.: spell it with fabric :.

I've seen lots of #spellitwithfabric and #spellitwithmoda projects on instagram - enough fun, gorgeous stuff that I clicked and bought the little pattern book recently from The Quilters' Store.  

The patterns are great - very straightforward and easy to follow.  And just last night, I had the chance to sew up one of the letters for the first time, to make a super-easy and quick zip pouch for a pressie.

The 'J' fabric is from Rashida Coleman-Hale's Cotton + Steel collection, and the cats are by Lizzy House. 

Of course, my favourite-ever Spell It with Fabric/Moda project is Camille's quilt, that we saw at her trunk show a couple of months ago!  There are vastly better pics of it on Camille's blog here. 

Happy weekend to you all, whatever you are doing.  We are having our first weekend WITHOUT NETBALL since term 1, wahooo!  xoxo cat

.: my Sweet Pouch Swap for Jennie :.

Morning everyone, I'm popping in before the school run to share the pouch I made for Jennie in the latest round of the Sweet Pouch Swap, which has been coordinated by the gorgeous Ros.

I did a little stalking of Jennie's blog and instagram, and found she has three beautiful children, so I made a pouch with a little porthole for each of them - using the porthole how-to in Lu Summers' excellent Quilt Improv book.

It's only right this minute, in uploading the pics, that I've realised I forgot to make a little tab for the end of the zipper!  Oh good grief, look at that awful long end-y bit of the zipper dangling down!  I'm so sorry Jennie, I can't even believe I didn't notice that before ... life's been a little chaotic these last few weeks since getting home from the US and getting sorted for school and catching up on life ... but evenstill ... gah!

Are you loving all the treats, there are so many of our favourites! - Natural Confectionary Company lollies, Cadbury creme eggs, Marvellous Creations (my girls' favourites!), mini eggs and Furry Friends.  And I made a couple of quick trips to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary for some little koala-y goodies for Jennie's children. 

I added the babushka doll tab, as I noticed Jennie had recently-ish made a gorgeous big churn dash quilt, using lots of babushka doll fabric ... oh the things you notice with a bit of blog stalking!

The gorgeous fabric on the back is from a little swap with the lovely Frances from Miss Matatabi.   And the lining fabrics are the fab PamKittyMorning and Lu Summers' Summersville (link to Lu's blog above).

The pouch + goodies are on their way to the USA - I was a little late in posting them, but they should hopefully arrive in the next week or so.  I love the Sweet Pouch Swap, it's a fun thing to be part of, I've met some really great sewing buddies through it, and it's really well coordinated by Ros and Alyce (they take it in turns). 

Hope you have a happy Wednesday!  'til next time, xoxo cat

.: open-wide :.

Don't look now, but we've done two blog posts in two days!!  Shut the front door and hold the phone. 

I'm back today to share pics of the two open-wide zip pouches I made from the genius Noodlehead tutorial - one each for my daughters' awesome teachers at school.  Both of these gorgeous ladies are crafty, so I filled one with wool from Suzy Hausfrau, and the other with fabric-y pre-cuts.  

Each pouch features our Awesomeville 'Hello Sunshine' panel, and a whole lot of other super sweet fabrics.  Bring on the photos.  They are in no particular order - just the order in which I took them and uploaded them.   

{{King of Cups fabric by the awesome Amy from PennyCandyHandmade}}

{{sew in love button card fabric by the gorgeous PamKittyMorning}}

{{are you loving the meaning behind 'three o'clock is a sweet time'?! -- since that's when school finishes ... }}

{{I used the cute Spotlight selvedge fabric inside each pouch - and here's a peek at the MillaMia wool from Suzy Hausfrau}}

OK, thanks for indulging me in the photo over-load.  I love the Noodlehead tutorial, I love the pouches, I need to make one or two for me! 

And now it's time for a wine.  Fingers crossed for three blog posts in three days ... no pressure .... Happy weekend to you all  xoxo cat  

.: Eve's open-wide zip pouch :.

So a couple of weeks ago, I went along to our friend S's house, to learn a little more about crochet - lovely class, lots of fun.

I sat next to Vee and my good buddy Eve, and we got talking about needing a good-size pouch to carry out crochet goodies around in.  Totally essential.

Fast forward to today - Eve's birthday - and here's my pressie for her!  It's safely in Eve's hands now, so I can share the pics I took yesterday. 

I used Anna's open-wide zipper-pouch tutorial, and made my starting panels 12 x 15 inches - which is just a little bigger than Anna's biggest size of 11 x 14 inches.

{{ruler fabric and cross-stitch fabric are from Shannon Lamdens' new range for Riley Blake.  Hearts are Prints Charming for Spotlight}}

 I think the zipper is 18 inches - or maybe 16 inches - I didn't cut it down at all, just sewed a little tab over the end.

You can fit a LOT of wool inside - the three balls up there look very lonely, don't they.

I totally misjudged the 'E' placement, I should have made it sit a little higher up - and was a little disappointed when I turned the pouch out to find that all the cute ruler-fabric under the 'E' - as well as the bottom-edge of the little blue cross-stitch border around the 'E' - had disappeared to the bottom-side of the pouch!   I boxed the sides at about 4 inches in from the corners - so just need to remember that for next time - don't.use.a.cute.feature.fabric.right.down.the.bottom! 

But I LOVE this pattern, and really love the enormous size of the pouch - I really want to make one to keep, so I can cram it full of wool and crochet hooks so that there are plenty of crocheting-options for when I am sitting patiently at violin lessons, piano lessons, jujitsu, in the car at school pick up ... ooooh the possibilities ... 

Happy birthday Eve, and happy week everyone  xoxo cat

.: zip zip zip :.

Well hello on a dark, rainy Sunday afternoon in Brisbane.

Just popping in to share a little zip pouch, made for a friend who is not having a fun time lately.

The little cup is the espresso cup from Sew Ichigo's fab Parisienne Cafe set of patterns.  The fabrics are all from a bundle of vintage Japanese prints I picked up at a Craft + Quilt fair a few years ago - I think from Quilters' Barn in Victoria.

Inside is a cute little Japanese bowl + chopsticks print.

The coloured pencils are for scale - I just took pics too of an e-n-o-r-m-o-u-s zip-pouch I made for a friend's birthday, a shade bigger than the biggest size in Anna's open-wide tutorial.  Before I can share the pics though, I need to give it to her, for her birthday tomorrow! 

Hope your weekend has been a good one.  xoxo cat

.: be part of the Parisienne Set :.

Did you see that the fabulous Sew Ichigo girls have released a new set of patterns? - Parisienne Cafe.  It is just divine - espresso cups, a tea pot, coffee press and coffee grinder.  I am particularly in love with the teapot - such a great shape. 

Penny and Kerry are each running giveaways of the Parisienne Cafe set on their blogs - click through on Sew and Ichigo above and leave a comment to enter - not sure when their giveaways end but it'll be soon. 

I popped across to the Sew Ichigo shop yesterday, so I could buy and download the pattern, and have it ready and waiting to sew something up.  But then - surprisingly - I couldn't settle into the awesome TV-viewing that is Celebrity Apprentice last night, until I had ducked into the sewing-space and sewn up a little espresso cup.

{{neigh}}

Next up will be the teapot.

And emerging from the sewing-chaos that is my cutting-table this morning - a quick little birthday pressie zip pouch for a friend of my oldest daughter.  Yes, her name starts with N...

... and yes, she is Australian-born-Irish.

We posted off quite a few parcels yesterday - some shop orders, some surprise thank-you pressies, and Jess' new pincushion too.  Thanks so much again to everyone who entered our giveaway, it was a really nice experience.

Madly trying to tick things off the ever-growing sewing list this week, while still squeezing in plenty of down-time in an attempt to keep things sailing smoothly and calmly at home.  

Hope your week is a happy one.  xoxo cat

.: yodel-worthy :.

There is an inspiring, talented and gorgeous lady by the name of Cam.  Online, she 'lives' at Curly Pops.

I found Cam through instagram I think, and quickly fell in love with the awesome fabrics that she designs.  She is really crafty and clever too, and very generous and supportive of other people's crafty-endeavours.  

Cam's just had a bilateral lung transplant, and so is in hospital recovering from the surgery - take a look at this post on her blog - and also at this post where she talks about it being Donate Life Week this week.  

I wanted to make something to send to Cam.

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That something has turned out to be an enormous zip-pouch, in fact.  The same week I heard about Cam's surgery - through the magic of instagram - I received a Spoonflower order in the mail.  

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I thought a few of HappySewLucky Berene's 'improv adjectives' would be perfect, along with  WildOlive's bacon, as I have noticed that Cam loves bacon. 

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All the other fabric on the outside of the pouch are by Cam, under her Curly Pops label (I so especially love those hexagons).  Except for the super-hero girl on the back - that's a Spoonflower gem that I've had in my stash for a while.  I figured that Cam's path to recovery is going to be a super-hero effort.

As an awesome side-note, in searching for the super-hero designer on Spoonflower just now, I discovered it's a lady designing under the name HamburgerLiebe - gotta love that mix of bacon and hamburger love in one big zip-pouch!

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Did you notice the sweet little 'C' ribbon, underneath our cat&vee label?  I bought it from Tinsel Trading when we were in NYC last year.  It's the most gorgeous shop, full of trims, ribbons, cards and so much cute stuff. 

On the inside of the pouch is a cute new print from Moxie by Erin McMorris - it makes me think of online-chat, with it's little icons, 'hello' and 'hi'.  I thought it was a good choice, since I only know Cam through online-magicery. 

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The zipper-tab didn't quite work out how I wanted it to, but you can see where I was headed.  Grey-thread and neater-stiching probably would have worked a treat. 

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The pouch is biiiiig - I followed the spirit of Anna's open-wide zipper-pouch tutorial, just not the measurements.  That's five teatowels I've got rolled up inside to plump it out a bit for the photos.  Five.  And it's not even half-full.  

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I will post it off tomorrow, and send it with lots of thoughts and prayers for a timely and healthy recovery.  And some thoughts and prayers for Cam's donor's family too.  

{{all the words}}

xoxo cat

:: Merry Christmas! ::

I have now ticked off the last of the goodies on my pre-Christmas sewing to-do list - with four whole days to spare! 

First up for today was the project-size from Jeni's In Color Order Lined Drawstring Bag pattern.  I made one each for my girls, to store balls of wool and other goodies for their most recent crafty-obsession - kumihimo braiding. 

They each chose their own fabric combos.  I really love Jeni's pattern, it's really easy to follow and comes together very quickly.  I will be making more bags in the new year - to add to the five I've now made in the last few days :-) .

And then it was onto two zip pouches, using Anna's open-wide zip pouch tutorial on her Noodlehead blog. 

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I had seen zip pouches made from 2wenty Thr3e by Cosmo Cricket, on Badskirt Amy's blog and loved the look of the line.  Amy mentioned in her blog, that QuiltJane had some layer cakes in stock, so I clicked across and bought one. 

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I figured I may as well make two pouches while I was at it - so I made the grey camera-print version as part of my Secret Santa pressie for one of my brothers ... 

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... and this gorgeous one is for me to keep!  I LOVE this print.

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Anna's tutorial was great, and I'm really amazed at how roomy the pouches are, and how big the zippered opening is.  It makes a huge difference to the usable size of the pouch - you can easily see what's inside, which is important when you're scrabbling around for pointy things like embroidery-snips.  I really want to sew some pouches in the two bigger sizes that Anna has in her tutorial.

But that will have to wait for a few days, as I am stepping away from the sewing-machine and the computer, to focus on Christmassy things and to spend some time with my family.  

So - this will be our last blog post before Christmas, and maybe the New Year.  We'll see how we go. We wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year, and a peaceful and safe holiday period.  We'll see you back here in January.

take care  xoxo cat

:: to market, to market ::

Today is the day.  Today is the reason we have not blogged for nearly two weeks.  Today .... is .... our first market! 

A sewing, ironing and packaging frenzy has been happening at my house and at Vee's house.  And we were ready with two days to spare, oh the surprise of that.

Vee has been on cushion patrol, while I've been on zip-pouch and Christmas decoration duty.

All of these:

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Became these:

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Except for the pi-pouches, they're all large enough to fit an ipad.  Handy to know.  An excellent Christmas present idea, wouldn't you say.

And here are the Christmas decorations, hanging out with my new reindeer:

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Vee's car is packed.  My car is about to be packed:

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Ted's been helping:

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We'll be taking pics tonight - the Twilight Christmas Market at Fig Tree Pocket.  

It's going to be fun!! 

'til next time     xoxo cat