.: 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

.: please help :.

When I started sewing a few years ago, my first online-inspiration was the lovely Pip from Meet Me at Mikes.

Once online, it didn't take me long to find Kathreen from WhipUp.

Kathreen's extraordinary support and encouragement of other crafters, her own awesome projects and ideas, and her love of this crafting world have been such an inspiration.   Kathreen really seemed to live her loves of crafting, creating, community and family - and was so incredibly generous in sharing her journey and ideas.  

Since January this year, I have loved following along via her blog and instagram, as she and her family travelled around Australia.   An amazing journey full of family time, wonderful experiences, creating and sharing.  

Along with so many others in this crafty-community, I have been terribly saddened by the news this week of Kathreen's and her husband Rob's tragic accident off the coast of Western Australia.  While their beautiful children, aged only 10 and 13 were on the beach.   My heart just breaks.  I cannot comprehend or imagine the feelings of these two gorgeous, much loved children, who must now live their lives without their parents in this world.

Kathreen's dear friends - with the blessing of her and Rob's families - have set up a trust for their precious children.  Please click through to the post on Kathreen's WhipUp site for the details, and consider giving if you can.  

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

.: Mother's Day + birthdays :.

Hi hi hi, a few days away from this space.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums who pop by, hope you're having a relaxing day.

We nipped down to NSW overnight, to celebrate my Dad's 70th + Mother's Day.  It was a really lovely afternoon - we saw a lot of family and friends I've not seen in years and years - and the girls got to race around and spend time with their cousins.  Mum and Dad had a fab time and really appreciated everyone making the time to travel from near and far to share in the celebration.

I also got to have a quick coffee with the lovely Kirsten, who is in our AusModBee - in fact it's her month right now, so I'll soon be sharing AMH feathers made with the gorgeous Denyse Schmidt Chicopee range.  

I can finally share these cushions I made for Mum and Dad.

{{Dad used to be an eye surgeon, so I couldn't go past the Echino specs}}

 And here they are just this morning.

Hope you've all had a great weekend.   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

.: giveaway day :.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered out little giveaway - here, on instagram and on Facebook.  

I checked all three sites this morning, wrote down all our new comment-names and 'like'-names and snipped them into the bowl.

Gave them a bit of a mix ... sadly there was no knee-slapping-drumroll as both the girls have now caught my cold and stayed in bed, just as I'm nearly back to normal ... 

 And drew out ...

{{the FB means Facebook ...}}

 Yay Jess!  I emailed Jess just now, and will pop the pincushion into the post later today.

We have honestly been very overwhelmed by all your comments and support, and really appreciate your taking the time to read our posts and to comment, it has been a really happy experience.  As of this morning, we had: 35 comments on our giveaway blog post + over 50 commenters on our instagram pic + 210 FB-likes + 574 people had seen the giveaway FB post.  For us, those are reeeally big numbers!  

Five gorgeous ladies took the time to share our giveaway - via Facebook share, retweet and also by having our blog-link on their own blog - and in turn, it was so lovely that people took the time to let us know that too.  So thank you very much for sharing the giveaway-love to Jeannette, Ros, Cam, Debbie and Susan.  

We are already planning another giveway ... stay tuned!   Happy Monday xoxo cat