Murtoa - Stick Shed and Silo...

Australia Day being a Friday this year meant we had a long weekend...Saturday it was nice weather so I went for a short excursion to Murtoa to the Stick Shed.  I've been meaning to go for so long, it's not far away, but it used to only be open about once a month on a weekend for a few hours so it wasn't easy to manage but now it is open every day.  It is an amazing structure...the last of its kind...the only remaining emergency grain store built during WWII.

 

Even from the outside the sheer size of the structure is amazing...too long to get the whole building in one shot with the camera...

Inside, even knowing that it is big, doesn't prepare for the impact of just how BIG...

That is all natural light filtering in, it isn't lit by artificial lighting...

 

About 260 metres long, 60 metres wide and 19 metres high along the ridge, the shed was built from 560 unmilled poles or "sticks" in 56 rows of 10 to support the corrugated iron roof.  The floor area of 1.6 hectares is concrete with three metre wide wooden bulkheads running along either side.  And constructed in just four months from 25 September 1941 and being ready to receive wheat in January 1942!

 

Hoppers and conveyor belts remain and there are information boards around the shed...

There is also a video presentation that runs on a loop which is quite interesting and worth the time to sit and watch/listen to...I think it was only about 10 minutes...I just loved the wooden screen stand and seats that had been constructed for the video viewing area...

Closed in 1989 it is now heritage listed and protected having being added to what is now called the Victorian Heritage Register (it was the Historic Buildings Register) and is no 101 on the highest heritage listing for the country, the Australian Heritage List. A very important piece of history which has been the subject of an extensive conservative program using historical repair methods and as much as possible retaining the integrity of the original structure.

 

Separate to the Stick Shed, but nearby, there is a painted silo...

Lots of lovely birds on this one...

 

Happy Stitching...

Moda Love Quilt - The Sewing Pouch Edition...

(*yes I'm rather behind in the diary keeping here, oh well you get that sometimes).

Last Year's (2023) Scrub Stitching "if you want to play along" project was the Moda Charm Love Quilt...a free pattern from Moda that has instructions for the various sized pre-cuts - layer cake, charm pack, mini charm pack.  I had a mini charm pack bundled with a fat quarter that I had bought at the Cobar Quilt Shop the year before, just because I liked it, and perfect project for it and being a mini charm pack of 2 1/2" squares achievable by hand (I very rarely take a sewing machine on retreats, just hand work).

 

By hand it "should" have been easier to get it exact than with a machine but for some reason, even using fine Auriful thread and the stitching line being exactly where it should be the squares I sewed by hand were not to size! What the?  By then I was down with he Covids so I didn't really care about much at all.

 

When I got back home I re-stitched the few blocks I'd done - on the same line! - by machine and hey presto perfectly in size! Don't ask...it had me baffled and still does!!! Consequently, the rest of blocks were sewn by machine.

The finished top...

A mini version...now what to do with it?  I really didn't feel much like making a mini quilt then the idea came that it be more useful as a sewing pouch...I conducted a snap poll at my quilting group as to whether to use it for the back or the inside and the consensus was a resounding as the back so it wouldn't get lost when the pouch was filled with bits and bobs...

I had just enough left of the fat quarter that I used for the background fabric (I love that fabric) for the lining/backing whatever that would show through the plastic front of the pouch.  The flowers were just for decoration...

I was still under the influence of the Covids residual effects so, in hindsight, I should have quilted it differently and the binding should have have been hand stitched to the back as for a quilt but hey, it's just for me and it is no less useful for being a bit dodgy in the making.

Happy Stitching...