Melbourne

Last weekend I was in Melbourne, where my youngest son and his partner competed at the Australian Dancesport Championship. They did very well and came home with two trophies and lots of medals. A great end of their first year of dancing together!



On my way to parkrun in Albert Park on Saturday morning I spotted some brilliant street art in Yarra Place (more pics on the photo blog):



At the park the view over the lake with the city in the background was beautiful:



I brought the Happy Whirl project with me to Melbourne and even managed to crochet a few rows. The purple is starting to appear now:



Back at home I've also been working on the Sea Breeze Cover Up:



School holidays have started here in Queensland, and on Wednesday we are flying to New Zealand for a holiday on the North Island. Very exciting! There will be one more post on the blog before the end of the year, so stay tuned...

Melbourne

Last week youngest son and I travelled to Melbourne to watch his eldest brother compete in the Australian Gymnastics Championships. Unfortunately Hugo injured his knee on the fourth apparatus during the first competition and was pulled out. His team won gold on the day and thankfully he could join them on the podium, crutches and all!



He had an MRI the next day which showed that his ACL was torn. Bad news, as this means he will need surgical reconstruction followed by 9-12 months of recovery. He's taken it in his stride however, and has signed up for a judging course, so he can still go with his clubmates to the State Club Championships at the end of June, and judge instead of compete. He also hopes to do some coaching this year. The brilliant photo below was taken by one of the photographers of WinkiPop Media minutes before his injury, high-fiving his coach after a succesfull rings routine:



Hugo's injury understandably put a damper on our stay in Melbourne, but Robert and I did get to do some sightseeing and met our Dutch friends for dinner, which was lovely. It was Robert's first time in Melbourne and he loved seeing the autum colours - something we don't have here in Queensland! (more Melbourne pics on my photo blog here)



I took him to Hosier Lane to see the street art, but he wasn't very impressed - he called it Stinky Street!



We did like this painting (more street art photos on the photo blog here):



Here is another kind of street art - an art deco mosaic constructed in 1933 by Napier Waller on the facade of Newspaper House in Collins Street (more art deco photos on the photo blog here, and some art nouveau photos here):



We really liked the cubes in Flinders Street:



There was even a crocheted one!



I had brought a ball of yarn and a hook but didn't do any crocheting. We did visit my favourite shop in Melbourne, Morris and Sons:



I bought some yarn as a souvenir ;-)



Love the warning on the label!!



All in all we did have a good time, but were happy to go home on Sunday (Hugo flew home on the same day with the Queensland team). Robert hopes to go back to Melbourne in December for the ballroom dancing championships!

Melbourne

Last week I was in Melbourne for the National Gymnastics Championships - my eldest son Hugo competed in Level 8 Under 14. Hugo did well and his team won gold, so he was very happy.



I stayed in South Yarra and spent quite a bit of time photographing the beautiful art deco buildings in this suburb:





More photos of these buildings on my photo blog.



I wouldn't normally go to McDonald's without the kids, but I took the bus to Clifton Hill to have lunch here. Isn't this building fabulous!



Afterwards when waiting to cross the road these two beauties passed by!



Of course I had to quickly check out the street art in AC/DC Lane and Hosier Lane:



More street art pics here on the photo blog.



I also found a yarn shop: Morris & Sons in Collins Street.



I bought some self-striping sock yarn and a beautiful screen-printed project bag:



I spent a lovely day with a Dutch friend and her little boy in St Kilda - more art deco, and, of course, the Luna Park:





This was my sixth visit to Melbourne - how come I never noticed the building with the café wall illusion before?



A few years ago, when I made my optical illusion quilts, I planned to make a café wall quilt. It didn't happen and now it probably never will... I would like to make an art deco quilt though!

Winter holidays

We had a lovely mini-holiday in Caloundra (some photos can be found on my photo blog). The boys did well in their gymnastics competitions and we enjoyed visiting the beach and the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. The majestic view over the Glass House Mountains is from the Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve near Maleny. The kookaburra in the photo above was also enjoying that view ;-)



Once we got back home I dug up my knitting needles and yarn, and taught my boys to knit. This brought back happy memories of my beloved grandmother who taught me many years ago. My two eldest boys got the hang of it quite quickly:



But after the initial novelty wore off they weren't that interested anymore... I found that I did want to knit something though, and a visit to Spotlight resulted in a thick pair of bamboo needles and some gorgeous chunky yarn in sea colours:



A perfect project for the cold nights, while watching Wimbledon! It's going to be a scarf - just simple stockinette knitting, nothing that needs too much attention. I have been drooling over some cute ceramic yarn bowls on Etsy (or how about this hand turned walnut and maple one!) but until I win the lottery one of my t-shirt yarn bowls with a large safety pin works quite well too.



I couldn't resist this rainbow yarn either - I'm planning to use it for a shawl. I did buy some fabric too:



Not sure yet what I will do with this Melbourne fabric (and the matching green) but I'm sure I will think of something!

Melbourne!

Melbourne was fabulous, as always! Hugo struggled on his first day of competition but did very well on the second, with the fifth highest score on pommel of the day. He was very happy, as was his coach.



I had originally booked a room in Richmond, but the host cancelled a few days before my arrival because of plumbing problems. Luckily I found another room, in East Melbourne - even closer to the HiSense Arena! The room was clean, large, with a good bed, a beautiful handmade rug and a very friendly cat, Emmett. What more can you ask for?



Walking through East Melbourne I spotted some lovely details, such as this gorgeous art deco window:



And these beautiful wrought iron balcony railings:



On Tuesday, my gymnastics-free day, I took the train to Brighton to photograph the famous bathing boxes (more photos on my photo blog here):



And then travelled back to the City to photograph the street art. Loved this mural - very appealing to a quilter! (more photos here on the photo blog)



Last year when I blogged about my Melbourne trip, Meg left a comment and suggested I visit L'uccello on Swanston Street. So I did!



It is the most delightful fabric shop - thanks for the tip, Meg! I was very restrained and only bought one fat quarter :-).



On Thursday I took Hugo out for a couple of hours. Sadly it was a cold and rainy day, so we didn't go to St Kilda, but stayed in the City and visited ACMI (the Australian Centre for the Moving Image) instead, which we both loved.
I flew back to Brisbane on Thursday night and Hugo came back with the team on Friday afternoon. This vintage Dick Bruna card from the 1970s was waiting for him - I discovered it a while ago in a Dutch Etsy shop and of course I had to snap it up!



And now life is back to normal. I have a few ideas for (art) quilts inspired by this trip, so stay tuned!

Off to Melbourne!

Tomorrow morning I fly to Melbourne, to watch Hugo compete at the Australian Gymnastics Championships at the HiSense Arena at 5.30pm. His second competition is on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday I'll take a day off from the gymnastics to wander around in the City and make lots of photos. I love Melbourne! On Thursday I'll take Hugo out for a few hours before I fly back to Brisbane (he flies back on Friday, with the team). Last year there was no time to do that, but two years ago we went to St Kilda, where I took this photo of him in front of the famous Luna Park.



Hugo injured his elbow during a rings routine 10 days ago and it has been a stressful time, with visits to the fysiotherapist, an MRI, and adjusted training sessions to let it heal. He only started full training again two days ago, but thankfully it seems to heal well, so we are hopeful that he will be able to compete on all apparatus in Melbourne. These photos were taken by photographers of Actionfoto at the Queensland State Championships in April.



I haven't done much quilting in the last two weeks, but when I was helping Hugo with his homework the other day I was pleased to see a quilt in his maths book!



I have designed a row for The Road Home Row Along, organised by Marian from Seams To Be Sew. I can't show it here yet, but stay tuned for the reveal in September. Of course the place featured in my row will be Holland! (the province of South-Holland, to be more exact, where we lived before we moved to Australia)



And last but not least, I am thrilled and honoured to be asked to be a judge at the Auckland Festival of Quilts in November. So looking forward to my third visit to New Zealand!