Happy Bastille Day!

Well, we've been home a good half a year now and I still really miss France. Guess it's going to take a while to get l'Hexigone out of my blood.

I found some photos I took at a French cooking class on a farm in Provence.

I took the class about 18 months ago, December 2011, with some English-speaking friends.

The photos must've been forgotten in the pre-Christmas rush.

The details of the day are beyond me, but I've enjoyed going through these pictures and remembering my 'other life' in France.

Happy Bastille Day, tout le monde!

School Holidays

Yes, I know you folks in the Northern Hemisphere are out of school, period. Here in the Southern Hemisphere we're in the throes of winter but at least we had two weeks' school holidays to break up the season.

We headed north (which equals warmer down here) for a week at the Sunshine Coast.

I must set you straight about winter in the state of Queensland, lest you are feeling sorry for us. Being a sub-tropical/tropical state, winter is rather delicious. Here in the vicinity of Brisbane we get an average of 20℃ (68℉) during the day and 12℃ (54℉) at night, and that's the cooler end of Queensland. It only gets better the further north you go.

Our week at Perigian Beach started a bit dreary but ended with sunshine and 22℃ (72℉). Sublime.

We also spent a rainy afternoon at the Yandina Ginger Factory with its tropical gardens and little train:

Scones with cream and ginger marmalade

Another damp day was spent at Underwater World:

Rows of sharks teeth within a Great White's jaw bone, waiting to be called to duty

Otters look so cute, but I reckon they could easily chew your hand off. Probably squeaking adorably as they did so. 

As the weather fined up we got in some beach time and a nice walk in the Maleny Rainforest.

There was also time to enjoy a bakery take-away lunch at the Noosa Botanic Gardens, where the kids had a ball:

There's no shortage of meandering paths to wander:

Or picturesque picnic points:

Alright, enough of the Sunshine Coast and on to the giveaway for the latest issue of Down Under Quilts.  The ole random number generator tells me that the magazine will be heading over to Austria:

making its new home with Needle Little Balance.

(I always hate leaving the first comment for a giveaway because it never comes up. Until now, hooray!)

Almost Friday - I hope you've all got something fun planned for the weekend. Might be a spot of gardening for us here. We had a new deck put on the front of the house (it's a highset house) and the garden underneath it was pretty much destroyed by the process. Time to remedy!

Grocery Bag Holder and a GIVEAWAY

Hello to all! Today we have a little show n' tell, a reminder, a question and finally, a giveaway.

Show 'n Tell

I've been getting into the low volume scraps again and used Jeni's tutorial at In Color Order to make a Grocery Bag Holder.

I made the larger size and that sucker can hold some bags, it's great.

Projects like these (which don't take a lot of wear and tear) are ideal opportunities to use up some batting scraps, so I pieced together a few offcuts.

Initially I was going to use a zigzag stitch to join the pieces (which I have done before), but went for using fusible interfacing instead. It was very quick and very easy. (I also find zigzag can give you a bit of a wavy finish, which isn't so great.)

I just squared up my batting offcuts after giving them a light press:

Then I butted the edges together and used some 3 inch wide strips of interfacing to join them together.

*Bonus - as well as using up batting offcuts, you can also use up interfacing offcuts.

I actually used two different types of cotton batting (because they fit the project better) but I wouldn't recommend this generally - I'd only piece the same types of batting offcuts together.

Once it was all ironed down I basted my quilt sandwich as normal, but I faced the fusible toward the quilt back so it wouldn't show through the lighter coloured patchwork.  Quilt as normal, no problemo.

Some pretty 3/4 inch twill tape to hang it up with

A Reminder

It's do or die time. Google Reader dies on 1 July, so all the doing is in your camp! Don't forget to continue your subscription either via email (see upper right) or through another feed aggregator such as Bloglovin' (see buttons right/below) or Feedly (put www.bonjourquilts.com in the add content box).

A Question

I'd like to try some Foundation Paper Piecing but don't know where to start. Do any of you have any good recommendations for learning this technique?

A Giveaway. Yay!

I've just turned in a project for the Australian quilting magazine Down Under Quilts. Thanks to them, I have a copy of the latest issue to give away. Open to everyone, everywhere, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post and I'll pull a name out of the hat at the end of the week.

And yes, if you leave me a Foundation Paper Piecing tip you will absolutely get a second entry.
If you let me know you've subscribed, you'll get a third (just leave each as a separate comment).
I reward helpfulness!

Hope you're all having a great week so far, if not - make it one!