The Last Piece

I'm Going to New Zealand!

Sarah Fielke — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:43:37 +1100

Hey here's some more exciting news! I'm going to be in NZ in May of this year thanks to Fenella and Shiree! I've never been to New Zealand and I know there are all kinds of amazing quilters over there - I read New Zealand Quilter every month :) Here's where you can find me:

Stitch in Christchurch on May 3

Quilt on Winter Retreat in Methven on May 5 and 6

The Rowan Tree in Twizel on May 8 and 9

You can put your name down for classes and find out all the details through either Fenella at Stitch or Shiree at The Rowan Tree. May is only a few short months away so be quick like bunnies!

If you're not in New Zealand you can come and take a class with me here in Aussie land too :) I teach my usual classes fortnightly and monthly at Calico and Ivy and Cottage Quiltworks which are great fun. Both shops are just beautiful, the ladies are so friendly and nice (hi Sarah, Jann and Chris! ::waves::) and class numbers are intimate so you get solid personal attention from me. Classes are booking NOW for first term so make sure and give the girls a call and get your name down. In the first part of this year I will also be at:

Amitie in Melbourne April 11

Patchwork Orange in Orange NSW April 14

Precious Time in Toowoomba QLD April 21 - 22

Steph's in Moruya NSW May 25 - 26

Phew! Keeps me off the street and out of the pubs. I'm so looking forward to meeting all of YOU out there who will come along.

If you're looking for a project to start you off for your quilting New Year have a look at my Scoot! quilt in this month's Quilter's Companion...

(Thank you Belle for the pic - I don't have a copy of the mag yet!) I made it using my mate Aneela's fabric range Sherbert Pips, and there's a bit of an article I wrote about her in there too for good measure.

ALSO - I have had a LOT of emails recently asking where to buy St Ives meterage from.

I'm trying to get a full range of stockists from the distributor so I can put it up on my website, but in the mean time if there is something you just have to have, please email me and I can sell you the meterage you are after myself. Just give me the codes from here and I can help you out.

The Made In Cherry quilt will soon be in Better Homes and Gardens magazine in Australia. You can see what the Quiltalong girls have been getting up to at the Flickr group, there are some fantastic versions of the quilt there. Here is ImaGingerMonkey's version:

and quiltyhabit's one too:

I still have one or two kits in all the four colourways available for sale at the website.

Kick it to the Curb

Sarah Fielke — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:44:14 +1100

So we are still wandering through the end of our renovation, having run out of cash but not ideas. I wanted a small cabinet for the boys bathroom - it's not a big room and there is only one small over the sink cabinet for keeping everything in. Budget being $0, when I drove past an side table by the side of the road a few weeks ago, I thought, why not?

I sanded it, and took the horrid handles off the drawers:

The bathroom is painted a soft apple green, with white tiles and a latte, dark blue and white shower curtain. The towels are all dark blue and brown and the fixtures are shiny silver. I painted the cabinet a latte gloss:

Then I Mod Podged some Anna Maria Horner fabric onto the drawers, added some shiny silver handles and voila! New furniture.

Next I'm tackling our TV cabinet, which is looking a bit old and sad, and two footstools.... I'll keep you updated.

In other news, did you know that Quilting: From Little Things is now available as an ebook for Kindle? You can even buy it in chapters, which gives you a technique, a dolly quilt and a full size quilt for only $3.59. If you have a Kindle this is a total bargain. The covers for the ebooks look awesome:

This one is for The Night Garden - it teaches you step-down piecing, and this one is for Whirligig, which teaches you Appliquing with Bias Strips.

All the chapters in the book are available this way. Cool huh?

A Few Cool Things to Direct Your Attention to

Sarah Fielke — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:46:39 +1100

Well there's an unwieldy blog title if ever I saw one. There were more than a few cool things I had to tell you though, and it seemed appropriate. 2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year in more ways than one - and I'm starting off with a bang.

These amazing blocks were made by all of YOU, isn't that incredible? Yep, these are some of the blocks you all made for Amy and Anabel. For those of you who didn't participate, the blocks are supposed to look like the bass lines on a stereo, to commemerate Amy's late husband Dan. There's something about seeing all these blocks together and thinking of all the people out there caring about Amy that brings tears to my eyes every time I look at them. You are all so generous of spirit and wonderful.

These blocks are for Anabel's quilt, they are light and fresh and pretty just like she is. I know this quilt looks huger than king single, but it isn't, it just looks that way on the design wall. Would you believe, I had just enough blocks to make the two quilts, with two spare? I think that's amazing, serendipity.

I am now looking for someone in Australia who would be willing to donate the machine quilting one one or both of the quilts.. please contact me if you can help.

For the last few weeks I have been head down, bum up working on this.

What was going to be a quick, fun project for an upcoming issue of Quilters Companion turned into a bit of an epic.... I just fell in love with the fabrics (they are all 100% Italian cotton shirtings) and decided to hand quilt it to within an inch of it's life.

The things I do. I put the last stitch in the binding today ready to Express Post to the editor tomorrow. Sorry to be so slow Clare.... however I was held up by slipping on a piece of discarded pizza in Westfield shops before Christmas, nearly breaking every bone in my body! Bruises are gone finally :)

Thought you may like to see my able bodied helpers. Here's Damo the Sherpa holding one corner, Charlie fled in horror from the other end at the suggestion he might be on the blog again. Sorry dude.

A fewo other cool things to direct your attention to - the Made in Cherry Quilt Along.

Chelsea at Pins and Bobbins is running this using my free pattern for the St Ives collection I did this year for Lecien. You can get all the details at her blog. Due to popular demand, I have some more kits for the quilts (which you can see at Chelsea's blog too) on my website for sale using all the original fabrics. The kits are $180 AUS and contain all the fabric for the 80" square top, and the binding. You don't have to use my fabric for the quilt along of course, but if you want to you can - and I am also happy to work up kits in the alternative sizes Chelsea provides in St Ives as well. Just drop me an email to sarah@sarahfielke.com.

Also on the website at present are new patterns available in PDF or hard copy, notions including my applique kits and templates for quilts in Material Obsession Two, Quilting: From Little Things and for my Bangles quilt (in this month's Get Creative magazine), my books and also my applique DVD. If you can't find something you're looking for, just shout!

Recently updated (like, today) you will find in the sidebar my dates for teaching this year... and in the next few years too. I will update this as often as possible. If you would like more info on any of the classes, please let me know. I'm so looking forward to going to all the amazing places I've been invited, as well as getting back to normal teaching at Cottage Quiltworks in Mona Vale and Calico and Ivy in Balmain. There are currently places available at both shops for the term - and also a few spots left for a one off class at Quiltsmith in Annandale on January 23rd. Please let me know asap if you are interested!

Quilting Daily has put out a free downloadable quilt block book, featuring 6 different quilts previously published in their magazines... and one of them is my A Dotty Garden quilt. Want to make it? Hop over to Quilting Daily for the pattern.

Surely that's all the cool stuff for now? I'd better hold some back so I can blog it later in the week, in case I run out :) I'm off to the studio to stitch some more of those beautiful blocks together. Adios!

PS. One more, cool and awesome, fun thing. Amy and I are launching our new 2012 project soon - nope, not Dolly Quilts this year, a BOM instead. Stay tuned!!!

Hiedy-Ho

Sarah Fielke — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:01:32 +1100

Happy New Year everybody! Seems like weeks since I blogged, and well, I guess it is. Truth is, although I love Christmas and everything the end of the year brings, this year it just all got the better of me a bit and I needed a proper break, so I've not blogged, Twittered, Facebooked or Pintrest-ed for a while. I feel strangely free.

Instead I've been quilting a lot less than I should of a quilt I have due, and reading a lot more than I should of some great books.

Aussie Christmas is a different experience to the snowy ones experienced by so many of you. My Aussie Christmas is all about the heat, the bright colours, the summer flavours and the beach. I got plenty of all of them this season....

As well as plenty of family when all 13 of us sat down for Christmas lunch and my (mercifully!!) very moist and tasty turkey!

A wonderful few weeks filled with salt, sand, and a beautiful boat trip on my Dad's little ferry, and happy, happy kids.

1, 2, 3 - jump!

Yep, it was rough.

Back to life, back to reality...

A Handmade Christmas

Sarah Fielke — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:28:48 +1100

We're on the downhill run now!

Things are a little tight in the Fielke household for Christms this year one way and another, and so I've decided that where possible I'm making everyone's gifts. (Pause here to laugh hysterically and tear my hair out in clumps.) This is a relatively easy task in terms of materials - after all I have a vast stash of fabric, a cupboard full of baking materials and a festish for ribbons and stationery. It's been fun figuring out how to make a budget Christmas just as beautiful as a lavish one!

First up I wanted to make some little gifts for some of my students, and for the wonderful ladies in the beautiful patchwork shops I work in regularly in Sydney. I tootled around the internet until I found these:

What are they? Does this help?

Cute huh? Can't you see those with a little summer dress? I found the tutorial here, along with a couple of other great Christmas gift ideas I'm going to try. I particularly love the balloon wax candles, and I've already made some labels for the jars and pots of things I'm baking and cooking using Wordle as they suggest. What fun!

The tutorial suggests using cut up knit or jersey for the bracelets, but lucky me already had about 6 cones of Hoooked Zpaghetti that I was given.

This fabulous yarn is made from offcuts from the fashion industry - making it re-purposed as well as fantastic! You will need at least two colours to make a set, I have two reds, an ecru, a pink and a purple so I can make different colour sets for different people. I think they look lovely all stacked together.

Next I thought about the littlies in our family - there are a few and I also have several god-daughters and friends kids to think about. Instead of getting them all one thing this year, I thought I would make them all up a little Santa-sack with their initials on.

Inside is chocolates, hair ribbons and nail polish and pretty stuff for the girls, and chocolates, little notepads and bouncy balls etc for the boys. I think they'll have fun unpacking the bags to see whats inside, it was much less expensive for me to fill the bags than buy them all something seperate, and plus it was fun thinking little things to go in each bag for each child!

You might notice my gift tags and wrapping paper - plain brown paper at $2 for 10 metres is a load cheaper than shiny gift wrap, and I think the tree looks lovely with all the presents wrapped in brown, with green and red ribbons and luggage tags for the gift tags. Again, very inexpensive and I made them Christmassy either with bit of fabric stuck on and decorated:

Or with these little paper shapes stuck on. $2 for 100 little Christmas trees! I either drew details in or let them be cute on their own:

Don't worry I'm not done yet - there are tons more gifts to make and some great tutorials too, so hang in there and I'll share in case you too want to make some pretty things for Christmas. In the mean time I have to finish quilting this:

On a severe deadline for Quilter's Companion for next year, hand quilted and four more borders to go! Phew...

You Sew Girl!

Sarah Fielke — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:04:14 +1100

I was lucky enough recently to have Nicole Mallaieu send me a copy of her beautiful new book, You Sew Girl! just for me! And let me tell you, if you're looking for something lovely to put on your Christmas list, this book is it.

Nicole has always wanted to write a book about sewing. Having sewn since she was a small child, she then studied fashion and learned how to make a proper pattern and to sew quickly and professionally. She also learned all manner of short cuts, tips and tricks along the way, which she shares in the book.

The first third of the book is taken up with sewing tips, presented with great step by step photos. This section runs you through some fantastic quick tips like using a lint roller to pick up the remains of your unpicking from your sewing, how to use bias makers, how to make an accurate pattern, making handles and straps, inserting a zipper... the list goes on, and let me tell you there are PLENTY of things in there that made me think - aha! I am not a dressmaker by any stretch of the imagination, but I think even I could put a zipper in with this tutorial. :)

The book contains all kinds of sewing projects from large to small, starting with this fantastic rose made from half a zipper. Hello, awesome Christmas present anyone??

WAY too cute! The book moves through other simple sewing ideas like belts and baby hats before going to the bags chapter, of course what Nicole has made herself known for.

Up until recently Nicole has sold all the bag frames and kits for making her purses online - however she is closing the retail shop at the end of 2011 so if you want one of her purse kits get in QUICK!! She is going totally wholesale (shops, take note) so you will still be able to buy her products.

Chapter 3 in the book is entitles, "Pattern Free Clothing". As previously mentioned my dressmaking skill are woeful, so this made me sit right up.

There are fantastic patterns here for both childrens and ladies clothes, skirts, tops, you name it - AND with no pattern! Hip hip hooray. Now all I have to do is get my sewing machine a jersey needle and start sewing some of that stretch fabric I've been buying with good intentions for years. I do recall a rather lovely navy and white stripe jersey, now where did I put that...

You can buy You Sew Girl from Nicole's webshop and from other online bookstores, or your local bookstore of course. Thanks so much for the book Nicole - considering that everyone in my family (except the boys) is getting handmade gifts this Christmas, it is my next port of call for prezzies! More about that and what I'm getting up to Christmas-craft-wise tomorrow.

A few housekeeping announcements:

** Thank you to everyone who has purchased from my newly renovated webshop in the last few days! Due to children's Christmas concerts and end of Year 6 I will be posting everything everyone has ordered on Wednesday. Thank you for your patience.**

**I had an order for a PDf pattern from a lady in the USA last week. Your email address is incorrect and keeps bouncing back! If you have ordered a pattern and not recieved it from me please email me asap so I can get it to you.**

** Thank you to everyone who has emailed me about the quilts for Amy and Annabel. Due to Houston and a few scary deadlines, I haven't sewn the blocks up yet but they are all trimmed to size and ready to go and they are next on my sewing list at the end of this week. If anyone has any ideas for sourcing backing fabrics for the two quilts (one is king single, one Queen sized) or for having the machine quilting done reasonably in Australia, please let me know. Thanks, and thanks SO VERY MUCH to the hundreds and hundreds of you who sent blocks, fabric, and most especially kind notes and lovely words for both Amy and myself. Quilters are just awesome. **

Just in Time for Christmas

Sarah Fielke — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:51:04 +1100

Hooray! Blog tour down and we are on the slope to Christmas. I thought this week I would share with you some great gifts, Christmas recipes and more Christmas craft since you all liked the origami so much! First though, a Christmas present to the winners of the St Ives competition:

Cathy of Cathy's Sewing Room

Leah from Puggle Logic and

Dorothy Ramage!

Three Aussies, and all done by random drawing! I love that :) Ladies please send me an email to sarah@sarahfielke.com with your street addresses and I will send yu out some St Ives of your very own. Yay!

If you missed out on the St Ives giveaway, then I have my first Christmas gift recommendation for you... mind you I'm a little biased. For a limited time I have some kits of the Made In Cherry, Made in Watermelon, Made in Blue Vanilla and Made in Polar Purple Shiver quilt kits up on my website. There are only a few of each so get in quick. You will also find that my applique kits, templates and DVD are up for sale a well - although I have just noticed that Hubby has a couple of the prices too high, he only put them up last night, bless him. If you want to buy today I will adjust those for you!

If you are going to make the quilt, Chelsea at Pins and Bobbins is holding a quiltalong for it, which I'm really excited about! So hop over and you can find out all about it and get a cute button for your blog too. If you're in the quiltalong make sure and post your pics of the quilts on my Flickr page for all to see!

Back to the sewing room.

Hooray! It's a Little Things Blog Tour

Sarah Fielke — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:54:18 +1100

To celebrate the US tour of Quilting: From Little Things I have asked some of my friends and favourite bloggers to play along on my blog tour. Starting today you can blog hop around and see what everyone has to say about the book! Quite a few have made a project out of the book too, so you can go see what they have all come up with, what fun!

Here are all the dates for the tour and who will be where and when.

Monday 28th November: Fat Quarterly and Amy Ellis

Tuesday 29th November: Thomas Knauer

Wednesday 30th November: Camp Follower Bags and Ryan Walsh

Thursday 1st December: The Happy Zombie and Moda Lissa

Friday 2nd December: Mrs Schmenkman Quilts and True Up

Saturday 3rd December: Pink Chalk Fabrics and Pam Kitty Morning

Sunday 4th December: Sew Mama Sew and Pat Sloan

Thank you so much to everyone for joining in. I will post the winners of the St Ives fabric tomorrow, go see what Fat Quarterly and Amy Ellis have to say, and you can also go and check out another great post about the book from Kathie at Inspired by Antique Quilts. Happy Monday everyone.

A Christmas Origami Tutorial

Sarah Fielke — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:21:15 +1100

I've been meaning to post this for a week now, which shows you how many things I've had to blog about! It's busy around here at the moment, and it's only going to get busier - the blog tour for the US version of Quilting: From Little Things starts on Monday so stay tuned for that and the wonderful bloggers who are going to play along.

Meantime, I thought maybe you would all like to learn how to make this:

I mean who wouldn't, right? My friend Peta showed everyone in my Wednesday night class how to do this a few weeks ago. You won't believe how easy it is, my 11 year old made this one for his teacher for Christmas.

You will need an old book or some old sheet music (or any paper suitable for origami), a piece of string or ribbon to hang it with, and a hot glue gun.

First, cut the book apart, this is easiest using using your rotary cutter. Cut the pages into squares. I used 3 1/2" squares, which resulted in a ball about 6" in diameter.

Take a square and fold it in half on one diagonal.

Fold an outside corner up to meet the top corner.

Repeat with the other side.

Open the fold up along one side and press it open and flat. Fold the top of the corner back.

Repeat with the other side.

Fold the sides in half to form a square again.

Make 6!

Next, run some hot glue down the outside of one of the squares. Turn the other edge around to meet it and press gently, so you don't make a crease. This is one petal. Make 6.

When you have 6 petals, run the glue gun down the side of one petal, and stick another one to it, matching the creases and the bottom points. Make 3 pairs.

Run the glue gun down the side of one of the pairs and stick another one to it.

To complete the flower, run the glue gun down both side of the last pair of petals and press them into the other two pairs. Make sure that the points all meet at the bottom.

This is a completed flower. I made 12 flowers to fit into the ball. I should have taken pics of the flowers being stuck together but I didn't - however you will find that they fit together between the flowers like a puzzle, and as long as you match the points of the flowers up they will make a ball very easily.

Before you glue the last flower in, run some glue along the side from the middle out and add a piece of ribbon or string to hand thte ball from, then glue the last flower in. These are a little time consuming but totally worth it!

And THEN I thought, why wait for Christmas? These would look glorious all over the house, maybe filling a wooden bowl, or just one somewhere special..... enjoy

Oh Thank Cuteness! - a St Ives Giveaway

Sarah Fielke — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:27:03 +1100

Post this an hour ago and just realised that whole first half - the important half of it- is gone - Here we go again, it might make a bit more sense now!!

Generation Q Magazine are having a thank-along (hahaha) of cuteness this week, for people to post the cute things in their lives that they are thankful for. You can go link up and talk about what youre' thankful for too. I wanted to show you my cuteness.

First up I'm thankful for my cute boys. even though they are both nearly bigger than me, theyre still cute in my eyes. Charlie at 14 is just like he was at two - thoughtful, cuddly and so much wiser than his years. He's my musician, and my beautiful, wonderful best friend, who I hang out with, crack jokes with and listen to music with.

Oscar is 11 and he's my comedian. Oss is always making us laugh, both at him and with him. Hes my snugglebug, and my little creative artist, and my buddy who will just sit with me and cuddle any time I ask.

And then of course there's my furry baby. Because I work from home, Madam is always under my feet. She follows me around all day, making me laugh with her antics and nudging her nuse under my hand for a pat. I'm grateful for her quiet presence every day.

Other things I'm thankful for are the cute things around my house, some of them gifts, some of them heirlooms, and some I've bought. I love to see them around the house as I'm working, and having the house looking lovely and filled withbeautiful thing gives me pleasure every time I look. It's the little things like this that give my working day a bit of sunshine!

The last thing I'm thankful for is my fabric range! I still can't believe I've been lucky enough to design two ranges of fabric AND that people actually buy them :) I'm so lucky to be able to do what I love doing, all day every day. So I'm thankful for the uber-cute St Ives (in stores next week!) and I'm also thankful for all of YOU - cute or not, heh heh - for the support you give me every day in my creating and stitching. You all rock.

And so, to thank you all, I'm having a giveaway of some St Ives fat quarters. I'm not sure how many yet, I'll decide on Monday! There will be more than one winner though. The giveaway will stay open until Monday, November 28, 9am Sydney time, which is Sunday night in the USA. All you need to do is leave me a comment ON THIS POST telling me what you're thankful for, and if you feel like it, blog, tweet or Facebook and tell your friends so I can be thankful for them too! International is fine, you MUST have an email address for me to contact or I will re-draw, sorry.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the USA celebrating Turkey Day and may you all have a peaceful holiday.