more smaller blocks. Then next month I should be able to complete the top. My sewing table is busy!

Linking up with SoScrappyOhScrap. and QuiltingPatch

“When life gives you scraps, make a quilt”