Coast to the Mountains

Thursday 15th September A walk on the beach

Sunday 18th September Back in the mountains

  

I've been away from home for a year, living with family,three months at Mogo and 9 months in Lakes Entrance. It's been lovely but a desperate need for my own place and my things around me has led me from the coast back to the mountains. I still intend to live over at the coast but for now I am happy to be home, tidying my house and unpacking a few of my things whether its for a few weeks or a few months. I'll just wait and see what happens next I guess.

Restoration love.

If you know me at all you will know that I love Op Shops and Garage sales. In Lakes Entrance there are 6 Op Shops and Garage sales nearly every weekend. Paradise. July 30th there were  two garage sales, one of them at the Church of England. There were lots of tempting goodies one of which was a plastic bag with ''Quilt Tops'' written on it. Talk about waving a red flag at a bull type scenario. Of course that bag came home with me and on opening it I found such a treasure which made me both smile and almost cry.

Two pieces of a hexagon quilt made from vintage and possibly antique fabrics (this made me smile) and once I had looked at it properly I nearly cried. It was obvious someone had cut a very large quilt into pieces and this was only two parts of it. There was fabric pinned to the back of each piece, although I'm not sure what they had planned for it.

So many fabrics to look at

Looking at the back was scary. No neat folding over the paper, just a piece of fabric dragged over the edges and tacked in place. This was a godsend later on when I had to repair a couple of blocks. Plenty of fabric on the back!

Every block had been joined by the tiniest hand stitching and every seam had been embroidered.

This is part of the edge where the quilt has been cut.

I unpicked the part hexagons on a short edge of each piece so I could join them together.

Then I went through the fabric I have picked up at op shops to find some that would blend in with the quilt. I love vintage fabrics so I had collected a few. I had to make extra blocks for one of the pieces because it wasn't quite as wide as the other one.  I unpicked blocks here and there in the quilt to put the new ones in because I couldn't just put them altogether in one side of the quilt.

One joined and the new blocks put in place, I embroidered all the new seams in cottons as close to the original ones as I could find. I joined the pieces of fabric that were pinned to the back of the pieces of quilt to use for the backing.

I now have a single bed topper which is hand quilted inside each hexagon. I am on the look out for something suitable to bind it. I think there may be the perfect piece of fabric packed away in Corryong so I think it will have to wait for a week or two until I get home.

My daughter came to visit on the weekend. The weather was perfect and there was lots to do.

Saturday morning we went to a couple of garage sales and op shopped. We both scored some bargains and treasures.  

A big walk on the beach Saturday afternoon.

We wore Mum's poor old dog out. He struggled the last little bit but he managed to make it back to the car.   I haven't taken the dogs to the beach for a while because its been so windy, They don't cope with the sand blowing in their eyes.

My son and his fur baby came and had dinner with us Saturday night.It was lovely having half of my children here with me, even if it was only for the evening.

Sunday. Nicky and I, with the dogs headed off to our childhood stomping ground at Corringle for a picnic. I more or less lived there as a child and we took the kids camping there every year for years. Nicky hasn't been there for a long time and it was a good chance to go and revisit old times.  It was an absolutely perfect day and so peaceful sitting on the sand opposite the Marlo Jetty.

These two spent a lot of time exploring and sussing out all the new smells.

Lou found a crab which she wasn't too sure of so decided to roll on it. Never even got close!

Machicho had a go after her.

Her favourite game is fetching a stick out of the water. Once she was wet she rolled in the sand and as you can imagine it wasn't pretty. A good shake and..........

not much difference!

The Splendid Sampler 40/100

I have finally caught up on my Splendid Sampler Blocks. 40 done, only (only?) 60 to go. Oh and if you count them, yes there are  Bonus blocks in the mix as well. More information on The Splendid Sampler can be found here. Perhaps you would like to join in too?

Finished!

It has been 18 months since I started this quilt and after filing it for over 12 months I finally got around to hand quilting it and getting the binding on. 

It didn't take long for these two to find it and lay claim. Not for long though I can guarantee that!

New experiences for the fur babies

Beau, Miranda and Ben came for a visit over the weekend which was lovely.  

It wasn't the warmest day for a walk on the beach yesterday but we braved it.

There were fishing boats not too far off shore. No seals today.

I think we all needed to get out for a little exercise. It was the first time on the beach for the boy's dogs. They had an absolute ball. 

Beau and Miranda's new baby, Bronson

Ben's gorgeous girl, Reggie

And of course my fur baby, Machicho

Too many photos to choose from. Reggie spent a lot of time trying to eat the bubbles as the waves came in and Bronson was happy to play and investigate her new surroundings . There were so many new smells, things to see and the novelty of having so much space to just RUN!!!

Nanna enjoyed the photos and the story of our walk on the beach with the dogs. 

We certainly wore these two out.