.: Liberty Love pincushion, some cute coasters + a little blog-holiday :.

My love of Liberty fabric is well and truly up and running.  Unsurprisingly, I hadn't put away my little Liberty pile after finishing my spools mini-quilt - so I thought I'd whip up the log-cabin pincushion, as a second project from the fabulous Liberty Love by Alexia Marcelle Abegg. 

My original plan was to use mini-black-pom-poms for the trim - but I didn't have enough, and of course couldn't possibly wait to order/track down any more - so I thought I'd push out the colour-boat-to-crazy and use four different colours of not-mini pom-pom trim.  I was a little worried the pom-poms would detract from the gorgeous fabrics, but I love the whole chaos-of-colour effect that's going on.  And I haven't even added any pins to it yet! 

For the bottom, I used a gorgeous PamKittyMorning fabric from the box-of-gorgeous - I only realised how fluff-covered the fabric is once the photo uploaded, sorry.  My sewing-space is pretty chaotic, so there's plenty of fluff'n'threads everywhere - notice how all the pics I've taken lately are super-close-up ... hmmm, there's a reason for that.  

Love the fabric.  Love the pom-poms.  Love the pincushion.  Love the book.  It's a quadruple-win.

And next - I whipped up a set of coasters for a quick pressie - they're not quite all the same size, but they're all very sweet!  The centre fabric is a very cute one - but I can't remember exactly what it is.  All the borders are Denyse Schmidt, except for the orange Violet Craft/Madrona Road sprouts and the orange 'xoxo', which I think is Anna Maria Horner. 

It's the last day of term 3 tomorrow here in Queensland.  Free dress day, a spot of school work and 'Despicable Me 2' for my youngest and Vee's oldest - they're in the same class.  Free dress day, a spot of school work and no movie for my oldest and Vee's youngest ... though I'm sure there'll be plenty of last-day fun going on.  

We'll take a little blog-break over the school hols - but please don't forget our Etsy shop giveaway - details here.   Hope your week has been a good one.  See you soon.  cat xoxo

.: Collective magazine + an amazing swap! :.

We are very excited to share with you, that we have a cushion - yes - in the current issue of Renegade Collective magazine - the one with the gorgeous Helen Christensen on the cover. 

To save any mad, page-flicking-frenzy in your local newsagent - we are on page 63.  Can you see us?



A little bit closer now?

A little bit closer now? 

Boom!  That's us!  Nobody puts baby in the corner!  Number 22, your cushion is ready.  Thank you to the gorgeous + amazing ladies behind Renegade Collective, for including us in your fantastic mag.  If you've not discovered Collective yet - please do go and track one down - it's a fabulous read.   Particularly page 63 of issue number 4 ;-)

Phew. 

And in major excitement at the end of last week - a BOX-OF-GORGEOUS arrived.  Oh yes.  There are no other words to describe the fabulous, awesome contents of the box that arrived thanks to the kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity of sweet, lovely Pam and her sweet, lovely daughter Frankie.

So.  I opened the box ... whaaaaat?! ....

And this is what I found ... can you even believe the awesomeness contained within ... I do have to admit to a few tears of overwhelmed amazement. 

There are goodies for me, and oh-so-many sweet goodies for the girls.  So very generous and kind and thoughtful.  What an awesome, gorgeous pair of ladies. 

The girls are quite beside themselves at all their cute new goodies.  They can't pick a favourite - though I do have a soft spot for Hairy Otter.  And the Salt Water Taffy.  And the teeny food picks.  And the Stitch mag.  The notebooks are just too cute.  And the PamKittyMorning FABRIC!!  Love, love, love. 

The otters.  Honestly.

Can you spy the teeny tiny otters on the little thimble up there?  And I do love the koala erasers - since Pam's love of koalas is what kicked off our little swap in the first place.

So much love in a box.  Thank you Pam and Frankie.  I am so happy that we are across-the-sea-friends-thanks-to-the-magic-of-the-internet-and-instagram.  

Hope your weekend has been awesome.   xoxo cat

:: Liberty Love mini-spools quilt :.

OK.  Get ready for a lot of pics of my just-finished mini-spools quilt, made from the excellent pattern in Alexia Marcelle Abegg's gorgeous Liberty Love book.  

{{love}}

Lots of fabric-details, with relevant links, are in yesterday's post - but just so you know now, the 'cotton' in all the spools is Liberty, received as a pressie from Danielle.  The top left 'spool ends' are Denyse Schmidt, and the fab specs on the bottom left are Curly Pops.  The 'spool ends' on both right-side spools are from Waterfront Park by Violet Craft - and the binding is Reflection from Waterfront Park.  The mini measures 20 1/2 inches square (52 cm square). 

 And now for some close-ups!

{{if there's a chance to include a Happy Zombie gnoma, then a Happy Zombie gnoma will be included}}

And the back is Polka Dot Stitches by Lori Holt.  Hope you're noticing that way-awesome echo-quilting lines ... and not so much the ruffled-looking fabric ... I am so not good at the actual quilting-part of quilting.  

I love this mini so much.  I love the spools pattern, and all the little fabric snippets.  Can't wait to hang it on the wall in my sewing space.  It would of course have been an excellent idea to have stitched on a hanging-tube of some kind ... but I only thought of that while I was sewing on the binding.  

As this little mini was sewn up in the past week, and is from a pattern in a book - I'm linking up to Craft Book Month at Craft Buds - click through and check out all the fabulous projects created by awesome crafty people, from books written by awesome crafty people!

Hope your Saturday has been a happy one.  I'll be back tomorrow to share the most amazing box-of-gorgeous I received from the super-lovely-and-awesome Pam and Frankie!    xoxo cat

September Bee Blocks + Liberty Loving

It's been a while.  We've had the inside of the house painted - so have spent the last few weeks packing boxes, moving things out to the garage, tossing junk into a skip, covering things in plastic, and inhaling paint fumes.  And not sewing.  

But - it's all finished, the house looks great, and the Bernina is back in action, so I have some sewing to share!

First up - a mini-quilt in-progress - the Mini Spools pattern from Liberty Love by Alexia Marcelle Abegg.  I had bought the book online, with the intention of maybe, possibly, perhaps attempting the gorgeous Marcelle Medallion quilt, as part of Penny Poppleton's quilt-along.  But then, a little package of gorgeous fabrics arrived from Danielle, including some beautiful Liberty pieces - and I really wanted to use some straight away - and the Mini Spools pattern was the perfect project!

.

I added a low-volume border around all the spools, and then thought a little colour was needed - so I added the alternating scrappy colour/low volume border.  I took the chance to use some favourites - Leanne Fanny/The Little House Martin, Heather Ross, Amy Adams/PennyCandy, Kajsa/Syko, Curly Pops, Violet Craft, Denyse Schmidt, Happy Zombie gnomas! - and also some precious fabrics received as gifts from gorgeous ladies I've met through the magic of the internet - the Liberty from Danielle, PKM fabrics from Pam of PamKittyMorning (more about our swap in the next blog post! - read Pam's post here!) and some Uptown Lush and the sweet hexagons from Penny of Sewtakeahike.  

I am so happy with the mini so far, it's just really happy and fun.  I quilted it today and now just need to choose binding fabric!

And now - blocks for Jules, who is Queen Bee for September in our AusModBee.  Jules asked for square-in-square blocks, finishing at either 16.5 inches, or a mix of 4.5 inches or 8.5 inches.  My gorgeous fabric package included some Echino butterflies - so to start with, I made four 8.5 inch square fussy cut blocks.  

And then things went a little crazy for the 16.5 inch square.  I started with the Annie's Seed Catalogue fabric in the middle, then added a few one-fabric borders, then the green spot + solid border, and then ... things got scrappy for the outside border - plus I'd run out of enough of any one particular fabric to make a one-fabric border.  If that makes sense.  So - there's lots of colour going on.

Here are the blocks together.  Jules' fabrics are so happy and bright - she is planning on making two quilts from the blocks, and adding her own blocks in - they will look fabulous! 

And last - a really fun set of blocks for Rachel for our Care Circle of do.GoodStitches (I can't link to Rachel, as Flickr is down for maintenance right now!).  Rachel asked for 6.5 x 12.5 inch blocks, in graduated blues and neutrals - after seeing this quilt made by Alex of TeaGinny.  I really love this idea.  Rachel gave us free-reign in our blues and neutrals, asking only that any one block didn't include both navy and white, since the colour graduation between the two is too great.  My blocks were sewn completely from my scrap buckets - blues, neutrals and texts.  I'm really looking forward to seeing Rachel's quilt, it will look great! 

And so that's it for now.  Don't forget about our colouring book giveaway!  I'll be back over the weekend to share the amazing box-of-gorgeous that I received yesterday from lovely Pam and her daughter Frankie - they have been so incredibly kind and generous, I can't even tell you.  Hope your week has been a good one.   xoxo cat