A postscript to finishing the quilt – when I put it on the bed in the camper I didn’t like it. It was too short and I regretted reducing the border. Ah well. I left it for a couple of days and made the bunting which gave me an idea for the quilt…
My first thought for bunting was to use some of the same material I used in the quilt but, as I already had fabric for the curtains, I was worried that I would be using too much colour and it would all clash. I had a box of lace and thought I would like to use that. But then decided on using doilies instead. I have a bundle of doilies I bought in the UK or in op shops here. Before I started, I looked on YouTube to see if anyone had made something similar to what I had in mind and found this – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slTlhkiuOLw&t=1464s.
From my bundle of doilies, I organised them into colours first – some were white and others were cream – then into size. I decided to use the cream and picked out the few I wanted on the bunting. I then cut the bigger ones in half. and placed them along the binding moving them around until I was happy with the look. I then pressed the binding, pinned the doilies on and stitched.
I had some lace in my stash that was the same cream colour as the doilies, so I used that to add length to my quilt.
I was feeling motivated, so I started on the block out curtains using the old grey ones as templates but adding a bit of length. The van’s previous owner used to put the curtains up at night and take them down in the morning whereas I want to leave the curtains up and just slide and tie them back in the day so I could see out the rear window when driving. So I bought enough material to make tie-backs.
The old grey curtain and the new fabric
I do think the camper is looking brighter. I feel it is more homely especially now that I have put my photos up too. I found a mat and storage boxes in K-mart which were $9 each and I am looking around for some small baskets to use for storage.
The last thing I want to do is cover the insulation on the ceiling. I don’t want to spend a lot of money so I am thinking some kind of fabric or even a net curtain. I am going to check out the local op shop and see if I can find anything suitable. Please let me know if you have any good ideas!
I have a lot of scraps of material in my sewing room, and I wanted to make a quilt for “Scout” using them. I spent a morning pulling them out and trying to put them into some kind of order. As it turned out, I had a few four inch square blocks left over from other projects so that was a start. I looked at lots of patterns but, in the end, decided that four inch blocks for the whole quilt was the way to go. I was determined not to plan the colours, I would just cut lots of blocks in whatever material I had, but sort them into darks and lights. Actually that was my first problem; some were a mix of dark and light and some were medium. But I wasn’t concerning myself with that. This is not going to be a family heirloom, it is going to be a quilt to take camping!
Four inch squares cut from material I had on hand
I was excited to start creating the quilt even though I had no idea how it would turn out. I wasn’t terribly concerned; I just wanted it to be bright and cheery. I thought of making up four patch blocks but I found it just as good to randomly sew the blocks together in rows then sew the rows together.
Putting the blocks and rows together was fairly quick but I admit I wasn’t being a perfectionist. But I had to break the rule I set myself which was to only use material I already had at home. I couldn’t find anything nice to use as a border so I had to force myself to buy some extra material.
None of the materials I had at home were suitable for the border
Living in Kalbarri, we don’t have much of a choice in fabric shops, so I drove to Spotlight in Geraldton to find something suitable. I chose some nice green material to make two borders and while I was there, I picked up some pale green block out fabric with a daisy pattern that I thought might be nice for curtains.
I found some green materials that I thought would look nice
I couldn’t wait to get home and get started!
I was really pleased with the result. I liked the two borders and I felt that I had definitely made myself a bright and cheery quilt top!
The next thing to do was to find something from my material stash to use for the backing. My first idea was to create a backing made of large blocks but I found some fabric that was almost big enough. And it was bright too! As I mentioned, it was almost big enough but not quite. My choice was to add some other material to make it the same size as the quilt top or reduce the size of the outer border. I really like the broad border but I decided to just make it smaller. It was only for the camper.
When I went to my bag of wadding, I realised I only had literally scraps. I picked out the biggest bits and tacked them together. I wasn’t going to drive another two hours to Geraldton for wadding. So the padding is made of several bits of wadding so it is slightly lumpy and uneven but I kind of like that for this project.
I had some fabric set aside for the binding of the quilt but by the time I had finished, I had decided I didn’t want to use it. After trying a few, I decided to make the binding the same as the outer border. I thought it would work better since I had had to make the border smaller.
All done!
My quilt is finished and I am pleased with it, even though it is quite roughly made.
At Barn Hill Beach Camp, I got chatting to a lady who parked next to us. She and her dog were camping in a regular car with the back seats down to form their bed. She had used some wet suit material to attach storage to the inside wall of the car, and her roof rack was full. She had been sitting on a camp chair at the back of the car with a folding table and dog bed next to her. When we got talking, I told her I liked her set-up. She told me she had just turned 70 and had decided to head off with her dog and spend her birthday year travelling. Her children are scattered around the country, and they had each decided on a place they had always wanted to visit and would meet her in those various places. I loved that idea! As I turn 70 in eight months, I decided I might do a similar thing. Forget parties and dinners, this is the way to go.
Now that we have the camper van, I will do lots of trips next year, visiting family and friends, or going to places I haven’t been. Hopefully John might join me on some. Maybe friends will come along with their swag or tent. Meantime, I want to make the camper a bit more homely. Inside it has the double bed, a fridge and a slide-out camping cooker. There are some storage areas under the bed and under the fridge. It is quite dark inside as the walls are carpeted in brown and the curtains are of grey block out material.
The first thing I did was give the camper a name. I wanted to give it some kind of literary name and came up with a shortlist of three – Holly Golightly, Gulliver Travels and Scout (the character from To Kill a Mockingbird). I decided on the latter as I plan to scout around the country. I ordered a “Scout” sticker online from Etsy for the back door of the van.
I also want to make a patchwork quilt in vivid colours to brighten up the cabin. We bought the van with bedding included but I want to put my own stamp on it. I’d also like to replace the curtains and perhaps make some bunting to hang. Other than that, a few colourful baskets to hold food and kitchen needs, and maybe something to cover the ceiling might work. Let’s see. I’m looking forward to getting creative.
Exmouth to Kalbarri is an eight-hour drive so the logical thing to do was drive it over two days. We shared the driving on day one and headed to Carnarvon . I didn’t really want to camp in town, so we pulled into a BP truck stop on the outskirts. It was a bit of a come down from some of our previous camps, but they allowed us to camp alongside the trucks and it was a 24 hour service station with clean toilets, hot food, hot coffee and pleasant staff. What else did we need?
Camping at the BP Service Station in Carnarvon
Despite the comings and goings of road trains, we slept well! Rather than have breakfast in the car park, we wandered over to the shop, had a quick wash in the bathroom and ordered some hot food. Then we set off for home.
Isn’t it strange how you love being on holiday but as you near the end of the road, your thoughts turn to home? I always want our trips to go on forever. I loved our caravan and I love our camper. But I’m fortunate enough to love being home too.
Our plans for the camper were a bit of an unknown. It made sense to buy it and save accommodation costs on the way home. John’s idea was that we could sell it on our return to Kalbarri. We had agreed that we had no need for two good cars now that we are both retired and living in a small town where I can walk to wherever I need to go. John had plans to buy a cheap runaround to take him up to the golf club. We would keep my Rav 4 and use that for trips to Geraldton for shopping and Perth to see the kids.
John is not planning to do any more long trips but I love life on the road. The thing that had worried me about the caravan towards the end of our trips in it, was that John might get sick or really hurt his back and I would be responsible for hitching and towing the caravan. I can tow and could hitch too if I had to but I didn’t want to. Also, our bedroom was one that folded out and I didn’t have the strength to lift it back in. These were the things that had been in the back of my mind over the last year or two. So, I was sad but relieved when we sold the caravan and bought the campervan. The camper, although a six-gear manual, is great to drive. Yes, we both hopped around a bit at the beginning because we are used to automatics, but it didn’t take us long to get back into the way of it. At the end of every day, we just climbed into bed, no unhitching. It was so easy.
So, while John was intended putting the camper up for sale the following week, I was dreaming of taking it on trips, with or without John, and making it my own. As the kilometres raced past, I imagined making a colourful, patchwork quilt, replacing the boring grey curtains, and filling the van with knick-knacks to make it cheerier and homelier.
As we neared home, I broached the subject with John. He knows me so well and he knew exactly what I was thinking! He agreed I could keep the van and use it for trips. I was ecstatic.
It might be the end of this road but hopefully not the next or the next….
During our two months in Darwin, John mentioned a few times that his denture plate was breaking. More than a few times I suggested he go and have it repaired but he told me it would be fine until we got home in two or three months. Fast forward to Cape Keraudren and I heard John exclaim “oh no!”. Yes, his plate had snapped in half. He had half a mouth of top teeth; the other half were in his hand. Beautiful Cape Keraudren was on the beach, miles from anywhere with no phone range. What to do?
Port Hedland was the nearest large town so we took off for the two hour drive. As it was a Sunday, we thought it best to see if we could camp at the South Hedland Golf Club where we had stayed previously. It turned out to be full due to a golf competition – the competitors had brought their caravans – but, maybe because of John’s lopsided, gumsy grin, she allowed us to stay. The only place to park though was next to the bins and it was very smelly.
We were keen to get away from the smell and sort out John’s teeth so we had early showers and drove into Port Hedland for breakfast and then the emergency denture place. It wasn’t a great morning for us because all the cafes we drove to were either closed or non-existent. Someone pointed the way to The Dome so we ended up there. Breakfast was fine, coffee was awful.
We arrived at the denture place right on nine o’clock. The girl was lovely but explained that she would have to send John’s dentures away to be repaired. We thanked her and tried a local dentist and got the same response. We couldn’t hang around for a week or two; John was unable to eat anything other than scrambled eggs. We asked where we would find someone who could fix his plate on the spot and were told – Geraldton. Geraldton is less than two hours from home! It looked like we had no choice but to cut our trip short and head for home.
We had made some plans we didn’t want to change. First to visit the small town of Marble Bar which we see on the weather map on tv every night because it is usually the hottest town in Australia. And to meet up with friends in Exmouth. We didn’t want to cancel so we decided that we would keep these arrangements and from Exmouth we would head straight home.
It was a three hour drive to Marble Bar, passing nothing but long road trains heading to and from the town which mines lithium, gold, iron ore and manganese.
We didn’t know what to expect in Marble Bar but it was a very small, quiet town with very little happening. We had hoped to find a supermarket but there was just a small shop that only opened for a few hours on certain days. Sunday was not one of the days. So we headed to the Iron Clad Hotel (which had been around since 1893) in the hope of some lunch.
We walked into a very warm, friendly and quirky bar. It almost felt like going back in time. The barman was very welcoming. We sat out in the beer garden with John enjoying a cold beer and me a white wine. As John was very limited in what he could eat, we decided to share some Thai chicken curry and rice (with John mostly having the rice) and some Tiramasu for dessert. The chef assured us it was the best Tiramasu in Marble Bar! Of course it was the only Tiramasu in town, but it was delicious. We dragged ourselves away to get back onto the road as there was nowhere to stay or shop. We really enjoyed our couple of hours in Marble Bar and can tick it off our bucket list!
Delightful Marble Bar
We looked for somewhere to camp on the side of the road but it was very hot and the flies were horrendous. We thought we might stay at Nanaturra Roadhouse, do some washing and use their wifi to try and book somewhere for the next night. However, they did not have wifi or a laundry so we kept going. We found a free camp with toilets and pulled in there. It was busy with caravanners and John got chatting to a few. As usual, we went to bed with the sun and woke up with the sun.
It was school holidays and we know how busy Exmouth gets with young families. It is one of the very few towns that does not allow free camping within its shire so we had no idea where we would camp. Everywhere we tried was full. Luckily our friend, Emma said we could camp in their driveway so that is what we did.
We have been to Exmouth before but not really explored it. Emma remedied that by taking us for a scenic drive which we really enjoyed. I particularly liked the visitors’ centre in Exmouth as it had a lovely shop and cafe.
It was lovely to catch up with Emma, Beau and the children as we hadn’t seen them in a while.
Emma had a rare couple of hours away from mum duties, and the three of us went out for dinner. It was great to catch up with all the news.
We left the next morning but decided to check out Turquoise Bay before leaving town. We had been there some years ago on a very windy day. The weather was perfect so off we went. It did not disappoint. The beach and the water were beautiful.
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