How to win one of these Awesome Books

In the spirit of Spring and all things colourful we are giving away 5

of these gorgeous colouring books during the months of 

September, October, November and December. 

(One for each month and two for Christmas - wahoo).

"How do I get my little mitts on one?" you may ask

All you have to do is to make a purchase during any of these months 

and we'll put you in the draw for one of these awesome books.  

At the end of each month we'll draw a winner.

Have a lovely weekend all and a Happy Fathers Day weekend to all you fantastic Dads out there. (Especially our boys - Doug and Jim)

xxxx  Catherine and Vanita

.: the sweet pouches have landed :.

Remember the Sweet Pouch Swap sneak peek?  

Just in case you forgot - the Sweet Pouch Swap is a very fun thing to do, where you make a pouch for someone and fill it with sweet treats.  You can choose whether to swap with someone from your own country, or go big and make it international.

Round 1 was hosted by the gorgeous Ros of Sew Delicious - it was a blind swap - meaning you made something for someone, but then someone else made something for you  (this is what I made for Round 1, and this is the gorgeous pouch  + goodies I received from Tammy of Karamat in Texas!).

Round 2 is on now - so sweet pouch packages have been criss-crossing the globe - in fact I'm surprised there hasn't been a news item about the significant increase in sweet-smelling international packages.  Hmmmm.  Anyway.  The lovely Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts hosted this round - a direct swap - and paired me with the fabulous + fun Kara from Me and Elna.  Now that Kara has definitely received my sweet-n-salty package, here are pics. 

The pouch is made from Melody Miller, Denyse Schmidt and Anna Maria Horner fabrics - total favourites of mine too.  I figured Kara needed some koala ears and other little goodies in her life, so popped them in with the Cadbury chocs, lollies and the not-sweet-but-very-salty Vegemite.  Kara has promised a video of her trying Vegemite for the first time.  I told her to spread it on a piece of toast VERY thickly, with no butter ....  No I didn't.  Promise.  I said a little bit of butter and then a very thin smear of Vegemite.  Really. 

I so love this gorgeous face - it's Melody's beautiful grandmother.  The book pattern is 'Books for Baby'  in Ayumi Takahashi's 'Patchwork Please'.

And on the back -

And - all filled up and ready to post.

So - on with the excitement - I received Kara's package last Friday! - and then she received my package the very next day! (which I think was also her Friday, but it was already Saturday here ... such is the global nature of our pouch swapping).  And Kara's already written a blog post about it - click across to see a pic of Kara wearing koala ears!  

Look at what I got!! - the most perfect patchwork pouch, made from Jeni Baker's/In Color Order lined drawstring pouch pattern - which I LOVE.  And a really cute fat quarter of fabric I have never seen before.  And a LOT of chocolate - about half of which no longer exists as it's been eaten.  And .... Cincinnati Chili ... which is definitely not sweet to eat ... and I have promised Kara that I will take a video of me trying it for the first time.  If you are on instagram - take a look at #goldstarchili and #cincychili for some amazing chili pics.  I've already worked out all the different weight measurements (pounds/ounces to grams/kilograms), so just need to find a chili-cooking moment, and work out which of the five different recipes to cook ... and fire up a video ... I'm thinking slo-mo.

I really love the fabrics Kara chose for the patchwork - so many gorgeous prints and colours.  And the yellow measuring-tape twill-drawstring is perfection, I love it, and also the cross-word puzzle fabric on the bottom.  Notice how the Butterfinger wrapper up there is opened and empty ... I ate it before thinking to take a pic ... good willpower and self-discipline on show there.  

See the cute zig-zag detail stitching between the patchwork and the fab texty print?  Took me a little while to notice that as I was too busy looking at all the little patches.  Super-fancy and such a sweet little extra detail.  And see the cute little blue-flower fabric up there?  That's by the super-talented Karen of Blueberry Park. I was so happy that Kara included some of Karen's fabrics, she makes such gorgeous stuff. 

I have never even seen this pink and orange lining fabric before - really can't believe it, as pink and orange are a bit of a favourite colour-combo.  You can see the sweet zig-zag stitching in this pic too, isn't it perfection? 

So - that's Round 2 of the Sweet Pouch Swap done for us!  Thanks so much Alyce for coordinating this round, and thanks so much Kara for such a fun and happy swap experience ... though it's not over til the chili and Vegemite videos are live to the world .... stay tuned .... xoxo cat

.: Fathers' Day ideas :.

We are nothing if not helpful.  Fathers' Day is Sunday, 1 September here in Australia - so why not make your husband/partner/father/significant other a cushion?! - surely that's all they've ever wanted, and it's waaaaaay better than soap-on-a-rope. 

We have two panel designs to choose from - both in the shop now.  

{{just what every husband ever wanted}}

{{who needs a set of golf clubs when they can have a cushion instead?}}

{{TWO cushions for Fathers' Day?!  Score!!}}

Happy end-of-weekend to everyone.  xoxo cat

.: Panda Monium :.

We have a new screen-printed Home-ie design to share with you - he's sweet, he's cuddly, he's rockin' a 'xoxo' tattoo and is ready for fun - he's Panda Monium!

We printed Panda Monium for the first time just this past week - in purple and in black, both on natural Essex linen - panels are in the shop now.

We put a call out on instagram, to come up with a name for our gorgeous panda - and Marci suggested Panda Monium - which we both thought was absolutely perfect!  We've sent two panels to Marci as a little 'thank you' for the perfect name.  

This panda was sewn into a cushion for a sweet friend of Vee's oldest and my youngest - the super-awesome birthday party was this afternoon, so it's safe to share pics now.  

Happy weekend to you all.  xoxo cat

.: Geek Chic :.

A gorgeous, fun week in Brisbane.

Vee and I have both been to the Ekka with our families - we went on Saturday, Vee on Sunday - lots of food, rides, animals, cakes, quilts, show bags, people, fun.  We've had such beautiful weather this past Ekka week - it's like Spring has come early.    

{{my husband and youngest are up there}]

In the middle of getting the house packed up ready for painting, I've been squeezing in some sewing - with good reason!  

Remember the fabulous Retro Sunnies pattern from our last post?  The gorgeous Penny and Kerry sent me a surprise set of their new Geek Chic patterns, available now from Sew-Ichigo!  Can you imagine how excited I was to see their email? - this was the morning after I had checked both their blogs, and the Sew-Ichigo site the night before, lurking around looking for Geek Chic!  I am thrilled that these lovely, talented ladies thought to send me Geek Chic.  These patterns are just so fabulous and fun.  Here are all three pairs of specs together.

{{top to bottom - Retro Sunnies, H-Bo and EJ}}

These ones in the next pic are called 'EJ' as a tribute to Elton John.  I've pulled a heap of fabrics from my stash - anything I could find with a vague Elton John song reference - I've got more borders planned - we're talking jets, rocket men, candles, lions, matryoshkas (for Nikita ... told you there were some vague connections).  But what I really wanted was crocodiles ... I stared at and searched through my stash, muttering "surely I have crocodiles" ... but no.  Happily though - thanks to the wonderful instagram community, I have crocodile fabric flying towards me as we speak!  

{{waiting for crocodiles!}}

And these next gorgeous specs are called H-Bo - a reference to Penny and Kerry's friend Heather Bostic.  I don't know Heather, though I do follow her on instagram - so I know she is one of the amazingly talented crafty ladies from Portland.  So - I really did have to make these H-Bo specs out of fabrics designed by three other amazingly talented crafty ladies from Portland - Violet Craft, Monica Solorio-Snow and Mo Bedell. 

{{I love them}}

Thank you so much Penny and Kerry! - next up will be a Geek Chic mini!

Hope your week has been a good one.  Have a great weekend.  xoxo cat

.: this week's sewing :.

Just popping in to share a little of this week's sewing.

First up - an absolutely f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s retro sunnies paper-piecing pattern by the super-talented Kerry from verykerryberry - available through the current issue 14 of awesome e-zine, Fat Quarterly.  I love this pattern, it's so happy and fun - and the fabric-possibilities are pretty endless! 

The sunnies are made from (I think) Michael Miller fluro prints - a solid and a spot.  The lenses are Chicopee ladder dot, and the sweet hula girls are from a print I snapped up through an instagram de-stash sale (but I honestly can't remember who from!).

I will definitely be making more - I'd love to make a pair with birds flying across the lenses, like in the pair that Kerry made.  I'm hoping that the birds-in-flight print from Violet Craft's new Waterfront Park line will be the perfect print to use - just need to wait til my order arrives!

Next up - more paper piecing - this time a little origami boat by Rumi of Right Patterns on Etsy.  This was a super-quick little block to sew, and I loooove it so much.  The blue starbursts are Prints Charming and the newsprint is a Spotlight find - I think it looks like a little paper boat sailing along in the stars.  

This block would be so sweet sewn up from different text prints too.  This little boat will be sewn into a zip pouch pressie for a friend from church who just welcomed her first grandchild.  

And today's sewing - one more word block for my younger daughter's quilt.  Both girls have given me a list of words they'd like in their quilts.  One by one, I'm ticking them off.  

The letters are - as always - based on the patterns in Tonya Ricucci's awesome book 'Word Play Quilts'. 

{{do you spy the fish and the turtle?}}

{{more fish, a dog-with-a-bucket-on-his-head, and a glimpse of a starry horse}}

 I am d-e-t-e-r-m-i-n-e-d to finish both quilts in time for Christmas.  There's still about 3 words each to sew up, and they've both asked for more wonky stars and churn dashes.  They didn't actually ask for churn dashes - but I've made them one each already and they liked it, and asked for "more of that one".

In other news - I finished my Sweet Pouch Swap for Kara and posted it yesterday.  After all the sneak peeks here and on instagram, we agreed no more til the swaps have been received!! Kara posted hers the day before me, so hopefully we will each receive them at the same time!! Oh.  The.  Excitement.  

And in non-sewing news - we are getting the inside of the house painted in a couple of weeks, so have been busy boxing things up, taking pictures off the wall and generally getting things organised and ready for two weeks of chaos.  It will be so worth it - all white, and we're getting wallpaper in the front hallway, and the girls have each chosen a feature colour for their rooms.

Hope your week has been a good one.  xoxo cat 

.: Care blocks + a house block :.

We've just had the most gorgeous weekend here in Brisbane - low 20s and sun - perfection.  

Just popping in to share some sewing I did during the week.  First up - an Irish Chain block and asterisk  block for Merran, for our Care Circle in do.GoodStitches.  Merran had asked for bright, happy colours - think oranges, pinks, magentas - on a white background for the asterisk; and lime green on white for the Irish Chain. 

{{the asterisk was based on this tutorial, with fabric-size and corner modifications by Merran}}

Here they are together - I really should line up my photos better, especially when taking them on my cutting mat!  All the blocks together will make such a bright, happy quilt.

I had to buy some of Shannon's limited-release Aunty Cookie prints from her Etsy shop - love her designs so much.  I've sewn the girls a house-block each for their quilts (which I've promised to have finished by Christmas ...) - but only remembered to take pics of one block.

{{the measuring tapes are from Shannon's Hipster line with Riley Blake}} 

{{the roof is Prints Charming ... not sure of the bricks and the sky}} 

This week's sewing-plans are to finish my Sweet Pouch Swap for Kara, get started on a few Christmas things, and to make more blocks for the girls' quilts.  What are your sewing-plans for the week?   xoxo cat