I've been doing the  courses that Kathy Shaw has provided FREE of charge over the last year.

Well I emailed Kathy to say she hadn't sent me the next lesson of the last course, not realizing there wasn't another one to come.  So she suggested I go back to the start and redo it.  Well not quiet, but what does one do with all those blocks we've just embellished.

Well we have purchased our next 'mobile home' to continue our travels around Australia.
Old one:

New one:
My 'Craft room' consists of four plastic drawers and a sewing machine. In the previous van hubby had pulled out the lounge and my 4 drawers sat nicely there with a curtain that come over the top and latched into the wall at the bottom. This stopped movement whilst we were traveling.

But as this has a different floor plan we've had to re-think where to put my 'Craft room' - four drawers. So two will be situated at the front of the van in the bedroom area one either side. The other two will fit under the kitchen table. Now that they are separated we can't use the same curtain set up. This photo show's the back of the van where the table and lounge is. Can't pull the lounge out on this one, too difficult.

So I thought about it for a while and came up with the idea of individual slip covers for them. This way if they fall over during travel the drawers will stay in and the contents won't spill over the floor.
So using the blocks from this course I am making four covers. Here is the first one, three more to go.
Front view:
 The top, I will eventually embellish this, as it's also lined.
 Sides have the same fabric, the back is just calico (muslin).
 Close up of the block. Didn't end up putting a beetle on, would have gotten caught on a lot of things.

There is always different uses for our blocks, not just quilts or covers for books etc. Think outside the box everyone.

Thank you Kathy for another excellent class.

Arlene

Finally some posts, my computer died, the motherboard in fact, thankfully the hard drive is ok, but I back up all the time so I lost nothing, just had to reinstall programs.  So now all back to normal.

So over the next couple of weeks I'll be doing my catch up, but this post is one of the most important ones I needed to start with.

During our stay in Newcastle I had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful group of ladies creating amazing pieces from Bobbin Lace.  Our hostess Janis lives in an amazing big house with her husband and opens her home to these ladies weekly for their regular get together. Janis also has an amazing collection of Bobbin lace dating back to the 15th century. All the ladies were so lovely and happy to share their knowledge and skills.  One lady in particular Joan Cruise who has been bobbin lacing for 35-40 years or more, is moving house. Downsizing from her large home to a over 55's retirement village.  Doing the same craft for so long you accumulate a lot of stuff (I know and certainly not doing the same craft for so long).

Joan was selling off most of her stuff.  I said I would love to buy some of her bobbins. (Light weight for traveling).  So my friend Lorraine and I went to her place and she gave me (Yes - gave me, would not take an offer of money), all of these following items. Her only request was to put up this write up on my blog (which I would have done anyway).  I am so humble to be the receiver of all these wonderful craft items.  Thank you Joan from the bottom of my heart.

A bag to carry my round cushion, beautifully made.
 Joan made this some time ago, a bigger roll than mine, and more room for accessories.
 And closed.
 A bobbin holder, this I am already using regularly.


 And several books, this one I have kept out as it had the best information i though for my travels. Even though it's a hard cover and a little heavy I think it is worth me having we me.
 These next books I have put into storage.




So who's the lucky ducky.......ME of course.

THANK YOU JOAN CRUISE.

Now we are in Coffs Harbour and I have found a small group here to do bobbin lace and Dot is very happy to pass on her knowledge. 

Well, our house sit at Bateau Bay came to a quick end, with the son of the owner wishing to move back home due to issues with this wife's family. So we quickly found a new house sit and are presently at Holmesville, just west of Newcastle.  We are house sitting the house of course and Zacky, a lovely black and white cat. We have become good friends and we share the sun room when it's sunny.

I've been busy working on a couple of courses with Kathy Shaw, Dying and Embellishing with Threads. If you get the chance to do these courses (they are FREE), even as a refresher, they are well worth it. Here is some of my work.
First the Dying course, this is good fun, and as you can see I had wonderful weather for drying.


 Embellishing with threads, seam treatments.
 Trees, veins and spiders


 Enhancing motif's

 Monogrames, which we all don't do enough of.

I have found a few craft groups here, one embroidery, one quilting and one bobbin lace, pity we are only here for 7 weeks.

We have also done some more sight seeing around Newcastle.

 Michael steading himself on the sign to see if there are any humpback whales passing. The radio said there were a few sighted that morning.

 Michael on the Memorial Walkway, opened for ANZAC centenary.

And now to some other news. Son has decided to make a trip to the USA, for how long we're not sure as he's taking Ally (his Labrador) and Tatum (Rachel's cat) with them. So we have to go back up to Brisbane, pick up and pack up our gear he was using and store in our container.  We also have to pick up Rosey.  Thankfully Michael's mum will look after her whilst we are in Coffs Harbour (our next housesit) as the house has no fence. After that we're possibly going to have her travel with us.  Chris has had the dogs on strict diets and exercise, Rosey is now almost down to 11kg and Ally is about to tip below 30kg.  Here's the latest picture of them both.

Well that's about it for the moment, catch you next time.
Arlene