Wattle

I am working on another wattle quilt and have decided I need to embellish with hundreds of wattle blossoms, as well as the seed stitch for movement. It may take some time but hoping the result I am after will be worth it!

A cold, wet Melbourne day

Although it was a cold wet, Melbourne day we had lots of colour. A bright double rainbow was spotted and admired.

 Toes and fingernails got colourful treatment to the delight of Miss 2.5

And we finished with nice smelling potions made into bath bombs.

 

Clifton Springs

Visited a lovely seaside spot, Clifton Springs near Geelong. It was a popular holiday/spa place in the late 1800's with fresh water springs bubbling up out of the sand. The water was bottled for many years and glass fragments are still found along the shore.

The bottles were also this torpedo shape, echoed in the public information signs along the walk.

It was a beautiful sunny day with lots of exploring by all of us. Miss 5 and Miss 2 1/2 loved the warm sea water for paddling.

Wonderful textures from the sea worm casings on the rocks.

A new quilt

Last week I made a quilt for an unknown recipient from the local girls school. It is a bright quilt, using squares from a layer cake packet that I have used for various projects. Above is the back of the quilt using fabric bought in Hawaii. The green binding is ready for machine stitching. By stitching it on the backside of the quilt, I was able to turn it to the front and machine stitch in position.

I used one of the programmed stitches on my machine to machine quilt in the ditch using a multi-coloured cotton thread by King Tut.

 

Martindale Hall

Impressive Martindale Hall sits commandingly on the top of this rise and is approached by a large staircase. It was used in the movie The Picnic at Hanging Rock, as the girls school. I hope they had some heating as it was frightfully cold when we visited in the afternoon.

The rooms were all decorated beautifully and we could wander as we pleased.

This was in the sewing room.

The beautiful silk embroidered screen was in one of the large bedrooms.

 

Lunch

Lunch at Reilly's was delicious, from the shared tasting plates to our individual choices for the main. Wine to complement the food- heavenly!

Duck and couscous.

Felt a bit like this barrel after the feast!
 

Wine

No trip to a wine producing area would be complete without sampling a drop or two. There were many opportunities to try the local offerings in cellars and wineries open for tastings. Sevenhill Hotel had an impressive cellar, above.

I don't know about you, but I'm often attracted by the clever labelling.

Before the dinner got underway.

Some of our party enjoying the sunshine on Pikes lawn. You know who you are!

The Sevenhills winery was interesting for the religious history and connection.



 

The results

The moment of cutting the binding string to reveal our eco experiments. Swiss Army knives rule!

Lots of steam coming from our bundles as we are excited to see what has happened! Marilyn does the first reveal.

Jennie

Di

Marg was very happy as she got some purple, her favourite colour, in her piece.

Marcia

Happy with mine.

 

 

Boiling up

This outdoor cook house area was the scene for creative endeavours by 6 Mexettes! We wrapped native vegetation into wool scarves, tied them with string and put them in the pots to brew.

Marg and Jennie at work or was it play?

Di and Marcia also having fun. We are rugged up against the cold.

 David was instrumental in tightly rolling our bundles, ready for the pot.

Yellow and green

Yellow canola fields and green grass, wheat and chick peas along the road to Sevenhill in the Clare Valley. These photos are shot out of a moving car, so include reflections from the windows.

Inspiring sky scape.