Monday 30 July 2018

Finishing up some loose ends

I got a bit bored with the blah Carolina Chain and dug out an old UFO (oh Lordy there are so many).

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I found this pattern online somewhere, but for the life of me I can’t find it.

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took no fabric at all.  Still has to be pieced and bordered and a whole lot more but it looks pretty, yes?

Hope you’re all doing well.

Friday 27 July 2018

Carolina Chain

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Spent my last few days sewing together the Carolina Chain blocks I’ve previously mentioned.  It’s coming along, but do I love it?  Nup.  Chalk it down to experience, I guess.

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Wednesday 25 July 2018

foxy roxy

On the last day of school holidays, my youngest daughter was sooooooo borrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed. 

She’s not too into fabric craft just yet but she knows her way around my sewing room and she decided she wanted to make a cushion.  I told her to pick a picture on the internet, and we’d cut it out of vliesofix and go from there.

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She did all of it apart from the ironing.  I think she did a stellar job.  I still have to stitch it and make a pillow of it, but it kept her busy for a few hours.  I said she should do a quilt but she was not keen. 

Hope you’re doing well, I found another photo of Adelaide that I forgot to share so I’ll leave you with it.

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I don’t know the details of the statue, it was at Ayres House, and the words at the bottom were broken, as if the statue had been moved sometime in its life.  I’ll try and find out what its’ story is, but I found it delightful.

Happy quilting!

Saturday 21 July 2018

Ayres House–the Age Of Elegance

Ready for some more travels around Adelaide?

Part of our trip involved visiting Ayres House, which you can read about here.

Long story short, it’s one of the oldest remaining houses in Adelaide, and it’s in prime position on North Terrace.  It’s been meticulously restored and now is a museum/wedding venue. 

They had a display on called ‘The Age Of Elegance’, lots of amazing Edwardian/Victorian clothing to see.  The girls and I thought it was fabulous, the husband tagged along without complaint, though I’m sure he had better places to be!

Enjoy the photos!

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When visiting these amazing places, it’s important to always look up!  This is the ceiling.  There is definitely a quilt of some description there to be made.  I spend so much time looking at the ceiling.

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I know these ladies wore corsets but even so – these waists are tiny.

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I seriously don’t know how they managed to fit themselves into these dresses, and I must tell you I’ll a little jealous.

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This is the ten year old next to a model who seems tiny – I asked if they were children’s dresses and was told no, they just were smaller then.  Amazing really.

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Look up look up look up

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Just so lovely, don’t you think?  I wish we spent time on the ‘pretty’ now like they did then.

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Both my girls asked (dead seriously) ‘What was wrong with her butt?’!

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The Victorian Wedding Dress.  Again, she’s small and there’s not too much in the way of frilliness for a wedding dress.

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This one was my favourite dress in my favourite room – the Tea Room.  All the following ones are so pretty, don’t you think?

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The ceiling in the Tea Room.  So delicate and pretty.

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My husband’s family legend states that a relative (Great something grandfather) was the carpenter who built the staircase.  If so, he did a remarkable job!

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Embroidered screen, my photos really didn’t do it justice.

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I stole this photo from their website, showing how it’s set up for a wedding.  I went to a wedding once but it wasn’t in this room.   I expect this room would be the expensive room to hire.

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One last look at the amazing ceiling.  Watch this space for a quilt.  (who am I kidding?)

Thursday 19 July 2018

Adelaide trip–some architectural shots

I posted yesterday about our trip away to the city for a couple of days.  It was bitterly cold, and raining.  Just typical really, it hasn’t rained for so long, it chooses to rain when I’m out in the elements AND didn’t make it up to our way at all.  So lots of city buildings got wet and the rest of us suffered!

But I did get to wander around a little bit of what I’ve found is called the North West corner of Adelaide CBD.

If you know Adelaide, you’ll be aware that the inner square has four roads (called North Terrace, East Terrace, South Terrace and West Terrace – original, yes?) and that inner square is divided up into a criss cross of smaller roads, back lanes, street art, little nooks and crannies and it’s great fun to walk around.  Which is exactly what we did. 

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This is Beehive Corner, home of Haigh’s chocolates.  It’s famous.  It stands on the corner of Rundle Mall, which is (obviously) the main mall. 

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I don’t get to Adelaide much at the moment and I noticed a real upswing in how much streetart there was.  And good stuff, not graffiti

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This was just in a dead end alley.  I love it when people do their art for art’s sake, not because it needs a function.

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Earliest church in Adelaide, perhaps even South Australia.  Smacked right in the middle of prime real estate.  Heritage listed so they can’t pull it down, which I think is great as Adelaide seems to be in the middle of building big fat ugly buildings everywhere.

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A few sets of relatives have been married in this church, I think.  I’m not sure if this is the original building or not, I should do my research, shouldn’t I?

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The doorway to the Playford Hotel in North Terrace.  Gorgeous Art Deco sculpture thingie at the entranceway.  So pretty.  The Playford name is a big one in South Australia.

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And here we are at my favourite place in Adelaide, found completely by accident on a previous trip.  The Ah. Maz. Ing Mortlock Library.  I’ll just show you some photos.

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Favourite place in Adelaide, hands down. 

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While having a coffee in the library kiosk waiting for the rain to stop, we found this building – I’m not sure what it is but it doesn’t get foot traffic much as it is a the back of everything, but it was so lovely I had to take a photo.  I think it’s used for storage now, but so pretty.

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How dreadful, I’ve forgotten what this building was.  Along North Terrace there is the museum, the art gallery, building after building of the University, the Library – so many glorious buildings.  And then one dirty great big steel thing, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital which – well, let’s just say I’m not really a fan.  But it’s a statement building at least, so it has got that going for it.

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Okay so I’ve done my research and it’s a part of the University buildings – the statue above is outside and is of Sir Walter Watson Hughes, an early benefactor of the Uni.  He must have been something pretty special to have warranted such a statue.

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The final building today is the Freemason’s.  It’s MASSIVE.  I wonder of the history inside.  I did see that they gave tours, but our time was so limited.  I’ve found so many wonderful tours on offer if you are in the right place at the right time, I just need to be able to be there then.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my trip down North Terrace, I’ll hopefully sew tomorrow and have more to show you.

Happy Quilting!

Wednesday 18 July 2018

My Little Trip

It’s late here on Wednesday and we’ve just got back from a short few days in Adelaide – the girls (or at least the eldest) *needed* to go shopping, and so we took the opportunity.  I won’t post too much tonight but I thought I’d show you a couple of snaps I took to show you my beautiful city:

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More tomorrow, just a quick post tonight.  Have a lovely day!