Heading Off Again

We had no sooner returned home from the Isle of Man before we headed off again with our caravan.  (Yes, I will get around to posting about the overseas trip, but will do the latest one first, while it is still fresh in my mind.)

The weather was drizzly and dreary when we left home and we were looking forward to heading to warmer climates.

Firstly, we had to make a small detour to the little town of Rylstone, about an hour away from home, for me to go shopping.  Rylstone has a rather lovely wool shop called “Convent and Chapel”. I wanted to find some merino 4ply sock wool to knit another boomerang scarf.  I have a scarf in autumn colours that is really versatile, but has no warmth.  This yarn is from an Irish company “Hedgehog Fibres”. They dyed this wool especially for the Rylstone shop and it is appropriately named “Mudgee Moods” (Mudgee is the town just up the road).  

As I was hoping to possibly make a start on the project while we were away, they also kindly would it into a cake for me.  This gives a better idea of what it will look like knitted up.  Isn’t it pretty.  Just what I was hoping to find. Spoiler alert, no, I didn’t make a start.

Our destination was Coonabarabran, so that I could attend a Free Motion Quilting Class at the Crafters Cottage with Chooky on the following day.  I have completed a similar class many years ago, even before blogging, but have done nothing with it.  This was a great refresher and has given me the confidence to try something other than pantographs on Monique, even though the class was on our domestic machines.

The next day saw us head further north, crossing the border into Queensland.

We had a night camped in the yard of Bird on the Border.  We had a very pleasant evening together and it was fun to see her new sewing room and quilting setup.

After leaving Jenny’s, we were in holiday mode, travelling on country roads and seeing the occasional oversize loads along the way.

As well as cotton bales in the paddocks.

Our next stop was Dalby.  We have stayed overnight here before, but never had a good look around.

There are some lovely old buildings.

We were interested to read that there is the only monument dedicated to an insect located on the banks of the Myall Creek, so we to hunt it out.  It is for the cactoblastis cactorum moth that was introduced in the 1920s to combat the prickly pear plants that had infested much of south east Queensland.  The plants had been introduced from South America, firstly on the First Fleet in 1788 as a host for cochineal insects and then as a garden plant. In ten years, the prickly pear was pretty much under control.  A very successful case of  biological control, unlike the cane toad, but that is another story.

Many farmers walked off their land, as they were unable to control the weed.  There is still quite a bit of prickly pear growing, but nothing like it was back then. The cochineal beetle has also been introduced in more recent times to help eradicate the pest.  We did see some sick plants that had been affected by it.  I came across this article from the National Museum about the history of the infestation and found it really interesting.

We called in at the Information Centre to get some brochures and found a nice little coffee shop to sit and peruse them, prior to having a day of playing the tourist.  We decided that a little road trip to the village of Bell would fit the bill.

The scenery on the drive out there was beautiful, showing off the very fertile Darling Downs to its best advantage.

Bell is tiny, but for such a small place, we spent a rather lovely couple of hours poking around.

The main drawcard to visit is the Catholic Church.  The exterior is just a sweet little weatherboard building, much like churches in many small country towns, albeit well maintained.

There is even a Bell’s bell.

Notice the bells painted on the steps.  How lovely.

The surprise is the interior, which is decorated with beautiful murals, completed by Meg Cullen, a local parishioner.

To the side of the church is a Biblical Garden.  This was also established by Megg Cullen with the assistance of other parishioners.

This includes many plants that are mentioned in the bible, along with other hardy plants suitable to the climate.  It is beautifully maintained.

A feature is a series of mosaics of biblical scenes and Mary MacKillop.

After having a nice wander around it was time for lunch.  The coffee shop and pub (pictured above) were both closed, but we had been told that you could buy food at the general store, where we bought delicious burgers and milkshakes to eat in the nice little park.

Next on the agenda was to have a look around the old Railway precinct.  This was opened as a Centenary of Federation Project back in 2000.  The mural was rather faded.  Once again it was nicely maintained. 

The Bell area was settled in the 1870s as agricultural land, with the railway reaching Bell in 1906, at which time the town was surveyed and named after a local landholding family.  There were three trains a week, for passengers, stock and freight.  The line closed in the early 1990s, after which a committee was established to create the current precinct. 

Finally, the RSL Club celebrated its centenary in 2019 and has some murals painted on the building, which I’m guessing were completed for that event.  Another nice tidy building.

We really enjoyed our time exploring an area that wasn’t touristy and nice and quiet.

On the way back to Dalby we drove through a short sharp storm, so had been lucky with our day of wandering.

Stitching Wrap up for June

With our trip away, June was another month that had my goals go out the window.

There was no One Monthly Goal.

The Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge was to make a donation quilt using some left over koala fabric.  That didn’t happen.  It will still be there for another time.

So, what did I do?

I took a bit of stitching away with me and after having completed the redwork stitchery, I pulled out the little Santa counted cross stitch.  A couple of needles full were worked each day……until I discovered that I can’t count. I’d fudged a little bit that I realised wasn’t quite right, but then I worked out that I had stuffed up some counting right at the start, when I was at my stitching morning. (Yes, I know that cross stitch is not something to take to a stitch and chat morning.). Anyway, it looked like Santa would end up with next to no moustache and would look decidedly odd, so I abandoned that project.  I may get out some more fabric and start again, as he is rather cute.  That is a job for another day.

I still had my sampler stitchery to work on, so made a start while sitting waiting for a race to start.  Yep, it was cold, despite supposedly being summer.

I got a little bit done while over there.  However, the last row of the alphabet in the above photo was completed after we returned home.

And that is all I did while we were away.  I was a little disheartened after the cross stitch fail, we were doing other things and then we got COVID (not what we wanted on our holiday), so my 15 minutes a day had a little holiday. 

Since we returned home I have been rather slow in getting back into the groove, initially just fiddling around with bits and pieces.

What I did do, was make the split nine patches for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in pink for May and blue for June.

Then I made a hexy flower in blue for June.

Finally, today, I have completed the fish blocks for May and June, in pink and blue.

I’m happy to at least have the Rainbow Scrap Challenge up to date.  I’m linking up over at So Scrappy.

I haven’t made any progress on the batik fish, but they will still be there for later.

I eventually picked up my knitting and have progressed the lace yoke.  This is being done nice and slowly in the quiet, so that I can concentrate on the pattern.  I still have another ten rows of the lace to go, before things start to get a little simpler.

So, how did I go with my 15 minutes a day for the month?

June = 15/30

Year to date = 166/182

Success Rate = 91.21%. It’s looking a little sad, compared to previous months, but this is not a job, just a bit of fun.  I’m linking up over at Life in Pieces. 

This was a very lean month on the stitching front, but at least I have something to show for it.

A Stitching Update - May

As you can imagine, our little impromptu trip to the UK meant that my stitching goals for the month of May were thrown out the window.  You can see what my goals were back here.

Despite our trip, I was already way behind the eight ball.  I just hadn’t really been feeling very motivated.  Having said that, when I look back through my little diary, I had done lots of little bits and pieces.  This is how I went.

The Chookshed Challenge to quilt the half square triangle baby quilt hadn’t been started.

My One Monthly Goal was to applique all the fish I had prepped, as well as those for May.  It turns out that I had appliquéd all the fish that I had prepped in April, except for their eyes. I just haven’t taken an updated photo.  This is my one from the start of the month.  All I had done towards the May blocks was to print out the pattern.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour of pink wasn’t progressed very far either.  No fish had been made and I had only cut out a couple of fabrics towards the split nine patches.

My granny square rug progressed no further.

So, what did I do?

I did complete the last of the three sashiko panels for the table runner. Now I have to find a suitable fabric for the sashings, border, binding and backing.

As I didn’t seem to have much in the way of hand stitching to take to my two stitching mornings, I made a small start on a counted cross stitch.  It is a little kit that would have come with a magazine or something.

I then decided that I would make some one inch hexy flowers, using RSC colours.  I have no plans on what I will do with them, but they are something to pick up and work on when I am at stitching, or I just want to work on something mindless.  I have prepped a few, using what I have in my small scraps tubs.  I will have to now dive into my other fabrics to cut more.  I have stitched a red and pink flower, so I suppose I did in fact make something towards the RSC for May.

I had hoped to make a start on knitting a jumper using some wool I purchased at an op shop in Yeppoon last year.  The pattern I have chosen is Salty Air Sweater, which is knit in the round, from the top down and has a lace work yoke.  I haven’t knitted a jumper for maybe 30 years, have never knitted an entire jumper in the round, (I have knitted a fair isle circular yoke many years ago), let alone from the top down and haven’t done much lace work.  The pattern has lot of terms I am unfamiliar with, so this will be a great learning exercise.  Thank goodness for YouTube tutorials.

I treated myself to some interchangeable circular needles, rather than buying multiple ones for this project.  I looked on line and to my surprise and delight, our local craft store had the ones I wanted in stock and a heck of a lot cheaper than those on line.  I hopped straight in the car and went and bought them and they only had one set, so I’m one very happy little Vegemite.

I did manage to make a start……..twice……. You know they say to be very careful not to twist the cast on row when knitting in the round, well I only noticed that I had indeed twisted it after I had knitted a few rows.  Blast!!!  Second time around I checked, had Mick check and then double checked and managed to get it right.

I am currently halfway through the lacework yoke.  It is going well, so far.  (For once, the photo is showing the true colour of this wool, normally it is photographing as more like a brown.)  I am taking my time and really concentrating on what I am doing.  Once the yoke is finished it will be a good project to take to my stitching mornings.  I’m looking forward to getting back into it, but first I will need to do another YouTube refresher on some of the terms.

I knew that I would want some stitching to take away with my, but it needed to be compact and mindless.  Previously, I have taken redwork and that seems to be a good option, but what to take?  I started looking through some of my books and ended up prepping three projects.

Firstly, the stitching on a small pincushion by Natalie Bird that has been on my wish list for many a year.  

It didn’t take long to get it stitched while waiting in airports etc.

The next project is a Gail Pan bag.

I managed to get it stitched while on the Isle of Man, some of it sitting beside the race course, waiting for proceedings to start.  I can’t say that this was a project that was on my radar, but it will be a nice addition to my bag collection, once I make it.

Finally, another Gail Pan project, from the same book.  This wasn’t started in May. Once again, not a project that was on my radar, but it is definitely one that I like and will be happy to have made.

One other thing I did in May was finally donate the quilts that I had been making for that purpose.  I have previously donated to Ronald McDonald House in Orange, but this time wanted to donate closer to home.  I approached the local organisation that looks after foster children, but they said “Thanks, but no thanks, they have plenty already”.  I then approached Wattle Tree House who support victims of domestic violence and they were more than happy to accept them, as they were currently putting together packages to give people who needed support.  I think I will donate to them again in the future.

So, it seems that despite a trip to Canberra and travelling to the UK, I did in fact achieve quite a bit, although nothing was completed.

How did I go with my 15 minutes a day?  Surprisingly, I only missed one day, the day after we had been on the go for 41 hours.  I’ll excuse myself for that.

May = 30/31

Year to date = 151/152

Success rate = 99.34%

Overall, I’m very happy with what I achieved in the month, despite not ticking everything off the list.  Let’s face it, it doesn’t matter one way or the other.  I’ll get them done at some stage.