Travelling and Stitching

The month of March just flew by. With our new adventure starting at the end of February,  it was a very frantic end to that month.

AHQ RAN Quilt 1

AHQ RAN Quilt 2

Although I was busy getting organised for our travels north I still managed to fit in some time in the "Cave". With the help of a fellow AHQ stitcher I  finished a laundry bag, a quilt, and a quilt top for two members of the RAN, the day before we left home!! I designed, pieced, appliqued, and stitched both quilt tops and Irene did the quilting on her long-arm machine. She also helped me with the making of my very first laundry bag.  Thank you Irene.

AHQ Laundry Bag

Front Cover

Also finished was this little gem - the 'mystery' project mentioned in my last post -- a birthday gift for our two year old grandson. It's an activity quiet book.  The removable pieces are worked in fabric and felt then backed with velcro. It was quite a challenge for me as I  had never worked with small felt pieces before. But judging by Master Landon's reaction I think it was a success.

Back Cover with zip to store parts

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Completed Quiet Book

After a delightful week with our daughter and grandson (where we celebrated two birthdays), we continued our travels north to Townsville to spend five nights at the "Pera Court Hilton". We only get to see these special friends once a year, but boy do we make up for "lost" time when we do get together!  Five wonderful days with my 'Stitching Sister', Miss Carmel, meant there were plenty of creative activities shared -- cardmaking, stitching, quilting, and of course, shopping, lunches, morning teas, and one or two (sometimes more) glasses of "stitching juice"!!!!  And plenty of "catch-up" chat. On our first night SS surprised me with a yummy birthday cake, complete with sparklers -- sorry there are no photos as neither I nor the OWO were prepared for that!

Three beautiful cards

The next day was card-making class (a lovely friendly group of ladies) , lunch, shopping, coffee,  and  more shopping (fabric of course) ! After a "nanna nap" (fabric shopping is a very tiring exercise!) and a few good glasses of "stitching juice", we planned our attack for the next three days!

Poppy block - one of 16 we made

One of the days was spent stitching poppy blocks for AHQ. What fun we had with Mrs OWO trying to get the correct alignment for those blocks -- the MS brain regularly has trouble with the orientation of shapes! We completed 16 blocks over two days! Whilst working on the blocks I encouraged my SS to join the AHQ group and she has since made a number of "propeller" blocks for the group.  I  look forward to sharing photos with her of the blocks we both make during the year. All too soon it was time to pack up the stitching kit, assess the "damage" and achievements,  and to say farewell to our wonderful hosts at the Pera Court Hilton. Time to continue our travels even further north to our temporary residence near Innisfail. So until we next meet dear friends we thank you for your wonderful hospitality and the happy memories we have shared.

Mow-mow, mow-mow OWO

The residence in Moresby will be our temporary home for the next eight weeks - a housesitting 'assignment' where we will look after a very psychotic cat and have seven acres of ground for the OWO to mow! The home is air-conditioned  (thankfully) and there is a lovely in-ground pool. But more importantly- there is a room that I can use just for stitching. I didn't expect to have much time for stitching as we had planned to spend most of our time exploring this beautiful tropical region. However, since our arrival in mid March there have been some interesting events that have proven to be somewhat challenging. At the end of the first week we found ourseleves preparing for a cyclone as TC Debbie approached the NQ coast. Thankfully, for us, "she" kept moving south. Sadly for the people of Bowen, Airlie Beach, Proserpine,  and Mackay, TC Debbie crossed the coast wreaking havoc and causing devastating damage to those areas. Our hearts go out to those people who lost their homes, and businesses. Once the threat of "Debbie" passed our region we made plans to explore Innisfail and beyond. But again we were stopped in our tracks when I  contracted a severe dose of bronchitis.  Unfortunately there was no chance of my hiking around the hills when I could hardly breathe or stop coughing. However being grounded had its stitching benefits though - I was able to sit in the comfort of a cool room with a pleasant outlook and work on my hand stitching projects -- between snoozing! There is ALWAYS a sunny positive if you look beyond the grey clouds!!!!

Completed three blocks for On Freedom's Wings

Oh dear!, Taken me so long to get this post published. It seems I will be grounded a little longer than anticipated as the bronchitis attack has turned into pneumonia!!!! Thank goodness I packed all those hand stitching projects!