.: swap goodies :.

Will this steamy, humid weather ever end?  I know it's February, I know it's summer, I know we live in Brisbane.  But come ON.  Enough already.

In happier, weather-irrelevant news, I'm here to share a couple of gorgeous swap packages I've received.

First up is this beautiful mini-quilt made for me by Rebecca in round 4 of the Down Under Doll Quilt swap (last year!  I posted about the mini I made here).

I really love this little mini - it has my favourite colour combo of pink and orange, and the flowers in the vase are so bright and happy.  The pattern is the Flower Pot from Stitched in Color-Rachel's Penny Sampler quilt. 

And here's a pic of the back, just to show you Rebecca's perfect quilting!

Just today, I picked up this package of gorgeous from the post office.  It's from Jennie of Clover and Violet, and was part of the Sweet Pouch Swap (I blogged about my swap package, made for Jennie, here).

Isn't it fabulous? - I love the sweet pouch, the low volumes are (I think) all from Sweetwater, and the little aqua accent goes perfectly with them.  All the sweet treats are just perfect.  The Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark is the most exciting - I got a little addicted to it when we were staying at the Fairmont in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco last month - there are three different Ghirardelli chocolate shops right on site ... 

Jennie has included a super-fancy recessed zipper.  So impressed, I have never quite managed to sew one.  

That little tube of handcream is inside my handbag already.

So, that's me caught up on my gorgeous swapping news.  Very happy.  Here's to a cooler weekend - maybe even a little rain, our crunchy grass would love that.  'til next time xoxo cat

.: the catch-up post about the DUDQS :.

So I haven't written a blog post since before Christmas ... we flew out to the USA on December 27th, and had an awesome three weeks over there.  I'll post about that soon.  Since getting home, we've been busy catching up on all the to-do things, getting back to work, to school - including starting high school, gah! - and just generally getting stuff done.  

There's so much to catch up on and share here, but in looking back through recent posts, I realised I haven't yet shared the mini I made for round 4 of the Down Under Doll Quilt Swap! - this is what I made for the lovely Kirsten (who is a fellow bee in our AusModBee - I was very happy when I saw she was my partner!).  The pattern is 'Starburst Spools' by ChariseCreates.  Get ready for lots of pics. 

Of course, I've now realised I don't have a pic of the gorgeous mini I received from Rebecca - I will include it as part of my next post, but in the meantime, please click through and take a look at Rebecca's pic on Flickr.  It's really gorgeous - I love the design, fabrics + colours.  Rebecca included a few Bonnie + Camille fat quarters too! 

Happy weekend to you all, and happy 2014 ... a little late in saying that.  We saw in the new year at Disney World in Orlando! - gosh that seems like ages ago now.  'til next time, xoxo cat

.: Down Under Doll Quilt Swap round 4 - the start :.

Lovely Charlotte put out a call on instagram, to encourage sign-ups for round 4 of the Down Under Doll Quilt Swap.  It's a mini-quilt swap coordinated through Flickr for sew-ers in Australia and New Zealand.  Partners are secret - meaning I know who I am sewing for (but it's a surprise for her), but I do not know who is sewing for me.

My partner put up a mosaic on Flickr - thank goodness - and mentioned a few favourite/not favourite colours too.

Based on all that, I am making "Starburst Spools", a gorgeous paper-pieced pattern by Charise Creates. 

I loved choosing all the fabrics for this - four different fabrics each in blue, green, pink (which was very nearly purple instead) and orange - plus eight different spool-end fabrics.  Initially I was going to use different low volume fabrics for the background, but I was worried that they would detract from the main pattern, so kept it to just the Architextures print (which I love). 

The one fabric I would go back and change is the "green" spool - I really wish I'd fussy-cut a different colour name instead, from the same fabric - so that the green fabric said "blue" (or another colour) instead.  That would be kind of fun. 

Everything came together pretty well, but I will not lie - the spool-ends nearly defeated me! - they are tiny and I kept misjudging the size of the long skinny piece needed for either side of the spool-end.  So there was a lot of unpicking and re-sewing going on. 

Now that the top is finished, I am going to leave it a little while and think about backing and binding. 

Hope your weekend was great.  xoxo cat