The Little Holiday and Blog Break

My DH and I are taking a little holiday in July so have decided to settle down the blog for a break. We are doing a winter tour of Australia's great Outback.

We will leave Perth and head east to Kalgoorlie. Then north through Leonora and Laverton and then east across the Great Central Road to Yulara and Uluru. Then northeast through the McDonnell Ranges to Alice Springs. Then south to Coober Pedy and then south and west through the Lake Everard district to Ceduna. Then west across the Nullarbor to Norseman and Coolgardie then home to Perth.

Three delightful weeks of amazing landscapes and starscapes. Yes, it will be cold. But the days will be beautiful and we have warm clothing and bedding. We will have a few nights at caravan parks and also a few nights bush camping.

To give my US friends an idea of the distances, here is Australia's land mass compared to the US.

DD #2 will house sit while we have this most excellent adventure. She's promised to keep the parties to a minimum.

Hope is your next little while is good. I hope to have a few reasonable photos and will share upon my return.

Playing with Toys

Children are never too old to visit childhood toys.

My beautiful daughter will be 23 in two weeks.

Another Bag

Don't get too excited. I've made a bag for the tarps.

Velcro flap and boxed corners. And made out of a tarp, of course.

You may wonder why I'm making camping bags in the winter.

We have a Big Trip planned for July and will post more on that soon.

Now off to find some pretty fabrics - I need some mug bags, and pot bags, and cutlery bags...

HST Stencil

I was very fortunate to win a give away recently from the Quilting Gallery at the 'not so basic quilting tools' post.

These stencils allow you to mark your fabric to construct half square triangles. I'd seen them in blogland but didn't know where to get them. Now I can tell everyone you can get your own at Sunday Best Quiltworks.

I rough cut two squares from complementary contrasting fabrics. I followed the directions on the stencil label and there is also a video on you-tube.

I prepped my fabric by using a little spray starch and ironing the pieces right sides together. I pinned the stencil on and used a chalk pencil to mark the sewing line and a lead pencil to mark the cutting line (I used different colours to help reduce confusion - I need that).

After sewing, I chopped them up as directed, pressed to the dark side and trimmed the ears.

The hst's were pretty accurate, except I did discover that the white fabric was a poly or poly/cotton blend and didn't behave well (it had been given to me as I usually try to buy good cotton fabrics for quilting).

I give the stencils an A+ rating and consider them a valuable addition to my quilting tools.

Quilt Show 6

Stilts on Pink Lake by Elizabeth Humphreys

84cm x 63cm

Weeping Willow by Judith Fewings

66cm x 56cm

detail

Purple Dimensions by Margaret Perrott

149cm x 149cm

detail

Quilt Show 5

Trying to Make a Hole by Jan Rowe

96cm x 134cm

Year of the Dragon by Laura Lochore

75cm x 105cm

detail

Animalia by Julie McAllister

139cm x 160cm

Women's Work by Judy Campbell

39cm x 55cm

Quilt Show 4

Daisy Bush by Marisa Valentino

114cm x 145cm

Argentinian Adventure by Jan Rowe

123cm x 152cm

Chilli Peppers by Julie McAllister

198cm x 198cm

Bloomin' Circles by Elizabeth Humphreys

178cm x 178cm

Bright Bouquet of Beautiful Blossoms by Louise Moller

188cm x 188cm

Clean Out

 

 

Quilt Show 3

Unfortunately I did not get the name of the quilter.

Small challenge quilt.

Diane Firth

Small challenge quilt.

Barbara Daniels

Small challenge quilt.

Hilary Arbor.

Small challenge quilt.

Robyn Vallence

Small challenge quilt.