.: shameless post asking for your Umbrella Prints votes! :.

Just popping in quickly to say it's Pinterest-voting time in the Umbrella Prints Trimming Competition!  

We would love it it you could please click through to the Umbrella Prints Trimming Competition 2014 Pinterest board, and leave a comment and maybe even repin our little 'Groove is in the Heart' entry that we blogged about last weekend.  This is the photo you need to look for - it's quite a way down towards the bottom of the board, so a bit of scrolling is needed!

There are some really gorgeous + clever entries this year - it's amazing to see what everyone makes with their little trimmings packs.  

Thanks so much everyone.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  xoxo cat

.: feel good Friday - the grandmother of all totes! :.

In a couple of weeks I'm very fortunate + very happy to be going to one of Camille Roskelley's trunk shows AND a Red Letter Day class - so very excited!  The odds are very high - when you gather a gaggle of fabric-and-quilt-lovin' ladies in one room with someone as awesome as Camille - that there will be many, many, many gorgeous hand-made creations featuring Camille's beautiful fabrics - I really can't wait to see everyone's bags, zip-pouches and whatever else they have made!  

So.  I thought "I'll make a tote bag to take along.  I'll use a couple of our panels, some gorgeous Bonnie+Camille fabrics, and some other favourite fabrics.  Yes.  That's a plan".  I also had sleepovers vaguely at the back of my mind - the overnight bag is never big enough to hold the pillow and sleeping bag too - so the two panels I chose also serve as messages to our girls for when they are away from home - Be Kind Be Smart Be Brave and Love You Like Crazy.  

I was happily pulling fabrics and sewing away, and the tote-panels were getting bigger and bigger, when I got an email yesterday about the class, saying we need to get our machines tagged and tested!  After a mini panic, I picked up the pace so I could finish the tote and put my machine in for a service tomorrow. 

For these pics, I've filled the tote with a pillow, sleeping-bag, little quilt and our girls' much-loved Winnies.  It's quite hysterically-huge, it's like the grandmother of all tote bags.  

I shared a couple of pics here of the front and back panels - before I added the Parson Gray 'Rain' to the bottom - so you can see all the gorgeous fabrics a little better there. 

For the lining, I used a cute animal print, a gorgeous Lisa Congdon flags print, and the Bonnie+Camille Bliss spots in pale aqua/white.  And I made a pocket! - from some Miss Kate candy squares, trimmed with some Happy Go Lucky, and then sewed one of our fab new labels on the front. 

Here's the inside:

 And the inside of the pocket:

And now here is the grandmother-tote flattened out on the table.  Can I just say too - the handles - they're my favourite-ever Bonnie+Camille design - the red/cream flowers on aqua blue from Bliss.  I'm still hoarding a couple of yards of it ... though I'm planning on using some in the Red Letter Day quilt. 

I'm so very happy it's finished and ready for action.  I'm going to fill it with all my fabrics and goodies for Camille's class, and then start waiting impatiently for my machine to come home again next week - tagged, tested and ready for Red Letter Day. 

{the Winnies say bye}

Here's to a happy Friday and great weekend everyone.  xoxo cat

.: so not watching the State of Origin :.

The first State of Origin game is on tonight in Brisbane.  For those of you lucky enough not to know what that means - it's an annual series of three rugby league games played between representative teams from NSW and Queensland.  Queensland has won the series for the last eight years in a row.  So much media hype, so many endless newspaper pages devoted to it, so much air time on TV, and I just couldn't care less.  (Do I fess up now and say I'm from NSW, living in a house-hold of Queenslanders?)  And I'm not ready to commit to 'Offspring' yet - still not over Patrick dying - well, not really - so I'm ignoring all TV tonight and am online instead! 

I'm sewing up a super-sized tote bag to take along to Camille's upcoming class at TQES.  I've used two of our panels - one for each side - and a whole heap of Thimbleblossom/Bonnie+Camille fabrics, plus some other favourites - PamKittyMorning, Aunty Cookie, Umbrella Prints, Lizzy House, Prints Charming, Tula Pink, Alison Glass, Carrie Bloomston, Happy Zombie.  

Very happy with how they're looking.  And now I'm off to catch up on some Bloglovin'!  Happy not-watching-the-State-of-Origin-Wednesday to you all.  xoxo cat

.: 'Groove is in the Heart' :. Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition 2014

It all started with the hearts.  I've always loved the Umbrella Prints hearts.  And the elephants - but there weren't any elephants in my trimmings packet.  So I ran with the hearts.  Grooving all the while (as an aside - Deee-Lite had a hit with that song in 1990!  Twenty-four YEARS ago, can you believe it?!).

This is the first time I have entered the fabulous Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition.  I love looking at all the different entries on Pinterest every year, and am always amazed at all the different things made by so many talented people.  I always had a mini in mind though, and was very drawn to the blue trimmings packet - and at the same time, bought extra hearts in a few different colour ways.  Because I love the hearts.  

And here is what I made.  Groove IS in the heart!  

To go back to the beginning, I had this idea to piece each letter based around the same-sized rectangle of Robert Kaufman Essex Linen in natural - I think each rectangle was 3" x 3 1/2" - pretty little.  Usually when I free-piece letters, they tend to end up pretty random in size, and for this project I wanted to keep them all close to the same size, while not having to draw up measurements first (since, as always, I much prefer to free-piece than work from a pattern).  I also wanted to keep the base rectangles as 'complete' as possible and so as you'll see in this next pic, the 'G' started life as a 'C'.  I stitched on the little square to make it a 'G' a little later. 

You can see too that I started with a pretty classic heart-shape - you can see the pencil-lines in the pic above, and then pinned it to a much bigger square of batting, lightly machine-quilted the heart, and then started adding QAYG strips.  Originally, I had intended to only use Umbrella Prints fabrics - but as I want to use ALL the fabrics ALL the time, I went through my "special scraps" bucket and pulled out all the blue favourites to mix in with them.  We're talking Heather Ross, Liberty, Leanne Fanny (The Little House Martin) and Shannon Lamden (Aunty Cookie) - so you can see they truly do belong in the "special scraps" bucket!  

I also added in Umbrella Prints hearts in Persimmon and Silky Oak, to bring in a couple of pops of colour.  Once I was happy with the heart's size, I cut it back into a heart-shape and hand-quilted within the linen-heart with an orange perle thread.  I do think three 'hearts' in one sentence is quite a lot.  And then it was onto choosing binding fabrics - some favourite blues mixed in with what I had left from my trimmings packet, plus a little pop of the Persimmon hearts. 

I have quite a few favourite spots in this heart.  In this next pic, I love how the Umbrella Prints 'waves in bakelite blue' go so happily with Leanne's teapots; the peek of Persimmon hearts next to the Storm Boy Blue hearts; and I think my favourite-ever Aunty Cookie cookie-person 'craft is the new black'. 

And in this pic, I love the Liberty dancers (who are, of course, grooving in the heart ...).

And in the last of my 'favourites' pics - I love the Heather Ross mermaid, and how well her colours tie in with all the fabrics around her.  I am however, much more lukewarm to the reminder of how tricky it was to bind into and out of that centre-dip in the heart-shape - much unpicking and re-stitching while watching an episode of 'Downton Abbey' went into that little corner!

On the back, I used a favourite fabric I bought in the #greataussiedestash on instagram.  I wanted to carry on the grooving/dancing theme, and have always thought the lady in the red skirt looks like she's twirling around her kitchen (with her cake as an imaginary dance partner). 

We took some last photos of the mini this afternoon, out in the backyard.  I asked my younger daughter to do a little grooving with the mini ...

Now to hang it on the wall in my sewing space!  At its 'tallest', from top to bottom the heart is 25 1/2" and from side to side at its 'widest' it is 27".   And now for the last pic - the trimmings I started with, somehow minus the blue with darker reddish blue spots - in uploading my pics today, I noticed that it was missing from the one and only trimmings pic I took! 

I have loved creating 'Groove is in the Heart', and being part of this year's Trimming Competition.  Thanks so much to Amy and Carly for providing this wonderful opportunity.  I am so looking forward to seeing what everyone else has made!  Have a great week everyone.  xoxo cat

.: hello sunshine! :.

Oh hi, what's been happening, how have you been, what have we missed?  We've been here all along, really, just not online much at all these last couple weeks.  

Big news to share - Brisbane finally has its very own Modern Quilt Guild!  I went along to the first meeting last Sunday, with a group of fabulous ladies, and we'll very soon be up and running and have a blog button and everything!  So very exciting.  Vee is very kindly creating the designs for our social media headers - wahooo!! 

A couple of sewn-things to share this week.  First up - Vee's cushion made from our 'hello sunshine' pineapple panel, which we've submitted to be considered for QAGOMA's upcoming Harvest/Fallen Fruit exhibition.  Doesn't it look fantastic with the pom-pom trim?  We did a bit of backyard styling this morning with the ever-handy felt-ball garlands, just to fun things up a bit. 

And here's a behind-the scenes pic!  I kept having to duck inside to grab another couple of books to prop the cushion up, and move the cushion to a safe spot each time so it didn't topple over onto the wet grass ... or dog poo - gah!!  All good though, no scary incidents to report, oh the relief.  

And now, my May blocks for Leanne, for our Care Circle of doGoodStitches.  I LOVE these blocks.  the pattern is Nested Churn Dash by the very clever + lovely Jane - who is kicking off a quilt-a-long with this block on the 1st of June.  Jane's full block is 24 inches - which is another whole churn dash beyond the biggest size here.  Leanne asked for a 16.5 inch and a 8.5 inch block.  Jane's pattern is excellent - all the cutting instructions are there, along with great sew-together graphics, so it's really quick to chain-piece and sew together.  

I had a bit of a rabbity theme going on for the middle squares ... not sure why, I just had them both handy and had to use them.  The red one is so sweet, and I just love this little green one, which I just received from the lovely Frances. 

Hope your weekend is a good one.  My oldest daughter's netball team had its first win of the season today - wahooo!! - and now it's finally time to do some quiet pottering about after a really busy week.  'til next time.  xoxo cat

Wowsers! We are now offering custom-made cushions.

Overdue we know!  

We've discriminated against those who can't be naffed sewing for long enough.

We are now offering a custom made cushion cover service using our

digitally printed panels from our etsy shop.

Some kind of wonderful?  Yep….we think so.

So here's how it goes….

ONE Choose a 45cm cushion panel design in stock from our store

TWO Add to cart and we will custom make you a zipped back cushion cover

And whilst you are waiting for your little masterpiece to arrive you can pop yourself off

down to the shops and pick up a cushion insert or two.

Easy as Bro. (said in Vee's kiwiana accent).

xoxo 

Feel Good Friday….not for Vee!

Lovely Cat is off having a 'feel good Friday'.  She has been industriously helping out at our kids' school today on the Mothers' Day stand, had a chicken burger from tuckshop and managed to get herself down to the netball courts to cheer on our daughters' team in the inter-school sports comp.

Me, however.  My kids woke up with 'sickness' pouring from both ends…eeeew,  we had no food in the house so I had to drag them off down to the supermarket for an emergency shop where they both had mini-melt downs AND promptly decided to be on their worst EVER behaviour. This comical scene was only enhanced by me 'losing my sh!t' and just when things could NOT get any better - it was all witnessed by my sister-in-law and her lovely, calm, happy 3 year old.

So, not feeling too good on Friday right about now I've decided to post our new cat and vee cushion panel sized fabric designs (which, luckily for my children, are not big enough to strangle them with!!)

Two new ranges. 

'I love to love you' which is in our etsy store right now and our 'Welcome to Crazytown' range 

which will be in store at the end of next week. 

Wahoo.

I Love to Love you. 45 cm cushion panel $20 bucks. Bargain!

I love to love you spotty cushion Panel. 45 cm. $20

I love to love you. Hugs and Kisses 45cm cushion panel. $20

Crazytown. Love you like crazy. 45cm cushion panel. Here next week.

Crazytown. Manny Hoot. 45cm cushion panel. Here next week.

Crazytown. Bear Grools. 45cm cushion panel. Here next week.

Crazytown. Teddy Fox. 45cm cushion panel. Here next week.

So to all of you lovely ladies, have a very happy mother's day on Sunday. 

My hubby asked me "what do you want for mother's day"……I replied "no husband, no kids, day to myself"……"ha" he said "what do you really want?"……I know, just kidding right??

NO menopause, no husband, no kids, day to myself!!!!

xoxo vanita

.: feel good Friday :.

Just popping in to share a site I've found recently through Facebook!  Of all places!  Vee and I have a pretty fraught relationship with FB.  We're not natural lovers-of-FB, and much prefer the awesome world of instagram ... which is of course now owned by FB.  We're not sure what our FB-issues are, but we are indeed working on them - we've even posted a couple of things in the past week - take a look!

Anyway.  On to 'Feel Good Friday' on this rainy, grey day in Brisbane.

Thought you might like to take a look at 'A Mighty Girl'.  They're the world's largest collection of books, toys and movies for "smart, confident and courageous girls".  How fantastic is that!  Click through for a look - all their links - to Faceook and elsewhere - come off their home page. 

[image from here]

Hope you've had a great week, and are gearing up for a fun weekend.  It may even involve a bit of Facebooking - do you love it/not love it/use it a lot/not much - we would love to know!  xoxo cat