I waved the New Zealand flag for a few days in Australia on the way home after my wonderful trip away. A lovely way to finish my holiday ♥ A big public thank you to all those special friends who made sure I had a great time - you know that if any of you ever get to New Zealand, I'll be at the airport waiting for you...
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| A family outing and picnic in a park near Ipswich. |
I arrived home to the realisation that I had swapped Spring in the Northern Hemisphere —
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I saw Tulips galore while away - a novelty for this Northlander where they
don't grow very well... |
— for Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere!! Brrr, it's a bit cooler than when I left....
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| ...and the leaves are falling. |
The Australian stopover (if you call 3 days a stopover?) was a good chance to sort out any jetlag issues because as soon as I got home it was full speed ahead and back to my normal routines (not to mention folding a monumental pile of washing the MOML had collected for me!!). Of course there were some things that needed to be done 'yesterday' - no I'm not complaining, after all I had an epic time away.
First up was getting back into the
Fabulous Friday Mystery project I'm doing for
The Country Yard. Here are some of the blocks I prepped before I went away (or I haven't shared yet) —
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| Flower Block |
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| Butterflies |
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| More Churn dashes to go with some made the very first week. |
And this block was the first thing I needed to get to when I arrived home.
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| I've called it the Whirly bloom block - not sure if there is a real name out there for it?! |
It's so exciting having the ladies come in on the allocated day (twice a month) to share their blocks and get their new instructions... they are scratching their heads a bit, wondering how they will all fit together. The gallery for their blocks is *
here*.
After the large (18") block, I decided it was time to change direction a little and stitched up this wee star... isn't it fun? It's 2¼" finished and gave me a chance to play with my new
Itty-Bitty Eights rulers (designed by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings) - awesome with all those one eighth markings.
When I travel I like to collect thimbles, if I can; the one below was a little too big to fit in my bag —
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| Outside a souvenir shop on the way to Niagra Falls. |
— but these ones came home with me. A nice little add-on to my collection. Wish I'd been able to find the one above, and also I see I don't have one from Winnipeg -
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| Paducah-Indiana-Canada-Toronto-Niagra on the Lake-Canada- Niagra Falls. |
Already I have a mess on my cutting bench so before I start anything new I'd better see to that (do you realise I managed to keep my bench tidy for a WHOLE month?! hehe ok, I was away - doesn't it count?)... then I might just pull out some more fabric and do some more playing :-)
Happy creating,
