.: Teeny Weeny Swap :.

A few of the Brisbane MQG girls were lucky enough to score a spot in the Teeny Weeny Swap, which was originally just between Vancouver MQG and Greater Western Sydney MQG.

The main requirement for the swap was teeny weeny piecing - we could make tiny mini's, a spectacle case, needle book, or a collapsible thread-catcher.  My partner was Samantha and I was really happy  to sew with her preferences for a mini with plums, greens, teals, text prints, Amy Butler and AMH.  From memory (as this was before Christmas!) - Samantha also specifically mentioned that she liked Sew-Ichigo's strawberry - so my decision was very easy, as I love the strawberry too! 

The mini measures about 8 1/2 inches square, and is bound in an AMH print, with an Amy Butler butterfly on the back. 

I even made a little label, out of Terra Australis prints.

And this piece of gorgeous is what Samantha made for me!  Isn't it fabulous?!

I just LOVE it and couldn't believe it was mine, when the Teeny Weeny goodie box was opened up at our MQG end-of-year lunch in December.  It truly is a gorgeous mini, in my favourite colours + text prints, and is something I would have chosen to make for myself.  Just perfect.  Do you spy the teeny heart in the centre?  Thank you Samantha! 

And I thought I would share how I made the strawberry panel - since I never ever actually remember to take process-pics, but for some reason managed to take them this time.  The strawberry-body had to be made from teeny weeny pieces, and so I followed the Stamp Collection block tutorial on Elizabeth Hartman's Oh Fransson blog.

I made a templastic template for the 'body' of the strawberry - and you can see I've marked on the template, where the 'complete' squares would be, so I could double-check I wasn't cutting any particular fussy-cuts in half - because half-bodies and half-heads just drive me crazy!  Each square was cut *I think* 1 1/2 inches - maybe only 1 inch.  I laid them onto a piece of interfacing in a 6 x 5 grid, and slowly ironed them on. 

Once the interfacing was ironed on, I sewed each row together, and snipped the seams open (remembering this is all according to Elizabeth's tutorial - click on the link above).

And then the rows are sewed together running the other way, and seams snipped open.  Here's the completed panel from the back, with all seams snipped and ironed open. 

Here's the completed panel - I then laid the plastic template on top and carefully cut around it to create the strawberry-body, and carried on with the piecing. 

I made the leaves and stalk out of low volume fabrics, so the leaves could say "teeny strawberry", but then forgot to sew the background in greens + teals and just carried on with the low volume ... so the leaves don't pop out as much as I'd hoped.  The "teeny" comes from HappySewLucky Berene's "Improv Adjectives" Spoonflower prints - I was very happy to find "teeny" in this awesome fabric, as Berene (who was then in Vancouver MQG but is now in Toronto) was the original co-ordinator of the swap (along with Lorena from GWSMQG). 

I added in a little HST border to bring in the greens + teals that I had forgotten in the background. 

This was a really fun swap to be a part of, and some wonderful things were made.  We hadn't all realised that it was a direct swap - until we all opened up our little packages at our Christmas lunch - and that was such a happy discovery for everyone.  Thanks to Lorena and Berene for coordinating it, as well as Kelly from Brisbane MQG, and of course to Samantha for the gorgeous mini! 

xoxo cat

.: Round the World Blog Hop :.

The Round the World Blog Hop has landed here, thanks to a tag from the lovely Kirsty of Bonjour Quilts - it's taken a couple of WEEKS to bounce around Brisbane from Kirsty's place to here - I had such good intentions of writing and publishing a post before we went away on hols, but end-of-term and packing-for-holidays combined to leave the good intentions unrealised.  We've since been to Sydney, Canberra and Dubbo - but we are home again and it's time to unleash those good intentions.

You will by now have seen lots of Round the World posts - it's fun to read a little behind-the-scenes action in our Bloglovin' feed each week.  I'm not even sure who started the blog hop, but I AM sure that by now it's bounced around the world several times already.

I met Kirsty at Camille's Red Letter Day class a few months ago, and we've since caught up a couple of times for a coffee, a chat, and a little look at fabric.  Kirsty's recently released her very awesome Diamonds in the Deep quilt pattern - click through and take a look.

And now on with the questions.

1. What am I working on

Much of my sewing time is spent on bee-blocks, swaps and gifts for others.  I really do need to make time to sew more for my family and home.  The four projects I really want to concentrate on in the short term - hopefully before Christmas-sewing gets cracking anyway - are:

- Nested Churn Dash quilt.  After attending lovely Jane's class recently, and getting a move on chain-piecing my blocks, I managed to sew all my blocks together after getting home from Dubbo last week.  This one now just needs to be quilted (not by me!) and bound.  I love it.  Jane's pattern is here.

[close up of the corner stones - Cotton+Steel lions!]

- starting to plan my combined 'x+ word' (or 'cross plus word') quilt.  I made a heap of x+ blocks last year and then thought to add them to the word blocks I received from the AusModBee girls.  I've decided to now also ask for word blocks in my new Sew Sisters bee - so hopefully - by the Christmas holidays, I'll have all my word blocks and can start working on a layout, combining them with my x+ blocks.   Here are a few favourite x+ blocks, and a close up of the newspaper cat print, which I think is hysterical - those cat faces!

- quilts for my girls.  I'm like a broken record with this one - but seriously - I've never made my girls a quilt.  Shocking.  I have a pretty big pile of blocks sitting ready to go, but still need to make l-o-o-o-o-o-o-ts more, so I'm going to commit to a block a week each, and hopefully have them ready to sew together by the Christmas holidays.  The blocks are a mix of houses, words, stars, churn dashes, log cabins ... which is possibly why it's taking me so long - there's no real plan and no pattern for any of the blocks - I'm just making blocks and words for the girls in colours that they like, and hoping that they will look very awesome when sewn together.  THAT's the plan!

- Teeny Weeny Swap. This is a swap started by Berene of the Vancouver MQG and Lorena of the Greater Western Sydney MQG.  They had a few spots left open, and Lorena kindly contacted the Brisbane MQG to fill them - wahoo! - all the spots were snapped up very quickly.   This is a secret swap, with a few rules, the main one being you have to sew with teeny weeny pieces.  I have a plan AND a pattern for this one, but to get with the Teeny Weeny theme, I've sewn up a little patchwork panel using 1 1/2" squares.  Some of the girls will be sewing with much smaller pieces than these, but these squares are teeny weeny enough for me!

2. How does my work differ from those also in my genre

I'm not sure what my genre is - sewing-wise, I make quilts, bags, cushions, zip pouches, coasters - and Vee and I also design and print fabric panels.  There's lots going on.  One point of difference might be my fussy-cutting obsession - in pretty much every project I've ever made, I've fussy-cut something for it.  I can't think of a single thing I've made, where fussy cutting hasn't been involved.  So maybe that's a point of difference.   That, and I have a lot of trouble sewing with solids.  So - fussy-cutting and not-solids - we'll run with those two.

3. Why do I create what I do

I love to make bright, happy things to have about the house and to give as gifts or for bees and swaps.  I like to have a bit of humour and meaning in everything I sew too - whether that humour and meaning comes across doesn't really matter, as long as I know it's there!  Essentially, I love to sew and design, and get a little twitchy if too many days go by when I'm not making something.

4. How does my creative process work

I think a lot about who I am making something for, and spend a lot of time looking at my stash and thinking through what I'm going to make.  I'll change out fabrics pretty often even once I've started sewing, as I like each piece to be exactly right.  I draw sketches and scribble fabric ideas down - such as in the little fabric-table I made for my Nested Churn Dash quilt.

I'm very messy when I'm making something too - there's always a fabric mountain sitting next to my cutting mat - but I do try to fold it all away before starting on the next project.  That doesn't always happen though, and once I can't find a particular fabric that's buried in the mountain, I know it's time to stop and tidy up.

As for my blogging creative-process - that's way too random and reactionary, and I'm trying to make it more organised.  Right now, if I make something, I then take pics and write a blog post.  If I don't make something, I don't take pics and don't write a blog post.  I'd like to try and improve on that very basic, unplanned, setting-the-bar-very-low situation - by possibly planning a few posts (what?!), linking up with weekly linky parties, and also blogging about our beyond-sewing interests.  I've been thinking a lot about the 'why do we blog' question since having a drink with the fabulous Angie in Canberra (more on that in another post - but it was really awesome to meet and chat with Angie!).

So - that's pretty much it for our Round the World Blog Hop.  Thanks for tagging us Kirsty.  It probably won't surprise anyone to know that I've not organised to tag anyone ... but thankfully the blog hop will continue hopping round the world and not stop with me (that makes me think of primary school chain letters! - thankfully there's no 'pass it on to six people or else' pressure!).

Our school hols are at an end - just one more day - and then it's on with term 4.  Hope your long weekend is a good one.  xoxo cat

.: patchwork house-block swap :.

The lovely Angie, who blogs at GnomeAngel, is coordinating a house-block swap.  I've signed up for the international swap, so these six little houses will be heading off to three lovely ladies both here and overseas.  

I followed the basic pattern that Angie shared on her blog, with a few little changes so I could ramp-up the fussy-cutting opportunities, the TINY fussy-cutting opportunities - the windows are a half-inch square, finished!  Each house is 6 1/2" unfinished.  Here they all are one by one. 

I think this next one is my favourite - not one, but TWO Laurie Wisbrun giraffes!

They're all pretty busy, I know, but I do find it very hard to tone things down sometimes.  Too much colour, all the patterns, throw them all in together, I say!  I even had to specifically buy plain, white, solid fabric for the borders - I just never use a solid white, ever! 

The swap houses are due to be posted by next Friday, so check out all the happy little houses that are now popping up on instagram and Flickr - search for #patchworkhouseblockswap and #thefussycuttersclub.  Pop across too, to Angie's blog, to join in with her second Fussy Cutters' Club linky party, and take a look at all the fun fussy-cut creations that some very clever peeps have been making! 

Hope you have all had a great week - the school holidays have been perfection here in Brisbane.  Happy weekend to you all.  xoxo cat