Inverell to Brisbane and the Quilt Exhibition

We left the motel in Inverell nice and early on Wednesday morning and went to Beaurepaires to get a slow leak in one of the car's tyres fixed. They were extremely helpful and mended the tyre without delay. One worry gone, then after a nice stroll up and down the main street, we visited the Inverell Family History Society where the volunteers were extremely helpful and looked for all sorts of interesting titbits on my mother-in-law's family, she was born in Inverell.

Inverell Courthouse

 

Armed with a folder full of newspaper clippings and a map of the cemetery, we drove to the Inverell General Cemetery to look for my mother-in-law's grandparents graves. Unfortunately there were no headstones, but we did manage to locate her 2 brothers grave, both were killed in World War 2. On the way back into town we drove past the place were mother was born and used to live, it was a garden centre in the 1920's but that has long gone.

Then we drove onto Glen Innes where we had a lovely late lunch in a noodle shop. Across the road was a great fabric shop so I picked up a few threads for the 2013 Canberra Quilters ROWmakers blocks I am working on and a fat quarter of pink/apricot fabric for Love Entwined.

We headed on and arrived in Stanthorpe where we stayed for the evening. Whilst walking up the street heading for dinner, we spoke to lady who was locking up the patchwork shop, we are going back in the morning.

I spent a lovely time checking out the fabrics in the patchwork shop on Thursday morning and couldn't resist a jelly roll of 50 strips of blue/turquoise fabrics and 2m of a red/orange batik for Love Entwined.

The Jelly Roll and 2m piece from Stanthorpe and the fat quarter from Glen Innes

 

We then drove through the Granite Belt, lovely scenery, into Brisbane. Greg's first port-of-call was "Age of Aquariums" - he has been buying stuff on-line from them and wanted to see the place firsthand. We ended up spending nearly 2 hours there, and Greg picked up quite a few bits and pieces he needs for his aquariums and pond.

We checked into a motel in Eight Mile Plains, with a Chinese restaurant attached where we had a really lovely meal.

 

Friday morning arrived and we travelled into Brisbane by bus, no worry that way about parking. We arrived about 9am and the quilt exhibition didn't open until 10am, so Greg suggested we go for a stroll over the river into the city centre. So off we went. The walk took us all the way up Ann Street to St John's Cathedral. It is a glorious building, the stonework is really lovely, as are the stained glass windows.

St John's Anglican Cathedral

We walked past Anzac Park, I love the boab trees and the monuments and statues were amazing.

 

Boab Tree in Anzac Park

Anzac Memorial

Many of the buildings in the city centre are made of the same stone used in the Cathedral, it's a local stone.

 

After lunch we headed back to the Queensland Art Gallery and the Quilt Exhibition. I spent a couple of hours looking at the quilts. They were amazing. Some had such tiny pieces of applique, others were very simple but none-the-less beautiful.

 

Afterwards we had a lovely walk along Southbank, went for a ride on the Wheel of Brisbane (ferris wheel) and browsed the Southbank market before heading back to the motel.

Wheel of Brisbane

 

Nepalese Temple at Southbank

 

Meantime, amidst the travelling and sightseeing, I have managed to do a bit of sewing. I have completed the two blocks for the Canberra Quilters 2013 ROWmakers challenge. Blocks 3 and 4 are now ready to be made into courthouse steps. I am making a tablerunner with the theme flowers. Blocks 1 and 2 are at home, 3 and 4 with me now complete, and 5 and 6 waiting to be started. I have also worked on my baby hexagons and last night I pulled out one of the rows for the 2012 ROWmakers challenge that needed a bit of applique and embroidery to complete.

Block 3

Block 4

 Saturday we spent driving around the suburbs. Greg wanted to visit a couple of aquarium shops, both we visited had such lovely ranges of things. We bought some hollow logs at one shop for our tanks. he also took me to 4 patchwork shops where I picked up more batik fabric for Love Entwined.