.: weekend sewing :.

I haven't shared bee blocks for ages, so thought I'd share these happy Lady of the Lake blocks I made over the weekend for Leanne.

Our doGoodStitches Care Circle has a little side-bee going on - the 'Sew Sisters' - and we have two months rather than just one, to make blocks.

Leanne asked for her blocks to include pink, lime, orange (wahoo, my favourite colour combo!), plus red, aqua and yellow.  I snuck in a few tiny fussy cuts.

These blocks were fun to make, and much quicker than the post-block fabric-mountain fold-and-tidy-up!   I sewed them up while watching Season One of 'Little House on the Prairie' with my youngest - she'd never seen it before and was completely taken by the Ingalls and their life in Walnut Creek :-)

I sewed up another couple of words blocks for my girls' quilts, again using the fantastic Moda Spell it with Fabric letter patterns.  Both my girls are huge readers and are rarely without a book tucked under their arm.



For the Moda letters, I cut each block out completely and then pop all the pieces inside the relevant page in the pattern book - and then flip through the book and sew the blocks in alphabetical order.   Once the letters are finished, I sew a one-inch-cut strip to the right-side of each letter (unless it's not needed), before adding it to the next letter.

Since this word was 'read', I made sure to use text-fabrics for all the backgrounds.

I couldn't help a bit of fussy-cutting from the wonderful Carrie Bloomston's Collage text-print for the A's.

And I liked the effect created from fussy-cutting the 'flower stripes' from Melody Miller's Ruby Star Polka Dot handbags.

Hope you found some time to sew over the weekend.  xoxo cat 

.: WIP Wednesday - quilt-accountability :.

I've been making blocks for my girls' quilts AND for my + the husband's quilt for an embarrassingly long time.

So long in fact, that my girls' tastes in fabrics and blocks have matured and changed - what's with kids growing up?! - and as well as sewing my own blocks, I've also now asked for blocks for our quilt from not one but TWO bees, stretching over two years ... oh yes, all three quilts have been several YEARS in the making.

The pics below are all of the DFTBA (from the Vlogbrothers' Don't Forget To Be Awesome tagline - if you haven't heard of them, make a cup of tea and click through for a little watch of some of their You Tube videos, they're very awesome) and 'sleep' blocks I made during the holidays.

It's time to finish these quilts!  I'm so very close with all three quilts - I need to make three more words each for the girls - then add them to the various houses, stars, churn dashes, log cabins and x+ blocks that are ready to roll.  Layout is going to take an age - and then I know filler-blocks will have to be made - but I'm so close!

I've been calling the girls' quilts The Blue and Yellow, and The Green and Purple - but now they're The Blue, Yellow, Red and Purple (The BYRP), and The Green, Purple and Blue (The GPB), since we've had a bit of movement in the favourite-colour stakes.

Our quilt is to be a random mix of words, x+'s, houses - plus every random, orphan block I've ever made is going to make its way into it - two Lori Holt bras are in the block-pile, a couple of pairs of Penny's undies, oh look, the block-pile is random and varied.  And they're all just going to magically work together when it comes time to lay them all out, I promise you.  I can't wait actually, I know it's going to look very awesome, somehow.

I should say a little something just about these blocks you're having to look at.  They're the Moda 'Spell it with Fabric' letter patterns, which are fabulous and so straightforward and fast to make.  The purple DFTBA and green sleep are for my older daughter's GPB quilt.  And the blue DFTBA and purple sleep are for my younger daughter's BYRP quilt.  I've quite liked making the backgrounds pretty much the same for each word block - so the girls' will have 'matching' words in their quilts.

Part of the reason these quilts are taking me forever, is my fussy-cutting obsession and consequent inability to just cut fabric into strips and sew it back together.  I have this real need to fussy-cut wherever possible, and struggle with just using fabric 'normally' - I see it as a bit of a wasted opportunity to let the fabric shine - unless of course it's not a fussy-cutting kind of fabric.  And I know my aesthetic is WAY too busy and too colourful for a lot of people, but that's ok - we can't all make and like the exact same kind of quilts because that would be odd, boring and no fun at all.

I also like to squeeze a bit of meaning into my quilts where possible - so I do hope you've noticed the sleeping girl in the 'L' backgrounds, the reading girls in one of the 'E' backgrounds, and that I've specifically chosen 'love', 'happy' and 'dream' for the other 'E' backgrounds.  The thing is - I notice, and that's enough!

Let's just see how long it is before I'm back sharing more blocks for these three quilts ... surely not too long ... though now that school's back, I need to get back on track with my doGoodStitches and bee blocks, plus finish my Cotton+Steel mini swap.

Linking up - for the very first time! - with Lee's WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Enjoy the rest of your week everyone.  xoxo cat

.: Round the World Blog Hop :.

The Round the World Blog Hop has landed here, thanks to a tag from the lovely Kirsty of Bonjour Quilts - it's taken a couple of WEEKS to bounce around Brisbane from Kirsty's place to here - I had such good intentions of writing and publishing a post before we went away on hols, but end-of-term and packing-for-holidays combined to leave the good intentions unrealised.  We've since been to Sydney, Canberra and Dubbo - but we are home again and it's time to unleash those good intentions.

You will by now have seen lots of Round the World posts - it's fun to read a little behind-the-scenes action in our Bloglovin' feed each week.  I'm not even sure who started the blog hop, but I AM sure that by now it's bounced around the world several times already.

I met Kirsty at Camille's Red Letter Day class a few months ago, and we've since caught up a couple of times for a coffee, a chat, and a little look at fabric.  Kirsty's recently released her very awesome Diamonds in the Deep quilt pattern - click through and take a look.

And now on with the questions.

1. What am I working on

Much of my sewing time is spent on bee-blocks, swaps and gifts for others.  I really do need to make time to sew more for my family and home.  The four projects I really want to concentrate on in the short term - hopefully before Christmas-sewing gets cracking anyway - are:

- Nested Churn Dash quilt.  After attending lovely Jane's class recently, and getting a move on chain-piecing my blocks, I managed to sew all my blocks together after getting home from Dubbo last week.  This one now just needs to be quilted (not by me!) and bound.  I love it.  Jane's pattern is here.

[close up of the corner stones - Cotton+Steel lions!]

- starting to plan my combined 'x+ word' (or 'cross plus word') quilt.  I made a heap of x+ blocks last year and then thought to add them to the word blocks I received from the AusModBee girls.  I've decided to now also ask for word blocks in my new Sew Sisters bee - so hopefully - by the Christmas holidays, I'll have all my word blocks and can start working on a layout, combining them with my x+ blocks.   Here are a few favourite x+ blocks, and a close up of the newspaper cat print, which I think is hysterical - those cat faces!

- quilts for my girls.  I'm like a broken record with this one - but seriously - I've never made my girls a quilt.  Shocking.  I have a pretty big pile of blocks sitting ready to go, but still need to make l-o-o-o-o-o-o-ts more, so I'm going to commit to a block a week each, and hopefully have them ready to sew together by the Christmas holidays.  The blocks are a mix of houses, words, stars, churn dashes, log cabins ... which is possibly why it's taking me so long - there's no real plan and no pattern for any of the blocks - I'm just making blocks and words for the girls in colours that they like, and hoping that they will look very awesome when sewn together.  THAT's the plan!

- Teeny Weeny Swap. This is a swap started by Berene of the Vancouver MQG and Lorena of the Greater Western Sydney MQG.  They had a few spots left open, and Lorena kindly contacted the Brisbane MQG to fill them - wahoo! - all the spots were snapped up very quickly.   This is a secret swap, with a few rules, the main one being you have to sew with teeny weeny pieces.  I have a plan AND a pattern for this one, but to get with the Teeny Weeny theme, I've sewn up a little patchwork panel using 1 1/2" squares.  Some of the girls will be sewing with much smaller pieces than these, but these squares are teeny weeny enough for me!

2. How does my work differ from those also in my genre

I'm not sure what my genre is - sewing-wise, I make quilts, bags, cushions, zip pouches, coasters - and Vee and I also design and print fabric panels.  There's lots going on.  One point of difference might be my fussy-cutting obsession - in pretty much every project I've ever made, I've fussy-cut something for it.  I can't think of a single thing I've made, where fussy cutting hasn't been involved.  So maybe that's a point of difference.   That, and I have a lot of trouble sewing with solids.  So - fussy-cutting and not-solids - we'll run with those two.

3. Why do I create what I do

I love to make bright, happy things to have about the house and to give as gifts or for bees and swaps.  I like to have a bit of humour and meaning in everything I sew too - whether that humour and meaning comes across doesn't really matter, as long as I know it's there!  Essentially, I love to sew and design, and get a little twitchy if too many days go by when I'm not making something.

4. How does my creative process work

I think a lot about who I am making something for, and spend a lot of time looking at my stash and thinking through what I'm going to make.  I'll change out fabrics pretty often even once I've started sewing, as I like each piece to be exactly right.  I draw sketches and scribble fabric ideas down - such as in the little fabric-table I made for my Nested Churn Dash quilt.

I'm very messy when I'm making something too - there's always a fabric mountain sitting next to my cutting mat - but I do try to fold it all away before starting on the next project.  That doesn't always happen though, and once I can't find a particular fabric that's buried in the mountain, I know it's time to stop and tidy up.

As for my blogging creative-process - that's way too random and reactionary, and I'm trying to make it more organised.  Right now, if I make something, I then take pics and write a blog post.  If I don't make something, I don't take pics and don't write a blog post.  I'd like to try and improve on that very basic, unplanned, setting-the-bar-very-low situation - by possibly planning a few posts (what?!), linking up with weekly linky parties, and also blogging about our beyond-sewing interests.  I've been thinking a lot about the 'why do we blog' question since having a drink with the fabulous Angie in Canberra (more on that in another post - but it was really awesome to meet and chat with Angie!).

So - that's pretty much it for our Round the World Blog Hop.  Thanks for tagging us Kirsty.  It probably won't surprise anyone to know that I've not organised to tag anyone ... but thankfully the blog hop will continue hopping round the world and not stop with me (that makes me think of primary school chain letters! - thankfully there's no 'pass it on to six people or else' pressure!).

Our school hols are at an end - just one more day - and then it's on with term 4.  Hope your long weekend is a good one.  xoxo cat

.: words and books :.

How is your week going?  We're halfway through!  Looking forward to a day off tomorrow, after the kids join their school-mates to march in the local ANZAC Day parade.  There was a really great ANZAC Day assembly at school this morning - lovely choir singing and strings playing, and an excellent talk given by a member of the local RSL.  It's so awesome to see the kids taking it all so seriously and learning a few things about the meaning of the day as well.

In sewing news, I'm just popping in to share the blocks I've made in the last few days for the girls' quilts.  The colour-themes (just as a reminder ...) are purple/green/blue and blue/yellow/red.  The girls have just chosen words for me to sew into blocks.  First up is 'read'. 

{{all letters are from Tonya Riccuci's Word Play Quilts book.  And the background is Madrona Road haystacks}}

I spent a bit of time fussy-cutting with Tula Pink's gorgeous Birds and the Bees fabric for the 'e'.

And a bit of fussy-cutting went on too, to make sure I managed to include a rabbit under the tree, in the 'd'.

Not much fussy-cutting went on for 'draw', but I was very happy to discover the circles lining up in the 'r' after I'd cut the strip.

And then today's sewing.  Finally, finally, FINALLY, my copy of Ayumi Mills' Patchwork Please arrived!!  I have long loved Ayumi's beautiful creations and patterns, and have really been looking forward to her book hitting my post office box. 

It is a gorgeous book, full of beautiful and sweet projects.  As soon as I saw the Books-for-Baby quilt, I had to drop everything and sew up a book each for the girls' quilts.

{{Owl and the Pussycat by Heather Ross + spines from the recent Infinity line}}

{{see the Sweet Dreams and heart?  from Violet Craft's Madrona Road 'memoirs'}} 

{{do you spy 'quilt'? - from Sweetwater's Mama Said Sew}}

I can't tell you how much I LOVE this book-block.  The quilt in Ayumi's book is made up of about 16 books, I think (without getting up from my chair to check, sorry!), and it is just so gorgeous.  I have so many fabric-ideas to make lots more of these books - I can't wait to find some time to start fussy-cutting!

Hope your week is going well so far and that you enjoy the next few days.  xoxo cat

.: sewing with tiny animal forks :.

This has been the most beautiful weekend in Brisbane - gorgeous clear blue skies and not too hot.  Perfection.  

Just popping in to share the blocks I've sewn up over the weekend for the girls' long-overdue, long-neglected quilts.  I think I'm up to about 15 blocks each now, but it's been slow going.  I reeeeeeally want to finish them.  Really really really.  Need to put them at the top of the list. 

{{wonky star for The Blue and Yellow (and Red) quilt}}

{{wonky star for The Green and Purple (and Blue) quilt}}

{{churn dash for The Blue and Yellow}}

{{churn dash for The Green and Purple}}

{{the tiny forks ... do you spy the cat-buddies?!}}

You may have noticed the Bento Box fabric, in the middle of the stars and churn dashes.  It arrived during the week, from Hawthorne Threads.  The sole reason I couldn't go past a half yard was those forks.  The girls love sushi - and there's a LOT of sushi cuteness in the fabric - but I HAD to snap up those forks!!  The forks (well one each) go in the girls' lunchboxes every day so they can eat their fruit salad with them.  Even on days when 'fruit salad' means 'bunch of grapes'.  Things taste better when speared with a tiny animal fork.  

Hope your weekend has been very fun and sunny.  xoxo cat