Easter at Byron Bay

Byron Bay is one of my favourite places. Easter is always way too busy, due to the Blues and Roots Festival as well as just the normal tourists. But if you stay away from the shops ( and that isn't too hard as there isn't a quilt store) there are lots of wonderful places. This shot shows the lighthouse from the main beach.


Byron Bay is the most easterly point of mainland Australia. I seem to remember that it was very busy at sunrise on the first day of the new Millenium. People just wanted to be the first to see the sun I guess. Still any sunrise there is beautiful. Here's Panda with the photo taken looking east and then a shot taken the other way towards the lighthouse. As I have often seen before, there was a group of dolphins playing in the waves below. That's a sight I love to see but although I took shots the zoom on my camera just isn't good enough.

We stayed in cabins on the outskirts and this is what I saw one evening.

It was a nice week - the festival was good although there was quite a bit of rain. It is a shame that it didn't travel just two to three hours north to my garden and Queensland which desperately needs it.

Oh, and I forgot, I did get to go to a craft show at the Gold Coast on the way back. I won't show my purchases - I just got some FQs, a small ruler and a Clover marking pen but it kept me happy. There will be another craft show in Brisbane at the beginning of May so more opportunity to be tempted.

One goal achieved...

This is a quilt I started some time ago and while the quilt isn't finished, my goal was to complete the blanket stitch applique. I actually did finish it! Now all I have to do is find the rest of the fabric to do the borders. (It is somewhere around here,I don't have to buy anything more)

This was a kit I bought from ebay about 18 months ago. It is a kpkids pattern (possibly a freebie handout) and I have to say it is a confusing pattern. The instructions have some mistakes ( in my opinion) and I think this may be why it was being sold off on ebay. The appliques are blanket stitched, which I do enjoy doing. I am looking forward to working on it because most of the hard work is done now. The pattern is for a square quilt, I am going to make a rectangle quilt - probably cot quilt size.

It is a nice feeling to complete a goal.

I thought that this was very cute - it's the card that Colly made for us at school. Now I am passing on good wishes to everyone. I haven't been sewing much, although in the last 24 hours I have cut out two quilts. I find it hard because I don't have my sewing machine set up so if I am going to get it out I need to be well prepared. By having two ready to go I can hopefully make some advances.
I am also messing about looking for a suitable hand project to do as I am going away for a few days. I have lots of things started but I want to do something that doesn't require a lot of thought, maybe some hand quilting or some redwork where I don't have to change the colours. Hopefully I will have something to show when I get back. I'm off to Byron Bay - which is the most easterly point in Australia and where the Blues and Roots Festival is being held. It has already been on for three days but there are still two days left. My husband and one son are already there. On Monday I'll get to see an old favourite of mine, Bonnie Raitt as well as lots of other acts. Then we are going to stay on for a few days.

And this is a totally silly photo showing an event which clocked up (literally) recently. We reached 100,000 kilometres in our Tarago.