Visiting friends

Last Friday a National Trust group visited this gorgeous house in Ipswich as part of a bus trip. I wasn't on the bus of course as I live here, and because the owners of the house are friends of mine, I went over early to help with the setting up. It was a beautiful day and its beauty was only exceeded by the morning tea.

The owners won a Heritage award for their restoration of this house; when they bought it, it was divided into two flats and the verandahs were enclosed. The garden is also delightful and has been part of the Open Garden scheme.

Even the birds were impressed, although, as you can see, there wasn't much left for them.

After a lovely lunch at the nearby City View Hotel (not that we needed it!) we visited the Antiques Centre for a leisurely browse.

Just a lovely day out, and best of all, I didn't have far to travel home.

On Show

Our local show was held over the weekend and I went along on Saturday, mainly to check out my quilt and other crafts.

Not a very good picture I'm afraid, and sad to say, I didn't get a prize either. There wasn't a lot of quilts entered and although most of them were nice, the champion quilt was a standout. 

The photography section was excellent as were the flower displays.. the orchids were divine!

And it wouldn't be a show without one of these.. now would it.

Oh... and as you can see... the weather was perfect!

Way out West

I have just spent a couple of days in Perth. I was there for an education workshop, representing the National Trust. I have not been to Perth before and I must say I think it would be an easy city to live in. That's only a fleeting first impression of course but I thought it had some lovely old buildings.

This is His Majesty's Theatre, obviously built after Queen Victoria died in 1901.

The workshop was held in this building which was originally the residence of the Government Astronomer. The observatory where he worked has been demolished. This is now the headquarters of the National Trust Western Australia.

On Tuesday afternoon we went to Fremantle to see this house which belongs to the Trust. It was home to the Samson family.

Many of the neighbouring houses had towers like this, presumably to get great ocean views. I wonder how long they sat up there, gazing out? 

And this is the view they were looking at; the Indian Ocean. From the house we wandered down into the town with a very knowledgeable guide named Mike. This photo was taken from near the Roundhouse (the original Fremantle prison) just on dusk. Rottnest Island is out there on the horizon.

Flitting from one side of the continent to the other in a couple of days is a bit tiring, but I had a great time... oh.. and did a bit of work too! 

Mother's Day

Muriel 1925 - 2001

Miss you Mum.

Quilt show

Last Friday I popped in to a little show here in Ipswich. Quilts and craft were on display in St Paul's Anglican Church, one of the oldest churches in Queensland.

The quilts look lovely draped over pews and hanging from the rafters. My new camera is taking a bit of getting used to and most of my pictures of quilts were too blurry to use. This one with hexies turned out OK.

On show also were the Queensland Quilters 2012 Challenge quilts. This is the winning one.

 Ipswich Spinners and Weavers and the local lacemaker's guild also had crafts on display. A lovely way to spend an hour or so.

At last

It has been a long time coming but at last it's done. Isn't it amazing how a quilt changes ever so slightly as each step is complete. I am very pleased with how it turned out and I hope Selina is too.

The pretty backing.

A close up!