:: the one about the markets ::

Our market career has started, peaked and quite possibly may be over.  Well, for 2012 anyway.

{{our market hotspot. literally}}

We set up shop at the Brisstyle Indie Designers' Market yesterday, in the gorgeous grounds of St Augustine's Church in Hamilton.

We had an awesome little corner of the market.  Honestly.  It's just that in Brisbane's hideous hot humidity, Vee and I baked like Christmas chickens.  We so glam. 

{{cute, right}}

It was lovely to see the Brisstyle girls again, and to meet so many new Brisstylers too.  It is such an awesome organisation, coordinated by such gorgeous women, who are so generous in giving their time and energy to supporting and helping the crafty types of Brisband and beyond.

{{how could you not go crazy for that?!  the coffees weren't for sale}}

The market was quiet as a mouse though.  It had been incredibly well advertised.  Amazingly well.  But it was just Quiet City. All day.

{{nice rack}}

On the upside, the quietness meant that Vee and I had plenty of time to tag-team shop the gorgeous stalls.  Seriously, there was SO MUCH great stuff to buy.  And buy, we did. 

The only purchase that I have photographed - so far - are these gorgeous little jugs from Raw Ceramics.  Come oooonnn.  How cute are they?  Love them.  All for me.

{{so gorgeous.  so buying more.}}

So that's us done with markets for now.  On the upside, due to Quiet City, we have lots of gorgeous stuff to upload to the shop.  Which we're tag-team doing right now.  Due to the oh-so-slow internet connection in our part of Brisbane, the uploads will probably take us into tomorrow.  Allowing time too of course for proper concentrating while 'Homeland' is on tonight.  

We'll do a quick post to let you know when we've uploaded all our new shop stuff - because we are talking a SALE - yes, our first ever SALE.  Get excited.  Get shopping.   

Happy last week of school to you all.  Even if it's not even your last week of school.  It so is ours!! 

xoxo cat

 

:: thank you ::

We had a great time at market last Friday.

{{cushions, zip pouches, panels, sewing kits}}

Fuelled by our oh-so-cleverly-packed chocolate-coated muesli bars and water, we made it through the market evening.

{{teatowels, bracelet kits and Christmas decorations, sitting on the contraband extra-table we managed to snag}}

Lots of passers-by, lots of lookers (as in people-looking, I don't mean spectacular-looking-people, though perhaps there were a few of those too ...), and lots of buyers.

Lots of lovely comments and feedback.

Lots of our stuff went home with lots of lovely people.

{{are you loving the cute signs and cushion?!}}

So - thank you very much to everyone who was able to come along and join in our market experience.  

((I should mention that the above pics were all taken after we had finished our afternoon set-up, and before the market had actually opened ... a LOT of people come through the market ... honestly ... note to self, take a few 'atmospheric crowd shots' next time)). 

Our hot market favourite was our 'Normal Family' cushion - sold out, and we have had a few orders since.  

Over the weekend, the awesomely creative brain that lives inside Vee's head, came up with a few new - very clever, very funny, you need them on your lounge - cushion panel designs.  They have been sent off to Spoonflower and will be cut up and ready for our next market.  We will also upload panels to our Etsy shop (which has been looking a little empty lately).

Vee and I met for a coffee and debrief on Monday.  We have our printing and sewing lists sorted for the Brisstyle BiDM December 8 market.  We are ready to roll. 

Considering how exhausted we were by the end of the night last Friday, we think we'll be needing a little more than a couple of muesli bars and water to get through a whole DAY of marketing.   A little lie down during the day might be in order too.  

Hope your week has been a good one.  'til next time  xoxo cat

:: long time no post::

It's been so long since I posted, I nearly forgot how to log in to Blogger .... nah, not really, but it's been a while.

Vee and I caught up for coffee this week and a market-debrief.  Oh my GOSH we had a fabulous market night!!  Over 800 people came through the door, so it was a little overwhelming, but so much FUN, setting up our stall, then chatting with all our lovely customers.  We barely had time to sip our champagnes, it was just so busy.  Here are a few pics of our stall:

Are you loving Vee's massive catandvee cushion?  We had one person ask if it was for sale ... (it's not).

Check out our brand new stamp, are you loving it?  Probably not as much as we are ... We bought it here.   We made 80 of the little jewellery kits, and only had three left, so we were really happy about that - we sewed so many drawstring-bags and were very pleased they went home with other people!

Here are a few close-up pics of our stall:

Phew.  So much fun.

In other sewing news, I've been busy this weekend sewing up two quilt tops (well, really, they're only 'throws', they're not that big).  They're for Christmas pressies for my kids' two fabulous teachers at school.  I'll post more pics when they're finished, but here are the fronts:

This one is for Mrs D - it's a disappearing nine-patch, using most of a Punctuation by American Jane layer-cake, with a border using precious jelly-roll strips from the Urban Chiks 1974 line. 

And I've had quandries over this one, for Miss B.  It's most of a Terrain by Kate Spain layer-cake.  I sewed it together first, just as basic cake-squares, and it was all finished, ready to roll.  But I wasn't quite happy with it, so sliced into it with the rotary cutter and re-sewed all the strips together.  I'm leaving it overnight and think I'll add a border tomorrow - I bought all the colour-ways of the gorgeous 'tear-drop' fabric in half-yards - it was supposed to be for binding, but I think it will stretch to borders as well. 

I love making quilts - small quilts - but I don't love following patterns, and much prefer really basic designs that let the fabrics speak for themselves.  Well - either that or I'm really lazy and am super-bad at the precision cutting and sewing required for points to match up and patterns to come together nicely... 

Hope your weekend has been happy.  Roll on school holidays, they can't come soon enough.    xoxo cat