Road Trip - Yarra Valley

If you find yourself pondering if there is such a thing as TOO Much Chocolate I would highly recommend a visit to Melbourne's Yarra Valley.

Not only does it have beautiful rolling hills, stunning scenery, farm gate sales and the odd vineyard or six.... it also is the home of the
Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery.

Walking through the door of this newly built Chocolate factory, we are greeted by the sight of piles of chocolate curvature buttons.
And a rather friendly sign asking you to "Please use a Spoon when sampling".

Having booked for the HOT CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL - we were shown to a table where we were treated to 45 mins of chocolatey bliss. The festival is showcasing 31 different Hot Chocolate flavours in 31 days (actually it is 8 flavours per tasting changing weekly - so you could go back each week and try them all!)

Bookings for the tasting sessions are essential as they sell out quickly - but there is still much to tempt you.

Row upon row of glistening chocolates and special treats to buy -

.. and that is before you get to the Cafe!

After all that chocolate? -
I opted for a cleansing Cup of Tea!






Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery
35 Old Healesville Road
YARRA GLEN VIC 3775

Road Trip - Phillip Island

Melbourne may not have put on a fantastic day today weather wise, but we only have a couple of days to fit in some road trips.

Deciding to brave the cold and potential rain we headed for Phillip Island.

We started at the Koala Conservation Park where this little lass was enjoying breakfast, watched Sheep shearing and Whip cracking at Churchill Island...

'blew out the cobwebs' with the surf rolling in at The Nobbies, and ended the day by sitting on the beach watching Fairy Penguins come ashore.


And rounding off a perfect day - we pulled in on the way home - away from all the city lights and just looked up into the clear night sky at the majesty of a 'billion' stars.

Set in Stone - A Mariner's Compass.

It is finally finished. - It actually has been finished for a couple of weeks but I have kept it under wraps until today.

Today it is proudly hanging in the company of some truly awesome Quilts at the Victoria Quilters Showcase - Melbourne*.

No ribbons, but lots of lovely comments from the viewing public (overheard whilst on White Glove Duty).


My DS#2 is delighted with his quilt and I am thrilled with the incredible job Desley has done with the quilting.


I am looking forward to seeing what the Judges have to say, their comments are often more valuable than ribbons and a great learning tool!



*Showcase is at the Craft & Quilt Fair
July 23 - 26, 2015
Melbourne Exhibition Centre

Carnations ....

These Carnations are "doing my head in"!

I thought I had them down pat with the awesome cutting out function of the Scan-n-cut but I didn't like the way my sewing machine does buttonhole stitch. And to be quite honest - it didn't look good enough for a Wedding gift they have waited 2 years for.

I decided that needle turn would look nicer.
So I started practising needle turning all those itsy-bitsy little scallops that make up the petals of the flower.

Don't like the look of that!

OK how about doing the elements individually?

It will be a lot of extra work and look good - but will it look like a Carnation or more like a Daisy?

Next idea - redesign the petals into a 'zig-zag' - will this work?

I have used so much of my flower fabric doing samples I may need to buy more, and I don't want to get bored with it before I even get started. I just HAVE to decide on something and get on with it.

My sampler is now thrown across the back of the chair in the corner waiting for inspiration to hit again - maybe I will see what I need at the Craft and Quilt Show tomorrow.

Vale Freda.

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go.

Others Stay a while - make footprints on our hearts

and we are never, ever the same again."

The phenomenon that is the Internet brings us into contact with people from all walks of life.

All races, religion, language, colour, height, weight, appearance, ability or disability are melted away as you find those who share a common interest.  You become comfortable with each other, often not knowing where they live or what they look like and yes, you begin to count them amongst your friends.

Yesterday, I lost one of these friends. I have no idea how old she was.  I have never seen a photo of her nor she of me, yet her broad Scottish accent and sense of humour came through her emails.

What I do know of her is that she was a Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Friend, Quilter, owner of a Janome 6500, and always up for a challenge. She was particularly fond of Haggis and only ever grumbled about the weather.

I also know, she has many friends that will not - due only to distance - attend her funeral. On that day I will bake a batch of my best Shortbread, pull out the good Tea Set and "Toast my Friend".

.... ' til we meet again.

Playing with my 'new' toy ...

Well, it is hardly "New" as I was encouraged most emphatically by my DH to buy it last June!

This "tool for a job" has come into it's own already - helping DS#2 with a University project, but this week I have been putting it through it's paces to
1. Learn how to use it properly and
2. See if it will REALLY cut down the workload for an applique quilt I am about to start.

The Quilt in question is "Istanbul" by Tamsin Harvey.
It will be my first ever Raw-edge applique quilt
AND - as it is a Wedding Quilt - I have to make it carefully and also bigger!

So a LOT of fiddly cutting is ahead of me ... unless this works!

I found it to be more accurate if I copied the original pattern - cut it apart (lots of copies) and removed connecting lines with some good old fashioned Tippex.
OK that dates me - Whiteout, Correction Fluid, Liquid paper - whatever!

Making sure it was TOTALLY dry before putting it through the scanner.

A few tweaks later and I had an Image that drew out beautifully.
(See green drawing on the right of the photo).

Checking the image against the original using a lightbox - looks pretty good!

Now to see whether it will cut out as nicely as it drew!

Retrieve the image from the 'files' section.

Load up the fabric,
press "Cut",
and sit back and watch!

The result?
Not bad at all!

I can now 'copy and paste' the required number of blooms and cut them out in no time at all!


It took a bit of time playing with the machine but it was worth it.
- oh and 'Thought for the day' - if you have one of these machines....
Check the Brother site for any program updates BEFORE you start working on a big project!

Seen in Bunnings ...

Bunnings is a local Hardware store chain

 and just sometimes we have a real giggle at their expense.

So here is today's find.

Hmmm..  Must be for when you just need to finish the job!

Where would YOU wear this?