Princess Cruises – 3and3quarters

With a rare weekend off from work, I’ve taken the opportunity by the reins and dedicated my hours getting reacquainted with my sewing machine! Before getting back into my Quilt-Along series, there’s one block that I’ve always wanted to make and this weekend was perfect to finally do it!

It’s the Swoon block designed by Camille Roskelley at Thimble Blossoms. This block came out just at a time when I began to get really serious into patchwork and quilting. It seemed like everyone at the time were buzzing all about and making all of these beautiful Swoon blocks! So naturally, I just had to get in on the action! With the pattern bought, downloaded and printed, that’s as far as I got. Five years later, I’ve finally made my first one!

And I love it!!

As I placed it up onto my design wall and stepped back, I exclaimed out loud, ‘Oh wow, it’s sooooo pretty!!!’ Because it is. It really, really is.

The fabrics I used to make my Swoon include two basic solid colours; white and ice blue. The vibrant orange floral print is from a range by Victoria Findlay Wolfe called Mostly Manor. This particular print is called, Elise. (All info taken from the fabric selvedge.) I absolutely love the floral motifs in this print. So much so, for the centre unit I fussy-cut my favourite floral spray and made it centre of attention!

Sometime throughout this new year, I would love to make another one. If you can’t already guess, the block is quite time-consuming to make, all depending on how fast a sewer you are of course! Due to the extreme heat we’ve been living through in Sydney these past few days (40C+ temperatures!), it took me two days to complete this block. I’m sure if given the opportunity to make this block on a less hotter day, I could definitely have one whipped up in a day.

While it’s been so lovely to have some time to myself to do some ‘me-time’ sewing, it’s also time to get back into my Quilt-Along series! I left you all at the end of last year to catch up to Block Seven. It was the beautiful and very simple Indian Star block.

Lots of you have been sharing your finished blocks with me on Instagram or Facebook and they’re all looking so great!!

This week I’ll be working on getting Block Eight filmed, edited and uploaded for you to sew together next weekend. The block that we’ll be making is called the Crystal Star block and is another simply designed block that you’ll be able to piece together in an afternoon.

Along with the rest of my Quilt-Along series, I’ve got some great videos and tutorials lined up for this year. I will be doing another Stop-Motion Embroidery video since the Christmas one I had promised was a total fail. (I always seem to misjudge how busy I actually am during the Christmas season!). I also want to try and do a few other crafty tutorials along with all of my other usual content; Monthly Favourites, a few hauls and even some daily/weekly vlogs (all depending on if I can find the confidence to do so!).

I also have a few little sewing room goals that I want to achieve this year. Before telling you what they are, can I tell you something really bad? Something that I’m kinda ashamed of and really makes me sad…

In the year 2016, I never finished one quilt. It’s been the first year since I started quilting eleven years ago that I didn’t produce a finished quilt. It feels a bit strange really. Last year was one of the busiest I’ve had in a long time and because of that I had to put to one side the thing I love to do the most just to keep my head above the water of life’s crushing responsibilities. Sigh..

HOWEVER!! All of that is changing this year! I will find the time and dedicate my all to my craft. My passion. My life. My love. My escape. My happy place!

Although I never actually finished a quilt last year, I did rediscover lots of quilt-tops that are ready to be basted, quilted and finished. So my sewing room goal for this year is to complete AT LEAST one of these many quilt-tops hiding inconveniently under my sewing table!

Colourplay Quilt - Top Only (2013) — My Colourplay Quilt-Top is top of the list!

As the year ticks away, I’ll try and keep you in the loop with how I’m travelling with these quilts. Every year I seem to make a promise to get all of my WIPs finished, but it never seems to happen. I wonder if this time next year I’ll be writing the same kind of words…

Before wrapping up today’s post, I wanted to share some happy snaps from my holiday! (I was going to make a vlog of my holiday for my YouTube channel, but I wasn’t all that happy with the little footage I actually captured!). I’ve just recently come back from a cruise on the Emerald Princess where we sailed from Sydney to Port Arthur and Hobart (Tasmania) and then Melbourne. It was just a short eight-night cruise but it was so lovely to get away from reality for a while and be a happy passenger on a pretty boat.

emeraldprincess-jan2017 — Emerald Princess tendered in Port Arthur, Tasmania

cruise3-jan2017 — Emerald Princess docked at Hobart / GIANT slice of pizza / A delicious Chocolate dessert / The Atrium

Although I love visiting and exploring other countries, there’s nothing better than discovering the beautiful nooks-and-crannies in your own country. Whether that be learning something new about our history, exploring hidden bays and coves or marvelling at the different skylines and architecture that each major city has, forming a rich culture and persona.

A few of these photos you may’ve already seen of Instagram, but I thought I’d share them here for you too.

stateroomselfie-jan2017 — FORMAL NIGHT: Stateroom Selfie in the mirror!

cruise2-jan2017 — Ready to explore Hobart!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Happy Sewing, Friends!!

If you’ve been scrolling through my Instagram feed, following my weekly uploads on YouTube or reading this here blog lately, then you might know that I’ve recently come back from a very long-awaited holiday/cruise to Fiji!

Over the past few weeks or so I’ve been promising to share with you some photos from my adventure and have spectacularly failed to follow through with that promise! So I’ve set today aside to organise, edit, collage, write and publish this post for you. (And yes, it really does take me a whole day to write, edit and perfect a blog post because I’m a hardcore perfectionist who pretty much needs everything to be perfect before hitting that Publish button!)

So I’m not going to bore the living-daylights out of you and document every single thing and every single port that we visited. Instead, I’m just showing you the highlights, the places that I loved the most and the cherished moments I spent with my parents sailing the South Pacific.

Lifou / Loyalty Islands

Lifou, a little island town within the Loyalty Islands was our first port of call. Both me and my parents have been here twice before but have never visited the little beach that is right near the island’s pier. For a few hours we drunk up the South Pacific sunshine, dug our toes into the cool white sand and observed the cultural uniqueness of it’s people. I didn’t swim at this beach but instead took the opportunity to film a few clips for my vlog.

Port Denarau / Fiji

Our first stop in Fiji was Port Denarau where our ship, the Sun Princess was anchored just out side of the bay. From the ship we were loaded onto a super-sleek catamaran and whisked off on a pre-organised tour to a private island called South Sea Island. As we approached the island we were welcomed with traditional song and numerous shouts of ‘Bula!’, which is Fijian for ‘Hello’!

There we did our best to avoid the horrid humidity by swimming in the crystal clear blue water, gently bobbing up and down while watching soft waves roll and crash onto the coral ridden sandy shore. We peacefully watched other people snorkelling, kayaking, swimming and doing their very best to conquer the challenge of the painful coral underfoot. (We didn’t think to bring along any reef shoes so we suffered painfully with them!)

The locals on the island then made us a big BBQ lunch and treated us to some awesome traditional songs and dances as we ate. (You can see more of this in the vlog at the end of this post!)

The time came for us to say our farewells and thankyous for their generous hospitality and entertainment. We all hopped back onto the catamaran where we were safely jetted back to our ship.

SavuSavu / Fiji

This was the only photo I took when we visited SavuSavu. The majority of the time I filmed for my vlog. But, apart from the thick humidity and looming storm clouds, I really liked this little town. The locals seemed friendly and welcoming and there were stalls upon stalls upon stalls of people selling souvenirs and locally handmade crafts. (I’m such a bad tourist, as I didn’t buy anything.)

Thankfully in the afternoon, we had a pre-organised tour to join where there was a very welcoming air-conditioned bus that took us on a short ‘sight-seeing’ tour of the town before taking us to visit a traditional Fijian village called Nukubalavu. As we pulled up outside we were greeted with a traditional welcoming song sung by the village elders, leaders and children. Our village guide showed us a few of their homes, chatted to us about their Catholic beliefs and then allowed us to tour their little Kindergarten that has been set up in their village for the children to learn how to read and write.

We then had the privilege to watch some of the villages do traditional dancing and singing, perform a sacred ‘Kava Ceremony’, weave baskets out of palm tree leaves and witness a man climb a very tall coconut tree!

Dravuni Island / Fiji

Dravuni Island was definitely the biggest highlight for me! It was the place that came the closest to what I had imagined a Fijian beach island to be like… Tall gentle swaying palm trees, cool crystal blue water, soft smooth sand and a laid back quiet atmosphere. Ahh, bliss!

We came ashore on a delightfully sunny Sunday afternoon (which possibly explains why the place seemed so quite and tranquil!) and had a look around the little Kindergarten and school that had been built for the local children before making our way back onto the beach opposite to where our ship was anchored. There we spent about an hour taking photos, relaxing under the palm trees and soaking up the experience of our last Fijian port.

Life Onboard

Here are just a few happy snaps I took while we were onboard. We don’t really go crazy when we cruise… We don’t drink or visit the casino nor do we stay up and attend all of the parties (bore, I know!). We’re the simpleton type who like to read (or embroider in my my case) all day, do the occasional deck swim and sunbake, eat and drink tea as many times as possible during the day, watch all the shows and entertainment in the evenings and generally enjoy our holiday away from reality!

Photos from left to right, top to bottom – 1&2: Posing for photos with Mum and then Dad, 3: Selfie on deck before sail away from Sydney, 4: Sun Princess Atrium, 5: Mum and I having a silly-smile selfie before dinner one night, 6: Mum and Dad ‘relaxing’ on deck while anchored in SavuSavu, 7: Mirror Selfie in our stateroom, 8: Towel Toad sporting Dad’s reading glasses, made by our cabin steward, 9: Father and Daughter selfie in Lifou.

Home / Sydney, Australia

Unfortunately, like all things, our holiday had to come to an end. I had mixed feelings about wanting to come home… I just felt like I wasn’t quite ready to let go of that brief period of time where you don’t have to worry or stress about the realities or responsibilities of life. Yet on the other hand, as we begun the slow heading into Sydney Heads I couldn’t wait to savour the moment of gently sailing past one of the most beautiful harbour cities in the world. Sydney, my home, quiet, still and delicate, only just beginning to wake to another busy day. Honestly, the whole thing makes me feel all a bit emotional… My city, quietly welcoming me home in the gentle cool hours of the morning, the breeze whispering, ‘welcome back’ and the familiar sounds of cars, trains, ferries and planes soothing my suburban soul. It’s a moment in time that I will never tire of.

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As I mentioned throughout, I filmed quite a lot of the things I experienced and only just recently uploaded the finished vlog to my YouTube channel. So here it is if you wish to see more of my adventure!

Also, here’s a list of the filming equipment I used to record my holiday if you’re interested…

– Canon EOS 600D DLSR
– Canon SX280 HS PowerShot
– iPhone 5
– Camalapse
– Hyperlapse app

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So that’s just the brief lowdown of my holiday/cruise to Fiji! I enjoyed every moment and will cherish this time I was able to spend with my parents for the rest of my life!

Tag: Princess Cruises

Swooning Around!