:: the Bernina has been dusted off ::

Hold the phone.  The Bernina was up and running today.  Whipped up a Millie Mischief made-by-mee cushion kit for the kids' piano teacher's grand-daughter (did you get that):

{{pink Millie, light blue + purple border, wool-felt and perle-8 snippets to embellish, and a wool-felt heart for the back}}

{{Millie Mischief is ready for Ruby}

{{back o' the bag.  I do love that Sarah Jane Studios balloon print}}

We haven't made the mee-friends for quite a while now, but we might bring them back for another run. They are very cute, and we love the idea of small hands slowing stiching away to create a one-of-a-kind mee-friend cushion to love and keep.  Vee and I will talk.  Get back to you.

In non-sewing news, I had a nice surprise today.  Our very sweet P&C president made us a cake for organising the school fete - check it:

{{before}}

{{after ... and no, that was not one massive piece for me}}

Wasn't that just very unexpected and sweet?  He paid for our coffees too.  Awesome start to the day.

Am so pleased to finally be back to the sewing after such a long fete-enforced break.  Spent quite a few hours over the weekend sorting my fabrics ... again ... by colour.  Still going.  

Happy Monday     xoxo cat 

:: Buzz Lightyear popped in ::

Not much sewing going on around here lately.

We had our school fete yesterday.  The BrisVegas rain stopped and we were blessed with gorgeous weather.

I was one of the organising trio, and Vee did all the graphic-design for all our printed info - school newsletter updates, fliers, the program etc.  Lots of work.  Great day.  Very happy it went well and is now oooovvveeerrrrrr.

Some pics.

{{our 'field of fans', in keeping with the 'fan-fair' theme for the fete}}

Our lovely and very clever friend Kate was part of the Cafe-coordinating-duo and came up with an awesome menu - really, really great food.

All the Cafe decorating was done by Kate's good mates Sher and Elaine.  My absolute favourite deorative touch was the table-numbers.

{{so loved no.15}}

{{I was quite partial to the dinosaur, pink vespa and eiffel tower too}}

And I also love love loved the 'welcome to the Cafe' mannequins.

{{why hello, do come in to our fabulous cafe, said Sher}}

Hexagons, Ron Swanson and other sewing will resume shortly.

xoxo cat

:: Ron Swanson Along - block 1 ::

Ron Swanson Along - block 1, a photo by cat&vee on Flickr.

Do you know Ron Swanson? From 'Parks and Recreation' on TV? 

It's a ripper of a show, and there is a lot to love about Ron.

Never would have thought to make a pixellated quilt of his face though.

That very happy thought occurred to the awesome Monica of Happy Zombie. She's created a pattern and broken it down into a 12-step quilt-a-long - the 'Ron Swanson Along'.  Click here to see her hilarious and amazing quilt.

I'm in. Here's block 1. 

Looking forward to seeing Ron come to life.

xoxo cat

:: who'd have thought it would be so liberating? ::

the start of favourite fabrics seeing the light of day!, a photo by cat&vee on Flickr.

More hexies. 

I was getting worried all the texty fabrics were a little heavy on the cream/white/pale side, so I held my breath and started cutting into some favourite fabrics too.

Thought I'd be a bit scared, but I am loving letting some long-held favourites see the light of day. 

Meanwhile, I am just noticing the paleness of some of the fabrics in the pics ... mmmhmmmmmm.

More to come, lots more colour, lots more texty-fabrics, but I've run out of glue-refills. Need to find time to nick to the fabric-shop. 

In the meantime, the petal-stitching has started.

stay tuned xoxo cat

:: textyhexymf ::

I am signing on for my first-ever on-line quilt-a-thon!!  Am way excited.  And it's going to take a verrrry long time. 

It's the hexymf-along via the very fabulous Fat Quarterly blog.  Click through and see Katy's gorgeous original hexymf quilt.  Love it a lot.  

I ummmmed and aaahhhhhed a lot about fabric for the hexymf - do I buy yet more fabric just for this project?  Ah, no.  I have plenty of fabric.  A lot of fabric.  A huge amount of fabric. 

So it's time to cut into fabric that is "too precious to use" - lots of text prints, and lots of favourites.  I'm fussy-cutting a lot of it, so it's actually a little bit wasteful - but I am loving looking at all these perfect little hexies of fabric-sweetness.

Have only basted two so far:

{{are you feeling the love?}}

{{get Prince's song into your head right now - that's where 'hexymf' comes from!}}

Because I'm using a lot of text-prints (as well as a lot of absolute favourite fabrics) - I'm calling it the 'textyhexymf'.  

Happy last-day-of-the-hols to you.  Gah, where has that time gone!!    xoxo cat

:: Hollywood on the Gold Coast ::

No sewing today.  The Husband took a day off work, in a nod to the school hols, and we went to Movie World.  Hollywood on the Gold Coast, apparently. 

Some pics.

{{stunt driving show for The Husband.  it was actually pretty awesome}}

And the rides.  The Superman ride in particular.  Good grief.  We are a family of ride-lovers.  Went on AAAALLLLL the rides at Disneyland several times and loved them.  A lot.   But the Superman ride at Movie World?  Too fast.  Too crazy.  Too much.  We got the obligatory 'ride photo' afterwards to keep and it's a cracker, but Vee and I just don't put face-pics on the blog.  Too shy.

{{got way wet on this ride - the ride-caboose is in the middle of that fountain. We spent $5 on the people-dryer afterwards and it was 2 minutes of sheer looooxury}}

{{it's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a Hedwig pillowpet}}

{{it's Hermione, it's a doll, it's a Hermione doll with angry eyebrows and no nose}}

We had a great day, lots of fun, loved it.  What's not to love about some family time, massive cartoon-characters wandering around waving at people, some crazy roller-coasters, and a Harry Potter shop? We've just been spoiled by having been to Disneyland.  Twice.  

{{love that Magic Kingdom}}

Happy nearly-weekend to everyone    xoxo cat

:: sew on ::

Can't get enough of the school hols, they should just be on, constantly, all year round.  The sun has come out in Brisbane at last, and it's just been so nice to potter around and not do much.  Loving it.

Have been making progress on the two quilts for my kids - block by very slow block.  Have made three more house-blocks for TBAY ('the blue and yellow', with pink and red thrown in too):

{{aloha. Particularly love the Lu Summers hand-printed hearts.  And the clouds.}}

{{this one is brighter 'in real life', it's photographed a bit pale.  So love Aunty Cookie}}

{{I do like this one.  The panda fabric just arrived - ordered it after we saw the pandas at San Diego Zoo back in April}}

And as I was a little ahead already on TGAP ('the green and purple'), I've only made one more block:

{{another panda, and some Tufted Tweets, Saffron Craig, Lizzy House and FMF.  Lots of favourites in these blocks}}.

Have been stitching some hexies too - these will eventually be stitched onto Summersville crosshatch yardage and become cushions:

{{cute huh. the fabrics are all Moda lines - centres are Mad with Love; the cream/black are Sweetwater's Mama Said Sew; and the gorgeous blue swirls and green houses are Summersville}}

{{this is my favourite so far - a Summersville town!}}

There will be many more hexies to come - I've decided to have a go at the Fat Quarterly HexyMF - haven't made a start yet as I'm waiting on my cutting-templates to arrive in the mail.  It'll be slow going, but the plan is to have an ongoing hand-stitching project, so I can make better use of time spent waiting for the kids at music lessons, sitting in front of the TV, stuff like that.

Happy Tuesday, enjoy the sun.     xoxo cat