.: 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

.: 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

.: sewing, holidaying + teaching :.

Happy holidays! - for the Queenslanders amongst you, at least - yahoo, yahoo, so happy to be on holidays!

Today we have a couple of in-progress sewing pics to share, and also - pics from our first-ever screen-printing class!! 

First up - Priscilla, Queen of the 'Burbs, moonlighting as a cockatoo-lamp.  Are you with me?  Joining her on the Curly-Pops sideboard is a little Echino owl.  I think it will all end up as a cushion cover.

And next, how awesome is this - Wonder Woman!!  The super-talented Kristy from Quiet Play called for a few pattern-testers for her new line of Lego super-hero paper-piecing patterns.  I was so on board! Kristy's patterns have the blessing of Lego, and will be available for free, from her blog.  Wonder Woman still needs a face, of course, hoping to move onto that this week.  Click through to Kristy's blog to see the start of her Lego Star Wars designs too - she's amazing!

And now - Vee and I taught our first-ever screen-printing class today, to ten gorgeous ladies from Brown Owl.  We all met up at Imogen's Art Space in Bardon - a really lovely, friendly space, which is sadly now closed - today was the very last day the space was used.  Imogen's farewell party was just last night!  

Here are a couple of pics of everyone hard at work on their designs - so many great ideas, lots of chatting and careful paper-cutting going on here.

And here are pics of nearly-everyone's fabulous prints! - I missed taking photos of a couple, which I'm really sorry about.  Take a look - and enjoy the awesome.

It was a really fun experience - we met some lovely people, learned a lot about the teaching-process, and were very inspired by everyone's ideas and cleverness.  We're looking forward to seeing pics of what everyone creates from their panels. 

Thanks so much to everyone who was able to come along today - and especially to Rebecca, who invited us along to teach.

Hope you have all had a happy weekend.   xoxo cat

.: show time for the home-ies :.

The lovely Elissa from Kelani Fabric Obsession is taking our home-ies panels, as well as our Step Aside Coffee panel, to the Craft and Quilt Fair in Sydney and Melbourne. 

Vee and I have been busy printing, packaging and sewing up sample cushions - and we are headed to the post office tomorrow to send it all to Sydney for the show (it's on 12 - 16 June). 

I wanted to take some pics of the cushions all together before they fly south - so I drove to Pillow Talk this morning - waited 20 minutes for it to open (I did have a takeaway coffee and instagram to distract me) - to buy a few size 18 cushion inserts.

Shame that Pillow Talk didn't have any size 18 cushion inserts.  Lucky that I had one at home.  So instead of a couple of pics showing you all the cushions ... start scrolling for 11 pics ... yes, 11 ... 

{{Priscilla, Queen of the 'Burbs - black on flax}}

{{Step Aside Coffee, loving the pom pom trim}}

{{Bela Hoo, purple on flax}}

{{Millie Mischief, blue on flax}}

{{Millie Mischief, pink on white}}

{{Finn McTrickster - our new colourway, red on flax}}

{{Finn McTrickster, orange on white}}

{{Pipsqueak, red on white}}

{{Lisey Meow Meow, blue on white}}

{{Bela Hoo, navy on white}}

{{Pipsqueak, red on flax}}

And here they are - dodgy night time lighting and a little blurry - all packed and ready to post.  Vee has all the panels at her house - she has been on a packaging frenzy.

Very happy to be sending a rather hefty package off tomorrow - and hope that Elissa and all the stall holders (and shoppers!) have an awesome few days at the Fair.     xoxo cat

.: Mad Quilters :.

{{my favourite folded panel}}

So it's been a little quiet on the blog-front these last few days.

Vee and I have been printing, ironing, cutting, folding, stickering (are you loving our new stickers?) and packaging.

This morning, we dropped off all these panels to the lovely Sharon and Jenny at Patches, ready for their trip into Mad Quilters tomorrow afternoon.

Mad Quilters is on at the RNA showgrounds this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I will be there on Saturday, helping out on the Patches stall - so please stop by and say hello if are Mad Quilting. 

Time to catch up on some sewing.  Hope your week has been a good one.  xoxo cat

.: behind-the-scenes glamour :.

Vee and I printed yesterday and again today and thought we would share a few pics.

It's oh-so-glamourous behind the scenes, isn't it?  Hope you noticed the peg on the floor in the pic above, and please don't miss the ladder and gas bottle in the next pic. 

Most of these panels are for the lovely ladies from Patches to take to Mad Quilters next weekend.   They have a fab stall planned, and I'm lucky to be going along on the Saturday to help out. 

The black Priscillas are for our shop though - we love how she's printed up on the natural Essex linen.  We have another couple of colours we'd like to try for her before we decide on our favourites.

Bet you're jealous of that garage floor - lucky Pipsqueak has been staring at it for quite a while today.  Millie Mischief is thankful she gets to stare straight ahead instead.  Probably at the gas bottle and ladder though, shame. 

We have some more exciting plans in store for our little Home-ies panels - between now and then, we have a lot more printing to do.  

Hope your week has been a good one.  School disco tomorrow night, so that can only be a capital-A-awesome end to the week.   xoxo cat

.: Priscilla, Queen of the 'Burbs :.

Meet Priscilla.  She's Queen of the 'Burbs and is waiting for you in the shop now.  We are playing around with ink-colours, until we decide on our absolute favourites.  We're more than a little excited that one Priscilla has already sold and will be soon jetting off to live in the UK. 

Here's to a fab time in your 'burb today.  xoxo cat and vee

:: real life will resume shortly ::

Ohhh the blogarama has been put in the corner like Baby as life rolls on.  As we all know, no one puts Baby in a corner.  So we're ba-ack ready to have the time of our lives. 

Our second-and-last-and-that-is-enough market is on this Saturday - the Brisstyle Indie Designers' Market, 9.00 am til 4.00 pm in the grounds of St Augustine's Church, on Racecourse Road in Hamilton. 

It's a seriously fabulous market - we have both been as shoppers before, but this will be our first time as stall holders.  The gorgeous Helen, Belinda and Sam have done an amazing job coordinating the market - they are seriously magic-makers - and we are very excited. 

You can find us in the courtyard entry way into the hall - right by the toilets in fact, so stop by on your way to the loo.  Handy.  We're hoping people drink a lot. 

We'll have teatowels, ipad zip pouches and panels, panels and more panels.  Cushion panels in 8 designs, plus our homies.  Too much Christmas shopping is never enough. 

In other sewing news, I have finally finished the two bags that will be our school teacher pressies this year.  Many pics follow.  Starting now. 

{{a super big laptop zip-bag}}

Can I please just say - do notice the straps and zip - yes, I have finally figured out how to do a zippered bag WITH sewn-in straps.  I'm surprised there hasn't been more fainting over this significant piece of news. 

{{yes, a subtle reference to our lovely teacher originally being from England}}

{{the bag - note the 'B for blackboard' ... no 'W for whiteboard' or 'S for smartboard' though ...}}

{{detail - loving the computer keys and the France map}}

{{the lining and pocket - how much are we all loving the Melody Miller typewriters, eh?}}

{{a tote bag.  no zip.  red is the theme}}

{{more red.  more Melody Miller}}

{{Amy Butler lining and pocket}}

{{the back of the red tote bag}}

{{the students, with aching arms, holding their pressies for their teachers, before I let them finally hop into the pool}}

OK.  We'll be back with a market wrap up, and an update on our Secret Santa Swap.     xoxo cat