Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Finished Projects

I have had a few finishes as well as the mini shown in the last post.
I finished and gave away the quilt for my youngest brother-in-law.  I could kick myself as I didn't get a photo of him with it.



Also finished the little bag from our Natlie Bird workshop in February.
I'm going to use it as a travelling jewellery bag.


At the moment, I am quilting my husband's twister quilt. Photos of that later.

Still more blogging to catch up on, but that is enough for tonight.

Take care,
Cheryl

Sunday Stitchers

 

 I enjoy our monthly Sunday Stitchers meetings very much. Our other members are far better bloggers than I am. They report on our meetings more thoroughly and regularly than I do.
Having said that... I was the birthday girl in June and the lucky recipient of all these FQs.
Thank you, ladies.



 (For them - to explain the request for red and white)
This is the first book I bought when I started my patchwork obsession hobby. As soon as I saw this quilt, it went on my 'to do one day' list. Maybe now I have all these new FQs, it will come off the 'one day' list.

 

 Our recent swap was a mini.  This is the one I made for Teresa. It's called the housewife block and I made it using Paris Flea Market fabric.

 The fabric range contains a stylised map of Paris. I had to use it as Teresa is very much a Francophile.


 Here are the ones swapped on the day. We are holding the ones we received. Mine came from Susan.
Thank you, Susan. It went on my new hanger as soon as I got home.

 We always have Show & Tell.
This is Alison, who's a worse blogger than I am. Let see if she reads this and goes crook at me. LOL


 Some of our group are hand sewing Trip Around the World.  They are looking great but I'm glad it's them and not me.

We received our names for the Christmas swap. So more snooping and thinking is in order.

Take care,
Cheryl

A Bit More of Straddie

I was going through my camera's SD card and found some video.
Another thing I had not seen until our stay on North Stradbroke Island was a school of bait fish. I've seen reports on the evening news but not in person.
We watched the sea birds feasting on the bait fish for ages.
The black  patch in the water is the fish.










Hope this works....it doesn't look quite right in preview. I think I made it better.

Take care,
Cheryl



Sunday, July 5, 2015

Stradbroke Island Get Away

Still playing catch-up. I probably always will be, but I know I'm not alone in struggling to keep up-to-date with my blog.
So, what about Straddie..... Last year, DH and I spent Easter on the Fraser Coast where we went for a day trip to Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world.
Back home in Brisbane, we realised we have neglected the two very large sand islands just off our own city -  Moreton and Stradbroke Islands. Neither of us has been to Moreton and we will get there one day. I've been to Straddie in my early teens but only for just one day.
So a three day weekend getaway was proposed. We'll ignore the fact that this weekend was in May and that I'm very late blogging about it.
There is no bridge and that, I think is a good thing. It means a trip on the car ferry. We were first there for our time slot. We weren't just keen, we didn't want to miss it.


 That little, when compared to the trucks, green car top right is ours. There is a lot of sand mining on the island and the trucks belong to that industry. The sand mining is a controversial issue.


 We played tourist, visiting Blue Lake (above) and Brown Lake (below).


Resting Pelicans

 We managed some very long walks. So much for a relaxing weekend sojourn, my Fitbit registered over 18,000 steps each day. I'm the one with the stumpy legs on the left! Things you inherit from grandmother.


We sat here for awhile, watching  what I think is a White-bellied Sea-Eagle.
Click on the photo below and you can see it hunting low over the surf.



 One very high highlight was seeing a pair of dugong (probably mum and bub) grazing very close to shore. According to the locals, this was a very rare sight.  None of the photos in the above sequence are zoomed. The first one shows the little groyne they were in, eating sea grasses (the dark patch in the water). In the other 3, you can just make out the dugong coming up for air. Seeing them was a first for me.


 We thoroughly enjoyed our time on the island. I wouldn't mind returning.

Take care,
Cheryl