.: bee blocks :.

Helloooo from hot, humid, hiding-in-air-con Brisbane!

Popping in to share a couple of bee blocks with you.  I'm pretty sure that my blogging-slackness over the past few months has meant that there are a few blocks I haven't yet shared ... but these blocks hit the post on Friday and just this morning, so I know I definitely haven't shared them yet!

First up is Jodi's block for our Care Circle of doGoodStitches.  The pattern is Anna Maria Horner's Spinning Stars.  Jodi requested that the middle of the block be scrappy green/teal/aqua, the ring be low volume whites, and the outside bit be alternating yellow and orange.  The block is huge - about 18 1/2 inches.  I love it, and can't wait to see the finished quilt - all the yellows and oranges will come together to make a great secondary pattern.  

And in a fabulous segue into Danielle's blocks for the AusModBee - here are some of them together with Jodi's star! 

Danielle created her own butterfly paper-pieced pattern, inspired by both Kumiko Fujita, and Rita from Red Pepper Quilts.  Each little butterfly is 5 inches square.  

Love them, they are so sweet and will look so fun flying all over the black background on the quilt.

Now that I've posted both sets of blocks, I'm officially caught up on all my bee-sewing!  I really want to now make a few more blocks for the girls' quilts, before I start on anything else.   ' til next time - hope you are avoiding any extreme heat or cold that's going on outside your house!  xoxo cat

.: October bee blocks :.

Did you like how I just totally ignored a three-week blogging-gap by moving straight on into October bee-blocks?  I did too.  

We're back at school here in Queensland, after a really great two week break.  I drafted a post with some holiday pics, but that can wait a little longer.

First up to share - pink cobwebs for Leanne of Daisy + Jack for our Care Circle of do.GoodStitches.  The pattern is by Marit of Quilt It. 

Love this block - I love all the pink, and the effect that will be created in the quilt, once all the blocks are joined together - all the pink strips will form 'cobwebs', and the white parts will look like four-pointed stars.   

All the pinks are from my stash, and the white on white text is the fabulous Annie's Farm Stand by Lakehouse Drygoods Designs - I do love a white on white. 

And next - blocks for Penny Poppleton for our AusModBee, using the awesome Constellations fabric by Lizzy House. 

Love this block + the fabrics.  And how great is the white on white Pearl Bracelets?! - I think that colourway is called 'Bright Star' - it's by Lizzy House too.  

These will make a gorgeous quilt too, can't wait to see it sewn up.  Penny's blocks have already arrived at her house, but I haven't posted Leanne's yet - our friend T has joined the Care Circle *yay* and I need to show her my blocks before they head off in the mail.  

Hope your last few weeks have been great.  See you soon.  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!

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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

.: oh hey hi we're still here :.

Oh hello.  It's been a while. 

Lots has been happening - just the usual stuff, life rolling on.  We've been printing orders, sewing, studying, taking part in the World's Biggest Orchestra, celebrating birthdays, baking, reading, driving - just stuff.

We had a custom order request for Finn McTrickster in purple - he's so gorgeous that we thought we'd share.

He's so sweet isn't he.  We'll print more, once our next Essex linen order arrives from the lovely Alice from Fresh Modern Fabric. 

In the odd half hour of time I've found over the last few days, I've been cutting and ironing my little fabric packages to send to the AusModBee girls.  They look so sweet, don't they?

Everyone will receive a fat-quarter-and-a-bit of text-print on a neutral background, and about 20 inches square of coloured scraps.  I am asking everyone to sew one word block - any word.  It's kind of tricky to know how much fabric to send everyone, so I sewed up a test block - I figured a seven-letter word was a good choice as a test run. 

I am so looking forward to what everyone chooses - any word, any size, any pattern.  I use the awesome 'Word Play Quilts' by Tonya Ricucci - but I am happy for everyone to use whatever pattern they feel most comfortable with.  My plan at this stage is to put all my word blocks with my x+ blocks, to make one super-sized-quilt.  I think ... we'll see. 

And in news overnight, I signed up for round 2 of the Sweet Pouch Swap! - I loved being part of it last time, when it was coordinated by the gorgeous Ros of Sew Delicious.  For this round, it's being coordinated by the lovely Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts.  Alyce set a limit of 100 swappers - and registrations hit 100 within five hours!  My swap partner is the fabulous Kara of Me and Elna - which is so awesome - I first met Ros when she was my partner in the Secret Santa Swap that Kara coordinated.  So it feels like things are coming full circle, ready to start all over again, and I am so excited to be sewing up something for Kara.  

Hope your past couple of weeks have been great fun and not too cold.    xoxo cat

.: July bee blocks :.

It's only the 9th but I've already finished my bee blocks - it's surely a record!  There's no real reason for the super-speediness - though we are getting the inside of the house painted in the next couple of months, so I am trying to work my way through my to-sew list before the house descends into total drop-sheet chaos.

First up - AusModBee blocks for Jess - Basketweave-Braid Stars from a paper-piecing pattern by Nydia of The ADD-Crafter. 

Jess sent a mix of gorgeous Sweetwater fabrics - Reunion, Hometown and Mama Said Sew.

It's an awesome block isn't it! - Jess' quilt will be gorgeous.  I love all the Sweetwater fabrics, and this block is a great way to include as many as possible.  The chain-piecing seemed to take forever, but once it was done, the blocks came together really quickly.  I really love this block, it's just so effective.  

And now - churn dashes! (I do love a churn dash) - for Rachel in our CARE group of do.GoodStitches.  Rachel had asked for any colour churn dash - though maybe blue, green, orange or pink - and for the background to be neutral.  There are some gorgeous blocks popping up on the CARE do.GoodStitches Flickr page - pop across for a look! 

I am loving orange and pink at the moment, so my colour-choices were pretty easy to make.  And since my blocks were pretty clearly girl-oriented, I figured I'd include some fussy-cut sweetness from Aneela Hoey's Little Apples range for the middle squares.  

I'm so happy to be back sewing and to be working my way through the to-sew list.  Hope your week has been a good one so far.   xoxo cat

.: AusModBee blocks for Julie :.

Julie is the Queen Bee of our AusModBee for June, and asked for 'stash-busting stars'.

We had free-range to make two 12 1/2 inch star blocks of our own choice.  Julie's fabric package was full of really pretty pastels in blue, pink and green.

Here are my two blocks.

Both blocks came from the fab book 'Shape Workshop for Quilters' by the Fat Quarterly team.



This one is called 'Eight Pointed Star' and was designed by Katy Jones of ImAGingerMonkey.

And this one is Wonky Star Nine-Patch and was designed by Brioni Greenberg of Flossy Blossy.

The blocks will hit the post to Julie tomorrow, to add to her growing pile of super-pretty pastel stars - they will all definitely come together to make a really sweet quilt.   

Vee and I got together today for a dummy-run of our first-ever screen-printing class, which is on this coming Sunday.  It was good to get back to basics - to draw up and cut out stencils, and print without using our super-awesome contraption that we screw our screens into, to stabilise them for printing.  We are now ready to roll - save for an epic packing-the-car session on Saturday afternoon.  

Hope your Monday was a good one.  xoxo cat 

.: 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

.: April AusModBee block 2 - for Bron :.

With a clear-ish calendar today, I managed to watch the final two episodes of Downton Abbey, series 3, AND sew up Bron's second AusModBee block.  Before talking about Bron's blocks, can I please just say - WHAT was with the terribly sad ending to Downton?  I mean, come on.  Matthew!!  Really?!  

Not. Happy.  Downton.  Writers.  *sigh*

Bron's first block was blogged here.  For her second block, after much ummm'ing, ahhh'ing and staring at Bron's fabrics, I chose Star of Virginia.  This version was created by Katie from Swim, Bike, Quilt, and was part of the Summer Sampler Series, hosted on Faith's Fresh Lemons Quilts blog.

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 Here are Bron's two blocks together.

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Bron's blocks are already in the hands of Australia Post and hopefully safely on their way south.  I really enjoyed sewing these blocks.  I especially love Denise's Star, and will have a go at that one in a different fabric mix.  

Here's to a happy week everyone.  xoxo cat

.: April AusModBee block 1 - for Bron :.

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April is Bron's month as Queen Bee for our AusModBee.  

Bron's fabric package contained a gorgeous selection of reds + aquas, with a white solid.  She has given us freedom to choose our two blocks, from a few suggestions she put up on Flickr.

This first block is called Denise's Star and the pattern is from Quilters' Cache.  I love star blocks, and had never seen this block before Bron included it in her suggestions.  The star-in-star design is just so cute.  The pattern is really straightforward - if I can follow it, believe me, anyone can! 

For block two, I am going to choose one of the blocks from the Summer Sampler Series from Faith's Fresh Lemons Quilts blog.   Or I might make a second Denise's Star.  

Happy Friday and happy weekend to you all.  It's raining here in Brisbane - so our last day of the school holidays is an inside one - movies, shops and pottering around at home.   xoxo cat

.: March AusModBee - block 2 :.

I finally made my second block for Charlotte, who is Queen Bee for March in our AusModBee.   My first block was blogged here. 

Charlotte asked for traditional blocks - or traditional with a modern twist - using Kona white, slate and bright pink.  I've gone for two friendship stars and two pinwheels.  The pinwheels needed a little border as I didn't have enough fabric left to make them bigger. 

Pretty darn happy with my points.  I've been learning so much being part of this Bee - the carefulness of my cutting and sewing have improved a lot.  There's still a long way to go, as I struggle with precision, but I'm on the way. 

Here are both my blocks together. 

They are in the good hands of Australia Post now, on their way south to Charlotte.  

More sewing to share tomorrow.  Hope your week is going well.   xoxo cat

.: March AusModBee block 1 :.

Charlotte is the queen-bee for March in our AusModBee.

Charlotte is making a modern sampler out of three solids, and has asked for traditional blocks - or traditional with a modern twist.  

The solids are Kona white, slate and bright pink.

Since I'm still pretty new to quilting, this is another awesome bee-challenge for me.  Solids + traditional.  I never know how to use solids, they freak me out a bit.  I love the colours Charlotte's chosen, and so it was on with the challenge of finding a good traditional block that would highlight them well. 

I've done lots of googling for blocks, lots of blog-looking, plenty of Pinterest searching, and heaps of book-flicking.  And for block number 1, I've gone with:

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It's 'Star within a Star' by Brioni Greenberg, and it's in the very excellent Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters book.  

I'm not even sure what the traditional star-block is called - maybe an Ohio star?  I'm very happy with this block though - and it finishes at exactly 12.5 inches, which is what Charlotte has asked for. 

Still thinking about what block number two will be.  Happy middle-of-the-week to you, hope you are getting less rain than we are in Brisbane.   xoxo cat

.: AusModBee - Jane's blocks :

Jane of QuiltJane is the Queen Bee for February in our AusModBee.

Jane is amazingly clever, and created her own paper-pieced block called 'Refractatorium'.  

I was really daunted by this block, as I have not had much experience at all in paper piecing.  We're talking TWO blocks, each with 64 pieces!!  I was so nervous about mucking it up. 

Here's a little step by step of my progress (really wishing I took more pics along the way).

{{chain-piecing the B-triangles}}

{{a pile of nearly-done B-triangles}}

{{a B-triangle, waiting to be trimmed}}

{{one B-triangle ... out of eight}}

Isn't it magic, how the triangles come together! 

Jane's pattern was excellent - right down to her cutting instructions for all the fabrics - and Lorena very kindly posted step-by-step pics of her block-making-process on Flickr for all the bee-girls to see.  The pics were so helpful. 

Here's the back of the sewn-together blocks.

{{yet to remove the papers}}

{{I watched the Oscars while removing the papers}}

{{back of blocks, with papers removed}}

And now the finished blocks!!  I can't tell you how happy I am with them, and what a huge sense of sewing-achievement I feel.  After being so daunted by these blocks - take a look at them!! 

I love Jane's fabric choices - really love them - some fabrics are standard across all the blocks, and then there are subtle differences in the greens, blues and black-on-white prints (mine were the little birds and a Summersville crosshatch).

{{I love the four different pinks in each block}}

{{yay!!}}

I should mention too, that I found Kerry's blog very helpful, with paper-piecing tips, and that through Kerry I found The Littlest Thistle blog - which has an excellent tutorial series called 'foundation paper piecing for the terrified'! - perfection. 

I am finally now brave enough to try some of the fabulous Sew-Ichigo paper-piecing patterns, and also Ayumi's popsicles!  So excited - I've long-admired Kerry, Penny (the Sew-Ichigo creators) and Ayumi's paper-piecing creations.  

Thanks Jane for an awesome block and challenge.  Now, pop across to Jane's blog and download a Refractatorium pattern to sew for yourself!     xoxo cat