Murray to Mountains Rail Trail

With my foot injury finally starting to feel better, and Paul taking a week off work, we decided to tackle parts of the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail.  This trail is 116km long and runs from Wangaratta to Bright with an offshoot to Beechworth.  Rail Trails by their very nature are mostly flat, or with gradual gradients, so therefore perfect for me to test out my foot rather than tackle a more difficult hike. 

Our Rail Trail trip was cut short with Victoria going into another circuit breaker lockdown, but at least we got two good days of walking in. 

The first was from our accomodation in Wangaratta to the former station of Londrigan.  This was 25.5kms return.  Much of the walk was at the back of housing or along a road, so not as picturesque as I would have preferred.  However there were some very pretty areas along the trail.

There were some gorgeous trees.  This one caught my eye because of both the colours in the trunk and the strange lower branch on the right.

This magnificent tree was near a creek and you can see in the background a couple of horseback riders also out on the trail.

This was where we stopped for lunch.  

And this was the view of the creek from the bridge next to where we stopped for lunch.

The map of the trail - the red is the part of the trail we walked.

The second walk was further along on the Rail Trail starting just before where the former station of Bowman was located to where the former station of Gapsted was located.  This was 16kms return.

Unfortunately the weather was a bit wet, but we didn't let us stop us.  This hike was largely through farmland.  

But it also had some interesting sights, like a car graveyard.

Some old car bodies dumped in a ravine.

And some interesting bike art which was in the middle of nowhere.  

This is the map showing in red the part of the trail we walked.

Afterwards we stopped at a bakery on the way back to our accomodation and I had the second best bee-sting cake that I have ever had.

Steam Punk

This is Jen Kingwell's Design Steam Punk.  Many of the fabrics in this quilt were purchased when I was in Canada in January 2018, so they bring back some happy memories.

I changed the pattern a little by not including the blocks in the setting triangles and piecing the sashing.  

When the quilt was finished as per the pattern it didn't look complete to me so I decided to add the border of applique circles which I think frames it nicely.

The back was pieced with the blocks I decided not to use in the setting triangles.

Staying Local

There haven't been any hiking posts for a while as I haven't been hiking.  At the start of May I hurt my foot, so until recently I haven't even been walking which has been very frustrating.  I think it is finally on the mend, but I need to be careful I don't overdo it (easier said than done). 

Melbourne also went into a two week lockdown (that ended yesterday) due to a Covid outbreak.  We are still only allowed to travel within 25kms of our home under current restrictions so we can't go bush even if my foot was ok.

My husband took this photo of the Maribyrnong River a couple of days ago.  Look closely - after taking it he turned the photo upside down.  The reflection was nearly perfect.

This is a photo of Aberfeldie Park.  At the start of last year that dirt in the foreground was just a big pile of dirt.  But over the last year it has been carefully sculpted into bike ramps.  During lockdown last year groups of mostly I would guess nine to thirteen year old kids, mostly boys, but a few girls, would congregate here and slowly the mound of dirt was shaped.  Kids that I assume would normally be doing other activities on the weekend found an outlet here.  

If you look carefully you can see an old wheelbarrow and shovel that I have circled, and you can see the path their bikes take down the hill to the ramps.  I wonder if the council would have allowed this to happen in a normal year.... I think probably not.

Thistles

This gorgeous quilt is made by Donna.  The pattern is called Thistles by Fig Tree & Co.  It was quilted with an allover freehand cloud design.

I especially like the flying geese sashing and how the four smaller star blocks make up one larger block.

Version Three - Black (Fireworks)

I pieced this top in 2015, and quilted it late 2017.  It won the Excellence in Machine Quilting Award at Vic Showcase 2018.

The quilting is random, and I wanted it to look like fireworks exploding between the stars.

I quilted the border with random triangles coming in from the edge, shading from the light blue in the middle of each side to the dark blue at the corners.

Most of the stitching for the straight lines and the circles I have gone over twice to make it really stand out on the black background.

To work out the placement of the quilting, I marked the quilt with chalk.

I then put a letter for each colour in the shape to plan out the colour placement.

I chose a plain black back to show up the quilting.

Black and White Log Cabin

Another quilt by Karen this month.  You can see her Harlequin Stars quilt here.

Karen decided to be adventurous and chose a black thread which showed the quilting on the white areas.  I quilted it with a freehand leaf design.

Modern Stellar

This is a quilt I pieced in 2018, and quilted in 2019.  The design is called Stellar, and is by my friends Kathy and Lori at Highway 10 Designs.  You can get the pattern here.  

I fell in love with this design and wanted to make it in plain bold colours.  Whilst it may look complicated, it was very easy to make.

I quilted it with a geometrical design with lots of straight lines.

The back I pieced with some left over fabrics and a couple of extra pieced triangles that I had made by mistake.