.: 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

.: The Wee Bee :.

I've joined a new bee this year!  I'm feeling very blessed + fortunate to be a part of it, as it's full of some completely awesome + amazing sewists from around the world.

Kristi from Schnitzel & Boo brought us all together.  Our little Flickr group is here.  We'll add a button to the side-bar very soon.

I'm first-up in the bee, and after much thought and leafing through quilty-books over cups of tea and glasses of wine, I thought that I'd most love each bee-lady to make me a house - any pattern or design, in their favourite colours, with a sweet something peeking out of the door or window, and all with low volume fabrics for the background.

These are the houses I sewed up as examples:

I think I'll turn these little houses into a mini for one of the girls.

Already, two gorgeous bee-ladies have sewn their houses for me!  Click here to take a look at Synnove's super sweet wonky, tall house (the little panda!), and here to see Kristy's sweet little house and her gorgeous blog post about it! - she's included our dog Teddy, my brother's dog Harold, a wee bee, and our house number - completely awesome, I love all the details.  I can't even believe it, I love both houses so much and I can't wait to see what everyone else sews.  Thank you so much Synnove and Kristy!  I'm thinking I'll be making a Wee Bee Village from all the houses - and I'll sew a little church and a shop to add to it.  

Happy Monday everyone.    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