A beach visit and another finish.

On Easter Monday afternoon we went to Phillip Island, just over an hour's drive from us.




Below is a view from the front beach at Cowes, the largest town on the island. This beach is on the northern side of the island, so is more sheltered.



The next 2 photos are from the south side of the island. Bass Straight is the stretch of water here. Next stop south is Tasmania, then Antarctica. The southerly winds can be pretty cold on here!
Several of the beaches on the island are very popular with surfers.







I managed a finish today!!!

This little quilt is the result of inspiration from this post by Jan of Be*mused.

Quite some time ago I bought a pack of fabric which was sourced from Kyoto, Japan and contained cut up pieces of kimonos. I decided to use those fabrics for this project. All the pieces were quite small, none larger than 12 inches square. In the pack many of the pieces were still as they were sewn originally with lots of seams. The first few seams I unpicked were machine sewn, but as I got further into the construction I found hand sewing. All the hems were hand finished and all the facings and linings were hand stitched down. As I unpicked these stitches I wondered who had sewn these stitches. How long ago were they sewn? How would he or she feel about me unpicking their work? I imagine quite a few hours went into making the original kimonos.



The background fabric appears to be a wool with a fine thread of lighter blue woven in with the darker blue. The fabric with white on it I guess is cotton and the other fabrics from are man made fibers.

For the batting I used a quite thin, dark grey pellon.

Using large stitches in groups like this for the quilting is the technique I wanted to try. I used a DMC 80 crochet cotton thread and alternated white and 2 shades of blue. The stitching went together quickly and I just "made it up as I went"! I am happy with how it turned out.

The backing is a fabric I bought when I was in Japan a couple of years ago.
For the binding I used another technique I have never done before. I brought the backing around to the front and hand stitched it down. I think I still prefer the look of the method I usually use of a double thickness bias binding. However, for this small quilt, which measures a bit less than 50 cm (20 inches) square, I think it works OK.



I received some fabric in the mail today. One package with more Kaffe Fassett fabrics for Joseph's Coat and the other included a layer cake of Rural Jardin. I loved the Rouenneries fabrics so much I would like to make another quilt, but this time I will combine the 2 lines.
Considering we just had Easter holidays, I was amazed that both packages traveled from USA to Australia in only 6 or 7 days.





Happy sewing, everyone! :)