Melbourne!

It's been a while since we last had a holiday, actually we haven't had any time off work since Christmas and it was well and truly time to take a short break.  Melbourne is running the Winter Masterpieces series again this winter, so we decided to go for a short trip away. 

The main reason for going was the Tutankhamun exhibition, which I have to say was just wonderful.  I knew that the "death mask" hadn't come with the exhibition (it never leaves Egypt) but the artifacts that were part of the exhibition were absolutely incredible.  They say that the average visiting time is about 75 minutes - we spent just over 2 hours!  The items are displayed in glass cases so that you can see all the different sides, just fantastic!

  

There was one shop that I knew I wanted to visit, I've been seeing ads in a lot of the quilting magazines, and when I figured out that the shop was located on Lygon St, close to some of the best food in Melbourne, I convinced Sir Pinkying that we should go and check it out.  We stopped for breakfast on our first morning at a place called Gingerlee - which was great - and then walked down Lygon St to GJ's Discount Fabrics.

 What can I say except WOW!  This is possibly one of the best patchwork shops that I've been to in Australia.  As readers of blogs we all see the new fabrics coming out in the USA, and then are used to there being a wait before we can get them here.  Not at GJ's!! They had fabric on the shelves that I just received notifications about from some of the big US fabric shops!  Incredible!

They had a great range of patterns, and a whole bunch of pre-cuts too.   The staff were friendly and nice to chat too (even when I asked if I could take some pictures!).  Also, I should be clear, this isn't a sponsored post of any kind, I was just one very happy customer!

 We also went walking to see the usual sites, Bourke St Mall

 Flinders St Station

 and had a lovely meal in the lane ways

We had a great view from our room, which was mostly of the cloudy overcast days.

Of course on our last day we woke up to this!