WIP Wednesday- lots of progress

I'm actually writing this on Tuesday night as we are off to a national park again tomorrow and once again I am unsure of the level of mobile (Cell) coverage so not sure if I will have internet during the 3 days we are staying there. All will be revealed about midday tomorrow. I thought I would get this started today and hopefully post it tomorrow when we are on our way.

Jeans Jean Quilt

I have made great progress with this quilt. I have all the strips made and now I just have to sew the 8 strips together. After I made one strip I checked it off on the bed in the camper trailer and I felt that the 15 circles wide, which is what I had made it, was a bit narrow. I had enough of the denim circles with me and had some left over squares plus had some other fabric with me for another possible project so sacrificed some of that to make the extra squares that I needed. So now the quilt is 16 circles by 17 circles (well actually once they are sewn together the circles are squares... so lets say 16 units by 17 units. Before I sew the strips together I need to go through them and make sure I have "darned" any holes made when the 4 circles didn't quite join neatly and even the zigzag quilting didn't patch up. I find them easiest to sew over properly on the denim side. Then I can see clearly where the gaps are. Its harder on the joins on the other side as there are all the different seams and bits of fabric. I need to mend them before I sew the strips as once the pieces are more than 2 circles wide I can't easily scrunch the fabric into my little Gem's throat. I am hoping that I can get the whole quilt completed before I get home. I would so like to have a finish this trip.






Tea Shop Quilt
I have made only a little progress on the applique this week but expect to get more of it done when we are at the national park as there will be no power so won't be sewing my Jean's Jean quilt. We will be reliant on solar power to charge our batteries to run the fridge and lights although we do have a small generator. They aren't always allowed to be used in National Parks so we shall see. Fixit Guy also had some problems with it last time he tried to use it. Hopefully if we need it we will be able to run it and that it will run.

Speaking of Tea Shops. Fixit Guy and I visited a beautifully little tea shop in the historic town of Tilba Central. The whole town has been heritage listed as an historic place. Its not old by European standards or even by American standards but you have to realise that Australia is a pretty young country although also extremely old. European settlement only began here in 1788

We enjoyed a couple of hours strolling through the town. We visited a shop which sold the most delicious fudge, made on the premises. We chose to buy a small slab of Sticky Date Fudge for Fixit Guy and some coffee and walnut for me. Both are so yummy. We visited the boutique cheese factory, ABC Cheeses where we watched cheese making taking place and sampled the many of the different cheeses on offer (well I did. FG is avoiding too much cheese) I bought some pickled onion vintage cheese. The day before at the Bodalla cheese factory we had bought 2 more cheeses - Campfire and Firecracker. I have been enjoying a wine and cheese before dinner the last few nights... good stuff.

We ended up at the Heritage Tea Rooms (we think it was called that. We can't find it online and we might have it wrong which would be disappointing.) This delightful shop served Devonshire Teas (or coffees) as well as sold the most amazing array of tea pots, cups and sauces and tea accoutriments as well as a vast array of different teas.

Combi van Teapots and cuts and jugs, Comi Boy gave me one like the blue one for Christmas so I got him a cup

A tractor teapot. Reminded me of my favourite cousin Syd who loves tractors and is collecting ones to make a museum one day. Just gorgeous

Fixit Guy ready to enjoy his tea... we were still waiting for the scones

The Rose and Sparrow Cafe and Tearooms

The scones were still cooking when we wandered in so we had to wait for our cream tea but that proved a bit expensive for us as the longer we waited the more gorgeous things we saw. I managed to buy a few Christmas presents while we waited. When they came the scones were really good. I gave them a gold Mary. (When Fangirl and I were touring Scotland last year we had a delicious cream tea at a restaurant in a small town. We overheard a woman telling her companion that Mary makes the scones that were sold at this restaurant and she was the best scone maker ever. The scones were really good so from then on we had a cream tea, which we did on regular if not daily intervals, we rated the scones according to how they compared to Mary's. These scones were top drawer scones. Best I've had in Australia!!)

Our Devonshire tea at the Rose and Sparrow tea rooms at Central Tilba

We've spent the last two days based in the town of Bega, which is about 14km from the coast. Each day we have driven over to the beaches and explored. Our first day it was grey and overcast and a bit cold and the sea wasn't particularly attractive to look at. Today though it was bright sunshine and we had a magic day exploring isolated beaches and lagoons. Too cold for us to swim but it was great wandering along the beaches. At most there were two or three people there when we were. We did manage to surprise some people who were taking advantage of the isolation for a skinny dip in the ocean... they were up the far end of the beach and we didn't explore too far.

Here are a few pictures of the gorgeous beaches.

Linking up with