.: May AusModBee blocks for Kirsten :.

We have taken such a printing and packaging detour lately that I haven't had much time for sewing - I've really missed it!

With one day to go til the end of May, I finished Kirsten's feathers, using Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee.

I did make a little cutting error, so bought a few emergency quarter metres from TQES to finish making the feather pieces (pretty happy about that actually, as now I have a nice little Chicopee stash!).

The only other mistake I made - apart from faffing about with sewing the 'B' pieces to the bottom of the feather pieces - was to get my outside 'F' pieces round the wrong way.  Had to do a bit of unpicking and re-sewing.  

I really love the feathers - Lorena's feathers from January, made from Anna Maria Horner fabrics were just gorgeous, and now Kirsten's from Chicopee are so beautiful too.  The finished quilts will be fabulous, won't they?!

I should add too, that I gave the blocks a final iron after I took the pics.  Mental note to do the final iron before taking the blog-pics next time ...

And as I didn't show you earlier (after I'd met up with Kirsten for a coffee when we headed south into NSW for my Dad's 70th) here's the super-sweet little zip pouch she made me, from Amy Butler fabrics.  I did mean to take pics of the zip pouch WITH the feathers - but nooooo, I forgot.  So here's the zip pouch sitting on top of the big, sealed envelope that contains Kirsten's feathers.  Photo-styling ideas? - I'm full of them. 

Hope your week has been a happy one - we're nearly at the weekend again, yahhh!!  xoxo cat

.: Mad Quilting :.

Mad Quilters was held over this past weekend, at the RNA Showgrounds (see this post for Mad Quilters and RNA links).  I had a lovely time helping out on the Patches stall with Sharon and Donna yesterday.  How fab did Sharon make it look?!

{{I probably should have moved that brown blanket for the pic ... }}

 It took me a while to notice that Sharon didn't put baby in the corner.

Bec - who is only 19!! and who works part-time at Patches - made the gorgeous 'Hopscotch' quilt up there, from the Happy Go Lucky fabric line.  The quilt is just gorgeous, and Bec won two ribbons for it  at the Brookfield Show last weekend.  I was so inspired that I bought a Happy Go Lucky jelly roll, and the Hopscotch pattern, to have a go at making it too!  

Kirsten and Jess from the AusModBee came along to Mad Quilters - it was so lovely to see Kirsten again, and to meet Jess - and very happily, they were there at the same time, so met each other too.  It's so great that more and more of us AusModBee-ers have been able to meet up in person.  

Today was all about church, jujitsu grading (wa-hooo orange belts!!) and ironing and cutting more panels, ready for me and Vee to print again tomorrow.  Check out that pile.  And the dusty looking rotary cutter, which in fact is sporting a brand new blade. 

Hope your weekend has been a fun one, and that you're gearing up for a great week.  xoxo cat

Where the bloody hell is Vee?

All I can say is 'Thank God for the lovely Cat'!   

Firstly, to any new blog readers or friends of cat and vee - 'Yes, I really do exist.' 

My main reason (perhaps excuse?!) for being AWOL from the blog for so long is that I am in my second year of Graphic Design.  

My long nights of study and doing assignments have meant relying on the lovely Cat to keep our blog and Instagram up to date.

This weeks assignment was to create two alternative magazine covers for a
 'fictional' magazine Taylor.  

I was on Instagram for quite a while until some 'mysterious force' removed the app from my phone. (I suspect his name is 'Finn', he is 5 AND feral AND was playing Angry birds at the time.)  Anyway, I cannot re-download the app and Instagram has said 'too hard basket'....get another apple i.d.   (Have added this to my ever growing 'to do list')

Enough of my first world issues.  

Now then, back to my assignment and then a nice bottle of red.....hmmm.

Let's hope I don't receive ANOTHER call from my tutor asking me 'Were you drunk when you submitted that assignment'.

Yeees of course and I by the way, I got 100%!

Have a lovely weekend everyone and see you tomorrow Cat for Jujitsu grading.

xoxo vee

.: Mad Quilters :.

{{my favourite folded panel}}

So it's been a little quiet on the blog-front these last few days.

Vee and I have been printing, ironing, cutting, folding, stickering (are you loving our new stickers?) and packaging.

This morning, we dropped off all these panels to the lovely Sharon and Jenny at Patches, ready for their trip into Mad Quilters tomorrow afternoon.

Mad Quilters is on at the RNA showgrounds this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I will be there on Saturday, helping out on the Patches stall - so please stop by and say hello if are Mad Quilting. 

Time to catch up on some sewing.  Hope your week has been a good one.  xoxo cat

.: please help :.

When I started sewing a few years ago, my first online-inspiration was the lovely Pip from Meet Me at Mikes.

Once online, it didn't take me long to find Kathreen from WhipUp.

Kathreen's extraordinary support and encouragement of other crafters, her own awesome projects and ideas, and her love of this crafting world have been such an inspiration.   Kathreen really seemed to live her loves of crafting, creating, community and family - and was so incredibly generous in sharing her journey and ideas.  

Since January this year, I have loved following along via her blog and instagram, as she and her family travelled around Australia.   An amazing journey full of family time, wonderful experiences, creating and sharing.  

Along with so many others in this crafty-community, I have been terribly saddened by the news this week of Kathreen's and her husband Rob's tragic accident off the coast of Western Australia.  While their beautiful children, aged only 10 and 13 were on the beach.   My heart just breaks.  I cannot comprehend or imagine the feelings of these two gorgeous, much loved children, who must now live their lives without their parents in this world.

Kathreen's dear friends - with the blessing of her and Rob's families - have set up a trust for their precious children.  Please click through to the post on Kathreen's WhipUp site for the details, and consider giving if you can.  

xoxo cat

.: behind-the-scenes glamour :.

Vee and I printed yesterday and again today and thought we would share a few pics.

It's oh-so-glamourous behind the scenes, isn't it?  Hope you noticed the peg on the floor in the pic above, and please don't miss the ladder and gas bottle in the next pic. 

Most of these panels are for the lovely ladies from Patches to take to Mad Quilters next weekend.   They have a fab stall planned, and I'm lucky to be going along on the Saturday to help out. 

The black Priscillas are for our shop though - we love how she's printed up on the natural Essex linen.  We have another couple of colours we'd like to try for her before we decide on our favourites.

Bet you're jealous of that garage floor - lucky Pipsqueak has been staring at it for quite a while today.  Millie Mischief is thankful she gets to stare straight ahead instead.  Probably at the gas bottle and ladder though, shame. 

We have some more exciting plans in store for our little Home-ies panels - between now and then, we have a lot more printing to do.  

Hope your week has been a good one.  School disco tomorrow night, so that can only be a capital-A-awesome end to the week.   xoxo cat

.: Priscilla, Queen of the 'Burbs :.

Meet Priscilla.  She's Queen of the 'Burbs and is waiting for you in the shop now.  We are playing around with ink-colours, until we decide on our absolute favourites.  We're more than a little excited that one Priscilla has already sold and will be soon jetting off to live in the UK. 

Here's to a fab time in your 'burb today.  xoxo cat and vee

.: Mother's Day + birthdays :.

Hi hi hi, a few days away from this space.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums who pop by, hope you're having a relaxing day.

We nipped down to NSW overnight, to celebrate my Dad's 70th + Mother's Day.  It was a really lovely afternoon - we saw a lot of family and friends I've not seen in years and years - and the girls got to race around and spend time with their cousins.  Mum and Dad had a fab time and really appreciated everyone making the time to travel from near and far to share in the celebration.

I also got to have a quick coffee with the lovely Kirsten, who is in our AusModBee - in fact it's her month right now, so I'll soon be sharing AMH feathers made with the gorgeous Denyse Schmidt Chicopee range.  

I can finally share these cushions I made for Mum and Dad.

{{Dad used to be an eye surgeon, so I couldn't go past the Echino specs}}

 And here they are just this morning.

Hope you've all had a great weekend.   xoxo cat

.: be part of the Parisienne Set :.

Did you see that the fabulous Sew Ichigo girls have released a new set of patterns? - Parisienne Cafe.  It is just divine - espresso cups, a tea pot, coffee press and coffee grinder.  I am particularly in love with the teapot - such a great shape. 

Penny and Kerry are each running giveaways of the Parisienne Cafe set on their blogs - click through on Sew and Ichigo above and leave a comment to enter - not sure when their giveaways end but it'll be soon. 

I popped across to the Sew Ichigo shop yesterday, so I could buy and download the pattern, and have it ready and waiting to sew something up.  But then - surprisingly - I couldn't settle into the awesome TV-viewing that is Celebrity Apprentice last night, until I had ducked into the sewing-space and sewn up a little espresso cup.

{{neigh}}

Next up will be the teapot.

And emerging from the sewing-chaos that is my cutting-table this morning - a quick little birthday pressie zip pouch for a friend of my oldest daughter.  Yes, her name starts with N...

... and yes, she is Australian-born-Irish.

We posted off quite a few parcels yesterday - some shop orders, some surprise thank-you pressies, and Jess' new pincushion too.  Thanks so much again to everyone who entered our giveaway, it was a really nice experience.

Madly trying to tick things off the ever-growing sewing list this week, while still squeezing in plenty of down-time in an attempt to keep things sailing smoothly and calmly at home.  

Hope your week is a happy one.  xoxo cat

.: giveaway day :.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered out little giveaway - here, on instagram and on Facebook.  

I checked all three sites this morning, wrote down all our new comment-names and 'like'-names and snipped them into the bowl.

Gave them a bit of a mix ... sadly there was no knee-slapping-drumroll as both the girls have now caught my cold and stayed in bed, just as I'm nearly back to normal ... 

 And drew out ...

{{the FB means Facebook ...}}

 Yay Jess!  I emailed Jess just now, and will pop the pincushion into the post later today.

We have honestly been very overwhelmed by all your comments and support, and really appreciate your taking the time to read our posts and to comment, it has been a really happy experience.  As of this morning, we had: 35 comments on our giveaway blog post + over 50 commenters on our instagram pic + 210 FB-likes + 574 people had seen the giveaway FB post.  For us, those are reeeally big numbers!  

Five gorgeous ladies took the time to share our giveaway - via Facebook share, retweet and also by having our blog-link on their own blog - and in turn, it was so lovely that people took the time to let us know that too.  So thank you very much for sharing the giveaway-love to Jeannette, Ros, Cam, Debbie and Susan.  

We are already planning another giveway ... stay tuned!   Happy Monday xoxo cat

.: giveaway countdown - post #200 :.

Never before has there been such an unprepared, oops-I-should-have-had-something-special-waiting-in-the-wings blog posting moment.  

My original plan had been to post the giveaway for our 200th post.  But I finished it earlier and couldn't possibly wait a few extra days.

So here we all are at post number 200, and there is just one photo to share with you.  But in all fairness, it is a photo of fabric.  

I have been trying to stick to a fabric-diet.  And I have had some success - no extra kilos of fabric have been sneaking their way into my stash for quite some time now.  But then a couple of weeks ago, I saw a couple of fat quarter stacks I needed (yes, needed) in Amanda's lovely Etsy shop, Westwood Acres - all the Lucky Penny bicycle paths and all the Martha Negley Farmington feathers.  They hit the post office box earlier this week.

And then today, I ducked into Spotlight to buy some cushion inserts.  And saw the selvedge print, and then the text prints ('Gragg rug shop', what's not to love) and the cute Japanese round-the-world print.  And I even remembered to buy the cushion inserts.

So there you have it.  Post number 200 with no fanfare but with some fabric love.  

And now - our giveaway - all the details are here - and it closes TONIGHT - midnight Australian EST.  I will not actually be awake at midnight, I just thought it sounded like a nice giveaway-finishing-off time.  Once I log off from this anti-climactic post, I will write down all the comments we have so far here on the the blog, on Facebook and on instagram (I'm @hellofromcat) and snip them into a salad bowl ... so that tomorrow morning, I only need to to add in any new comments and then, with a possibly similarly anti-climactic drum-roll carried out on the knees of my children - we will draw out the lucky winner of the very cute pincushion!!!   Please click through for all the details.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.   xoxo cat

.: giveaway countdown - post #199 :.

So we skipped a day - I caught a bad cold and took most of yesterday off from sewing, so I could rest up with a book and regular doses of Sambucol.

All our giveaway details are on Thursday's post #198 here.  Thank you so much for all your lovely comments, and also for letting us know how you found us here or on Facebook or instagram (link on the left side-bar, over there).  I have emailed everyone back - I think - who has an email address linked to their blogging-commenting-account.  There have been quite a few 'no-reply' commenters - we used to be one too, until someone let us know.  There's something you can tick or untick in your blogging account (I can't remember exactly what it is, sorry) - that will mean you can attach your email address when you comment.  Otherwise the 'no-reply' email address comes up.

But please be assured - if someone with a 'no-reply' address wins the fab pincushion, we will track you down!! 

OK, on to today's crafty adventures.

This is a secret surprise for someone, so I really don't want to say too much for fear she will see it here and guess it's for her.  So for now, I'll just say it's a mini-quilt, made as a little pay-it-forward pressie.  And if you squint and turn your head slightly sideways, you'll totally get that it's supposed to be a little beach-side scene.  Totally.

And can I just take a moment to point out the super-cute Pam Kitty Morning spotted binding fabric.  I really don't know how I hadn't discovered this perfect spot before.  Found it at our LQS during the week - forgot to buy it - and then had to ask our friend T to buy it for me, as I knew she was popping in yesterday.  

{{cute measuring-tape fabric on the back}}

And now I'm pondering my Hottie Challenge entry.  There will be pom-poms.  I keep changing my mind about how many and where and how they'll be attached.  But I do know that there will be pom-poms.  

For details about the Hottie Challenge, pop across to the gorgeous Cam's blog - Curly Pops.

See you tomorrow for post #200!! - oh, the pressure of what to blog about!   And then we'll be back Monday for #201 and to announce the pincushion winnnnerrrrr!   Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  xoxo cat

PS one last pic - a reminder of what our giveaway looks like! 

{{Prettified Pincushion from Ayumi Takahashi's Patchwork, Please!}}

.: giveaway countdown - post #198 :.

So somehow Vee and I have made it to 198 posts.  Which means that after post #199 tomorrow, we will hit post #200! 

Crazy times, I know. 

To celebrate, we thought we'd do a little giveway.  And here is the giveaway-goodie.

Oh yes indeed, I have sewn up another Prettified Pincushion from Ayumi's fabulous book, Patchwork Please!  (that link is to Booktopia Australia - Ayumi's book is of course available elsewhere online ... and in good bookshops). 

The pincushion top features Heather Ross fussy-cut peg-doll girls from her Macaroni Love Story line (which I think I bought when it was available on Spoonflower), and also teeny Heather Ross gnomes, which are from a little scrap that lovely Amber from OneShabbyChick included in a package, when I bought something from her lovely shop a while ago. 

The fab orange/pink/yellow checks are by the gorgeous Cam from Curly Pops.

And the yellow button is a vintage one I found in the button tin.  

Around the sides are the fabulous glasses on purple from the new Riley Blake Geekly Chic line - these glasses are Dorothy Tsang's design (our gorgeous friend Amy from PennyCandy designed the fab records and mixtapes, which are part of Geekly Chic).

And I really need to find out who designed this fab word print that I love so much - I only have a small piece with no selvedge. 

Next up are some cute pink spots - again, from a lovely scrap with no selvedge. 

And last - with a slightly sunburned glow to the photo - is I think Denyse Schmidt.  If you know any of the fabric details I've missed out, please let me know via comment.

To complete the photo-a-thon, the bottom of the pincushion is Essex linen in flax, with a cute button from the button tin. 

And so - for your chance to win this super-sweet pincushion, sewn by me (and please do remember I am not an expert-sewist) - you have three different ways to be in the running.  

Vee and I are really interested to know how people find us - whether it's here via the blog (or Bloglovin'), on Facebook, or on instagram.  We love instagram like crazy but are only slowly coming to grips with Facebook, and we still have so much to learn about good blogging. 

So either (or do them all!):

1. leave a comment on this post #198, or yet to be posted #199 and #200 - and tell us how you found us.

2. 'like' us on Facebook - our page is here - we are cat & vee.   I have never in my life typed those words before.  And no, we do not have a Facebook button here on the blog, because we haven't figured out how to do that yet .... 

3. comment on the instagram pics I'll post of the pincushion (I am @hellofromcat).

We're aiming to upload post #200 by the end of this weekend, so the giveaway will close midnight, Australian EST on Sunday 5 May.  We'll announce the winner on Monday, 6 May.  If we get lots of comments and 'likes', we will grab some panels from the shop and choose some more lucky ducks.  

When I say 'choose' - I should make clear - winner/s will be chosen totally at random - I'm going to write down everyone's name on slips of paper, and where they commented (here, instagram or FB - just for our own interest's sake), put them into a big salad bowl, and get the girls to draw one name out of the bowl.

As simple, and embarrassingly basic, as that.  

Good luck!  Let the comments ... and 'likes' (oh I struggle with the neediness of social media language!) begin!!  Happy Thursday.     xoxo cat