Quilting Geocoins

These are geocoins with a quilting theme - a Geocaching thing, but I thought they might be of

some interest to quilters too.

They are enamel coins that have some writing on the back with the block, the GPS coords of the

barn with the block painted on it I believe. I'll try and add the photo of the back of a coin to the page here. I have bought a few of these coins for my budding geocoin collection, and they are very lovely.

The producers of these coins, Tank and Tracey from www.tntgeocoins.com are going through some hard times at the moment. Tank has had a stroke and Tracey is nursing him at home.

Another geocoin company www.socalgeocoins.com are selling a geocoin as a fundraiser for Tank

- as a nurse I can imagine the difficulties Tracey will be experiencing. I've just bought one of the

coins, and I hope they raise some money.




Otherwise, not much quilting news from me. The hexagon quilt is coming along, but I don't have it with me to take a photo. I'll be going back to Mum's for a few more days this week, so I've left it there.
Hopefully I'll be back to my "regular programming" soon, and I'll also be able to get back around my regular blog reads. I'm quite out of touch with what's happening all around the world. I had a quick look at Holly's blog, and I see that spring is springing over there in the States.

Travel Bug

This is where my "I've Got the Quilting Bug" travel bug is at the moment. It seems to be on an island in Canada. Does anyone know this place? It seems to be very close to Oregon as the crow flies, but I wonder how it gets to the mainland from here?

Poor Holly's bug made it to Hawaii, but then was taken back to the US!! It was getting closer to Australia, but you have to wonder how long it will take to get back out there in the rest of the world. Why would someone take it back to the US when it clearly says on its tag that it wants to go to Australia? Not the full packet of biscuits, that's for sure.

No sewing really - well that's not true. I have added some extra quilting to the couch quilt, and I've done some more work on the hexagons, but that's it. I should be making CWDQ blocks, but I'm not. I'm going to be out on Friday and Saturday, so it isn't looking good. Maybe on Sunday.

I've just washed 3 of the quilts today, as we have seen the sun for the first time in about a week. I also washed the sheets and clothes, but now the clouds are back and it's spitting again - I'll never get them dry now, and the house feels like it needs a hot breeze to blow through it to get rid of the damp feeling.

There has been a breakthrough in beagle relations this week though. Since Chloe came to live here, she and Simon have been friends, but not as much as they could be. They've been getting closer together, but this week I took this photo of the pair of them in the crate together.

I think Simon must have been in there, and then Chloe went in too. Perhaps once it gets colder there will be more snuggling.

I've been thinking about knitting lately too, and think that I might finish the socks I started so long ago! Hope I can remember what to do, and where I'm up to. I think I'm up to picking up stitches for the second heel - the least fun part IMO.

Couch Quilt

Here is the Couch Quilt 'nearly' finished. Birgit did have to sleep under it with the binding flapping, but she managed ok. I still have to finish it, but I will do that today hopefully - I was hoping for some cricket on the TV , but not today. I also need to do a little bit more quilting on it before it gets washed.

We have beagles in the quilt photo in honour of Uno the Beagle's win at the Westminster Dog Show. What a little character, arooooo-ing all the way!

It's an overcast day today, so the photo without the flash is a bit dark, but it shows the colours a little more naturally. This is it on my bed which is queen size, so you can see how big it is.

My mind is already casting forward to what to work on next. I probably should get back onto the Zig Zag quilt, which didn't get too far. Or the hexagons. Maybe both at once?

I had a busy weekend geocaching. I organised a geocaching Event, which is basically a gathering of geocachers. I put out some new caches on the Islands here, and provided a lunch venue (at a picnic ground/beach area) on Karragarra Island. Quite a few people came (maybe 30 odd), and it turned out to be a fun day. It's nice to meet other cachers who you read about online, but rarely meet. The photo is of only part of the group, as people came at different times, then left to find more caches. Birgit stayed here on Saturday night as she lives in Toowoomba (about 2 1/2 hours drive away).

I've been reading a few blogs, but not my usual number. There are some lovely quilts being made. I am always amazed how quickly some people sew - I need a deadline to make that sort of pace. Better get off the computer and go and do that handsewing.

The Pressure's On

OK the pressure's on. I have a friend staying the night on Saturday, so I thought I'll use it as motivation to finish the quilt so she can have it on her bed. As there is no quilt or blanket in the house that isn't covered in dog hair (I think there is a dog hair dispenser in the washing machine), I thought this would be the way to go. Thanks for the comments on my binding post. Normally I just slap the binding on too, but I do it in the knowledge that my borders have taken out any extra fullness from the sides of the actual quilt.

I did a bit of a measure, and yes the sides of my top are a bit longer than the centre measurement, but at this stage I can't worry too much, so I did as suggested and pulled the binding taught as I sewed it on. That will have to do.

For the back I used a large piece of brown quilt fabric that I've had for ages, bought very cheaply off ebay for just this purpose. It is Thimbleberries, which isn't really something I ever buy, but it is non-descript and I have heaps left over, so I used it for the binding as well. The photo is a bit dark as I didn't use the flash, but you may be able to see it where I turned it up at the bottom. All the threads were sewn in last night, so all I have to do now is hand sew the binding down. I cut my binding 2 1/2 inches too Lily - don't ask why - "I've always done it that way".

As for the Polydown, I found it easy to work with as it is so light. I've not used it before, and I believe it is very popular for handquilting. Normally I use cotton or wool batting, but I do use poly for kids quilts that I think will get washed to death, but I've always used a denser more needled poly bat. This stuff I used has a little bit of loft which is nice, and it is light. It should dry quickly too.

Anyway, onto other things. I found a geocache today that has the most fantastic container that I had to take a photo. It is an Australian geocache, which just means that it is listed on the Aussie site, not the American site. On our caches we have some different categories, one of them being movable caches.

This one is called Trail of Death, and it is a movable cache that has to be moved from cemetery to cemetery, and placed near an interesting/famous gravesite. You then give a bit of a blurb on your log entry, so it ends up as a bit of a history lesson.

I went to look for it today, and as you can imagine the container has a sort of theme to it, so I knew I'd be looking for something that didn't look out of place. I thought maybe a fake flower, but after looking and looking, I saw a piece of stone that looked like it had fallen off a headstone, and I turned it over and 'voila!' How cool is that? I just wish I had my camera when I found it, as it looked just like it had been there for years. So I picked up this big piece of stone and I have brought it home. The other cool thing is that the log book isn't paper, it is a flash drive that you add your log to. What a great idea.

When I hide it tomorrow I'll take a photo to show it in its natural environment. Don't some people have great ideas?

The travel bugs are moving too. Mine is getting closer to Holly, and hers is on its way to Hawaii. Not far now.

Best dash off and do a bit of last minute cleaning and hang out the washing. Then I'll watch some TV and sew down the binding. I suppose Birgit wouldn't mind sleeping under it with a bit of the binding flapping, do you think?

Travel Bug is Travelling!

I don't know if you all remember, but sometime ago Holly from AndSewItIs and I each launched a Quilting Travel Bug. They are travelling items that move from geocache to geocache. Mine is 'South' as I live in the southern hemisphere, and Holly's is North as she lives in Oregon.

Mine was sitting in the geocache near the Brisbane Airport hoping to be immediately picked up by an International traveller, and be in the States in a flash. Alas it was picked up by a cacher here on holidays, who took the bug to Canberra where it wandered around the bush and lay in fairly isolated caches for some time.

But this week it was grabbed by a female Canadian cacher who has flown it with her in her luggage to Canada! Too exciting! I know you must think I'm mad, but you launch it out there, and it turns into your little baby, then you worry about it all alone in a damp cache in the wilds of the Australian Bush, that could be ravaged by a bushfire or found by some kids who toss it away!

Anyway, don't mind us, but Holly and I are quite excited to know it has travelled half way around the world in the suitcase of someone we don't even know, and now it's so much closer to its goal. If you look here, you can see how far it has travelled, and that it is now in British Columbia.

As for real quilting content, I've been busy watching the cricket. What's that got to do with quilting you may ask? Hand sewing. Yes the never ending hexagons have made a comeback, and I'm slowly working away at them. I will post an old photo to remind you (I almost needed to look at a photo myself, it was so long since I'd worked on it).

Oh and we lost the cricket to India. If the Aussies had won today they would have won 17 test matches in a row, which is a record. Tracey and I don't want to talk about it. In fact, I think Tracey must be in denial, as she hasn't even mentioned it.

PS thanks for the support re the large spider. The vaccuum cleaner idea is fantastic, thanks. I know someone who thinks that her house is on top of a Portal to the Underworld she gets so many spiders - she has my complete sympathy. Oh and the towel is still outside on the deck!

Fabric

I couldn't manage to stop myself buying a little bit of fabric for the latest quilt. I went to a fabric shop nearby called the Bargain Box, which has dress materials and quilting fabric. The lady who owns it quilts, and sells all her quilting fabrics half price at A$12 per metre. Still expensive by US standards, but there's nothing like some instant gratification!

She has quite a few reproductions, but not the latest fabrics, and only assorted fabrics of different ranges. She is having a 20% off sale between Christmas and New Year, so I may have to go and have another look...

Tonight I am going to some friend's for dinner, so I have to go to the Mainland today. I thought I might take the opportunity to do some geocaching, as I have found 92, and although a lot of people say "it's not about the numbers" (as they scurry around clocking up their 1000 mark), I feel suddenly that 100 finds is just over the horizon. So if I can find 8 today I'll be there, but that may be too many for me to find in 1 afternoon. Still I'll go and look for some and see how I go.

Otherwise, Christmas looms, and I don't have to worry about it as all gifts are bought, I have bought the food I need to take on Christmas Day to my Sister's, so that's that. Too easy! The weather forecast for Tuesday is 30 deg C (86 F) with afternoon showers, so hopefully it won't be too hot and humid. We will be having lunch outside in the BBQ area, while the kids jump on their new trampoline, I'm told.

Travel Bug Tracking

Just a quick post as a few people have asked about watching our "I've Got the Quilting Bug" Travel Bugs.

I have not released mine yet, but I will this week, and Holly's has been picked up by someone but not yet put back in a geocache. The waiting is going to be torture!

If you would like to check in on them occasionally, go to this page http://www.geocaching.com/track . It is the Trackables page and is appropriately headed "Live vicariously through inanimate objects".

All you need to do is type in- I've Got the Quilting Bug -in the 'search by name' field, and they will both come up together. So far they have both travelled 0 km.

Maybe I'm Back...

I might just have the quilting mojo back. This is the little top I have done for Chloe's bed - I'll just bind it in red. I had to wonder to myself if I washed the red fabric, but I think I did. It had the look of a piece of fabric that had been washed then ironed, so here's hoping.

I even did a bit of blog surfing just before, and saw some lovely Repro fabrics that I instantly desired. My mouse went to Start-Favourites-fabric stores and hovered over Z & S, then I thought NO! The budget is tight and I don't need any more fabric (well not at the moment). How strong was that? I'm just not even going to look.

Tomorrow I'm going out on the Bay. Mum and Dad have a boat and they are swinging by the jetty at 10am to pick me up for a day out. I have even been thinking that I should take some hand work to do, but my big hexagon quilt is too big for that now. I did start some small 1930s hexagons ages ago, so I might try and find them tonight. I must be getting better...

I've taken my Q4P badge off too. I can't really keep up with the ring requirements at the moment, and now I find that it is folding all together. It seems someone is going to start the ring all over again using the same name, but I actually feel fairly good about making the decision to drop off. I know this is a quilting blog, but I would like to be able to post more often about some other things, so it's all for the best 'for me'.

Still Slack

I still haven't touched the sewing machine. I don't know what's wrong with me. The Quilt Show is on this week and I'm not even going. It's raining on and off today, so maybe that might motivate me - rainy weather is quilting weather to me. Shame it doesn't rain that often! I might try and make some string blocks later.

I thought I'd make Chloe a little quilt from scraps for her bed, as the cushion she has is really a winter thing. I probably just need to start on something, anything, to get back into the groove.

It was interesting to read the responses to my geocache post - Tami have you found one yet? I'm still looking for them when I can. Here is the keyring that will be attached to my 'Got the Quilting Bug' Travel Bug to send in Holly's general direction. I am still waiting for the actual travel bug to arrive - something else I ordered is on Back Order, so the whole order has been delayed. It will be fun to see how far they go. I'm tempted to release mine at the Airport so it gets going to the US straight away, but then it would be nice for it to travel a bit in Australia. I think it would be more fun watching it go to places in the US though. A local cacher here has just started a similar swap with a cacher in Portugal (I think), but their travel bugs have to go to a particular cache in Greenland (!!) join up, travel together to Portugal, then back to Australia. Sounds a bit ambitious to me, but you never know.

Otherwise there isn't much happening around here. Life goes on regardless, doesn't it?

If You Hide It, They will Come

I have fallen for the Geocaching Addiction, thanks to Holly from And Sew It Is. I was asked in the comments from my last post what it is, so I will give you the short version, as it isn't really quilting related. Well there is a little bit later on.

Geocaching started in 2000 I think, when the US Govt made it possible for civilians to get an accurate GPS signal and fix. Before that only the military could get an accurate fix. After this happened a guy in the US thought "if I hide something in the woods and post the GPS co-ords on my website, will anyone use their GPSr to look for it?" Someone did, and the whole thing started from there. Now there are Geocaches hidden all over the world, and a bit of a subculture of people who go looking for them, just for the thrill of the find. Once you have a handheld GPSr and a way to log onto the internet, the rest is free. The original cache was buried near where Holly lives, and she has been there.

Geocachers hide a geocache, give the GPS co-ordinates, rate the difficulty of the terrain and "the hide", log it on the internet, and other geocachers go and look for it. Sometimes they are at a beautiful scenic spot at the end of a long bushwalk, other times in a suburban park or even in the centre of the City. The other issue is that it's important that the general population (or 'muggles' as per Harry Potter) don't see you extract the cache from its hiding spot, nor see you put it back. This can be the hardest part, sometimes requiring 3 or more visits to the hiding place to grab it without detection.

The cache can be the size of a thumbnail, magnetically attached to something (see Holly's blog and the bridge), a 500ml plastic food container, an ammo box up to a 20 litre drum hidden in the bush. Depending on the size there are different things inside - if tiny there is just a log book to sign your name - up to toys for the kids to swap, or even dressup clothes and a disposable camera to take your photo all dressed up! Some are intentionally easy to find, others practically impossible.

When you've found it (or not found it) you log it on the internet, describing how it went. Some logs are really funny, others give little clues, others record a find only.

The other part of it is that there are Geocoins and Travel Bugs that travel from cache to cache, moved by people then logged on the internet. This way the owner, and anyone else interested, can follow its progress by its trackable code. The red Chinese Flag coin I found in a cache has as its goal to continuously travel between the US and China. I knew of a cacher going to China so I put it in the cache at the airport and she picked it up and it's now in China. The Berlin Bear Travel Bug (above) started his journey in Berlin in 2002 and his goal was to reach a town in the South island of New Zealand where the owner's brother lives. I passed it to a visiting Kiwi cacher, and he took it to NZ, where he has nearly reached his destination. I also moved this lovely coin - there are some really beautiful ones.

Now to the Quilting Content of this post. Holly and I have decided to each send a Travel Bug off, hopefully to reach each other. She lives in Oregon, USA and I live in Queensland, Australia. We are going to attach a quilty keyring to our travel bugs and call them "Got the Quilting Bug" North and South Hemisphere, to tell between them, and let them loose. We can follow their progress on the internet.

As my 8 yo nephew and I were scrabbling in the bushes the other day looking for a geocache, my Father who was waiting nearby told us he thought we were mad. But my answer to him was that it's a bit of harmless fun, that gets you off the computer (good for kids these days) and into the outside world. It's amazing how far you'll walk if you think that cache is just around the next bend! Lots of families do it together, and there is friendly rivalry between people to be the first to find a newly hidden cache, sometimes running into each other in the bushes at 2am!

So that's Geocaching. What intrigued me was that I found out there were 2 geocaches on the 2 x 1 km island where I live. The thought of these people coming here especially to find them, doing so secretly possibly right under my nose, just about killed me. I had to know. If you want - or "need" - to know, go to www.geocaching.com and have a look. There is a feature where you can download a little thing that puts all the geocaches in the world onto Google Earth, so wherever you look you can see where they are. To do this you have to log in, it's free, but I suspect if you go that far you will probably end up hooked anyway...

Bored With Me

I'm feeling a bit bored with me - not bored - just bored with me. It's very hard to write on your blog when you don't want to do the things you normally do (quilt), not to mention when you don't want to talk, think or write about yourself. I did try to blog a few nights ago, but blogger was so uncooperative that I gave up in disgust.

I don't feel like cooking, and have been living on strawberries and raisin toast, with the odd banana, glass of milk or olive thrown in. I truly love olives.

I've even gone off the garden a bit, as I took some photos the other day, and was disappointed when I was reminded that the camera doesn't lie. I see the vision, the camera doesn't. I'm trying to keep at the vege garden though, as the price of veges here is so scandalous that I really must try to grow some.

I will show this before and after shot though of the front garden to show that things are growing. This is 10 months growth. I had to move the waterpot and put a plant there instead, as the cane toads were jumping in, and I couldn't take the stress of having to get them out. Too low to the ground.

The other problem is that the wretched Holly (grin) from And Sew It Is has got me hooked on Geocaching. I promise not to turn this into a geocaching blog - Holly is doing really well with hers, mainly because she is actually quilting as well, unlike me!

I'm quite enjoying it - who'd have thought I'd enjoy sneaking around in the bushes so much? In fact what I really enjoy, is sneaking around in urban areas - I think I missed my calling. I should've been a burglar. I've met a few local people that are also into it, and find that everywhere I go I have some caches planned 'just in case I get time'. I think that's a bad sign.

I took Chloe to dog training class tonight, and managed to squeeze a find in on the way, but on the way home there was a big storm hitting, and Chloe and I were so traumatised that I resisted... She was fitted with a head collar tonight - like a Halti or Gentle Leader for those who know dogs, but with a little spring adjustment so that it fits better. Nevertheless, dogs usually hate them when they first wear them, and Miss Chloe was no exception. She tried to get it off, rubbed it on the ground, refused to walk etc - rather distressing, but I know that they usually get used to them, and even by the time we got home she was a little better.

Still, I worry that she has only been here a few weeks and is just starting to settle in, now I torture her with this.

But if she will wear it, walks will be more enjoyable, which means we will go more often. We'll see how it goes, as there is an alternative harness type thing, and if need be we will swap to that.

She is so pretty, and is a perfect dog considering that she has been pushed from pillar to post.