The Last Piece

38 Degrees and Counting

Wow, it's hot. It's been between 32 and 41 degrees here in Sydney (that's between 100 and 105 degrees in that other sort of degree!)  for the last four days. We are all melting.

Lucky for us, we have been able to come to my Dad's place at the beach, where it is at least a little cooler and we can have a swim. I've managed to get some sewing done, have a friend over to sew in the cool and hole up in a darkened room and troll Etsy for hours on end... :)

Here we are sewing (that's the hubby doing the Sewn Love In upload in the background - and if you haven't seen that, get over there for everything Amy Butler right now!)

 

That's my friend Flo you can see there, handpiecing hexagons. Hi Flo!

I got lots of work done on Thursday and Friday. I had to review these for the Love In

 

and finish a quilt top for Quilter's Companion

 

No, I can't show you the whole thing, you will have to rush out and buy QC for the pattern. You have to wait until about March 2010 though, I will let you know when it's on sale. And yes, that is Laura Gunn fabric you see there, and it is delicious!

Once I finished that, I had to start a new project for the book. Here's what I brought with me to help the process along.

 

 

That lot kept me busy for a little while!

Well, that's about it for now, I am sweating all over the keyboard. If you are somewhere cold I envy you, and if you are in the same boat as me all I can say is eat Frosty Fruits, stand in front of the fridge with the door open and find somewhere to swim! Keep cool...... :-) 

PS. Do you have a fav Etsy shop? leave me a comment and let me know what it is so I can feed my addiction......

PPS. Prue sent me these after my sausage dog post the other day. Thanks Prue and Brett, they gave me a real cackle.
 

Sausage Dogs

OK, I wasn't going to blog tonight..... I've had a mad, mad week and nothing I can report that any of you would be interested in! And then, hopping around in bed with the computer on my lap, I bumped into sasuage dogs. I have a bit of a thing for sausage dogs.

 

The Persnickety Pelican over at Etsy has solved my Christmas card problem by combining two things I am crazy about, Christmas and sausage dogs. An unlikely combo, I realise.

 

She even has gift tags.

 

And for those of you who are Scrooge-y or don't feel sausage dogs are festive enough ,I recommend to you, sausage dog soap.

 

I mean, if that doesn't make you smile I don't know what will. Night everybody.

Face Revealed

Remember the dentist quilt?

 

As in, we can't show you it's face on television. Well, now I can, because the magazine got published.....

Yep, this is the quilt I have in the International Quilt Scene magazine. The editor in chief, Pokey Bolton, asked me to make a re-worked version on my Dotty for Dresden quilt thats on the cover of the US version of MO1. 

 

Can I just tell you too that Amazon has a deal on at the moment to buy Kaffe's Quilt Romance, Freddie and Gwen's Collaborate Again and MO1 all together for $49.50 US? Girls you cannot beat that with a STICK. Liking that combo.

Anyway, I thought I would show the quilt's face so you can see her in all her glory. I know that we can't get Quilt Scene here in AUS - TELL me about it, I haven't even seen a copy myself yet!!! Quilting Arts have assured me that they have sent me a couple of copies, so when they arrive I will run a little blog comp for Aussies only to win a copy so you can all see too. I have to wait for the parcel to arrive first though!!

Thought today I would also show you what someone clever has been up to on Flickr.....thanks Kathleen for the tip off!

 

It's my Jazz Hands quilt from MO2! Hasn't she done a great job, I love the sashing. Back to the workroom I go, have a quilty day everyone.

Gasp

My publisher in New York, STC, set me something very precious on Friday. So precious I selfishly kept it all to myself for more than 24 hours before showing you. Now how mean is that. Now though, I have wiped off the drool and am willing to share.

 

Now, before you all go completely bonkers, this is only the blad (the promotional leaflet) for the book, NOT the actual book. For that you have to wait until next year. 

 

 

Can you believe I have a Boston Common quilt cut out on my design wall for MY book right now?? Back to the drawing board....

 

I actually saw some of the pages for this book when I was in the US earlier this year. The book is harking back to his really beautiful early classics, Patchwork and Passionate Patchwork. The photography as usual is stunning.

 

As are the quilts. All I can say really is I WANT ONE. Coming soon to a bookshop near you.

In the mean time, I am going back to this pile of little quilts, patterns and diagrams.....

 

Busy, busy, busy. Sarah Fielke, Material Obsession, Material Obsession Two

PS. Before any of you ask, the fabric I photographed the blad on is from Prints Charming. It's the backing for the oft mentioned quilt of teeny tiny diamonds. :)

Dishing on the Fabric

Wow, we all like the fabrics I got in the mail huh? I am embarassed to say that this is my SECOND delivery of the teapot fabric, the first was loved so much it was cut and pieced before the postpack had time to flutter to the ground. Here are the designers:

Little starbursts and the teapots are from Hoodie's Collection for Blank Quilting

Two florals are from Flower Power by Jennifer Panagelli for Free Spirit

You will all probably be slightly peeved to know that the postie was kind to me agan yesterday, delivering these.....

Delicious Art Gallery fabrics by Patricia Bravo, from her Girly Girl collection, and also -

 

Robert Kaufman corduroy ( I have a very little friend who is getting a very little pinafore made out of this!) and the birds are Nature-ology by Studio E. Please bear in mind that I do make a living by cutting these up and so I need a good variety.... that's what I tell myself and my husband lol

Also in the mail yesterday was a package from Amy! She does spoil me. 

 

Two beautiful pieces of fabric (LOVE those greens), and a block of the Sea Salt chocolate that she has been talking about on her blog!! I would show you the chocolate but it seems someone opened the package right away and ate some, so I can't :) Doesn't that pretty orange card look fantastic with the green fabrics?

And lucky last... I don't think I remembered to show you this?

 

Isn't that beautiful? Margaret from my Friday class has been working away on this lovely version of my Potting Shed quilt for her niece, who loves Frangipani colours. The quilt is quilted and bound now and I took this pic a few weeks ago, but forgot to share it with you. Didn't she do a lovely job?

Redeeming Features

ooo I was so cranky this morning. SOOO cranky. First it was really hot last night and I couldn't sleep. Then I got to sleep, was all set to play golf this morning and was really looking forward to it. BUT, I woke up and found that my trick shoulder was playing up again, the result of a whole lot of old injuries we won't go into here. That meant no large arm movements, which meant no golf. C.R.A.N.K.Y. There was quite a bit of banging in the kitchen and muttering under breath going on around here.

Once I got everyone off to school (which nearly involved some arguments when certain small people were dragging their feet!) someone knocked on the door. At 9am around here, that can only mean one thing.

 

My friend the postman. The first package made me,smile, but the second package made me crack a grin.

 

New friends for my pincushion collection. Now I ask you, who can look at that and be cross? I challenge any one to be cracky after seeing that stack.

Feeling considerably happier, I settled down to piece some teeny diamonds. Realising after about an hour that the shoulder wasn't going to stand up to the sewing machine, I nearly broke out in crankiness again, but instead settled to this, which ALWAYS cheers me up -

 

As I was sketching, the husband (perhaps tipped off by the stream of muttered profanity eariler), came into the studio bearing a toasted bagel with cream cheese for my lunch, perhaps my favourite thing on the planet. 

Happiness levels almost restored, the universe sent me another treat. Another knock on the door revealed this:

My friend Sam with a bunch of flowers to thank me for the weekend at the beach (completely unnessecery, but very much appreciated!).

And so, redeeming features triumph once again. The shoulder is on ice and will hopefully mend in time for golf next week, but if it doesn't I'll settle for another day like today :) Here's hoping all of your days are as nice as mine. Sarah Fielke, Material Obsession, Material Obsession Two

PS. Yes, Charlie was Edward Cullen from Twilight. Congratulations to all of you who guessed and who are obviously as Twilight obsessed as me, and comiserations to those of you who either have not discovered Twilight, or who are on Team Jacob. lol!!!

Holy Big Week, Batman

Hello everybody! I have crawled out from under my huge week to share my Halloween horrors with you... First my scary, scary zombie...

 

Apparently the undead have crossed eyes.

 

And here is the 12 year old.... ten points for the first mother of teenage girls (or compulsive reader like me!!) who knows who Charlie went as...

 

Swoon....

 

Be still my beating heart. 

I won't bore you with the details of my ridiculously manic week - I will only say that right about now, the slow roast of lamb is in the oven, the glass of wine is in hand and I am back to happliy piecing teeny tiny diamonds. 

Happy Halloween and happy week everyone :) Sarah Fielke, Material Obsession, Material Obsession Two

Paper Cranes

My youngest son is 10. He is a smoocher, and loves to make things for me and leave me little notes and drawings everywhere. When I came home from my weekend away I found my sewing machine table covered with little paper cranes. They have been hanging around watching while I've been sewing today.

 

There was one looking at a whole lot of 1" diamonds on the cutting table. There are so many diamonds actually that it's a bit scary and I am preferring not to count them.

The cranes have also been guarding the Lecien tower of beauty, which has almost reached the top of the chop up line.

 

The cranes have decided that all projects are bubbling along nicely, including the scribby drawings I've been doing as mock-ups for painting the splash back in my new kitchen. I was looking at this one (this is only partial) and thought - wouldn't it make a great little woollen dolly quilt? 

 

Better make sure and sign up for the Dolly program, or you could miss out on this and other creative musings.... have a stitchy day girls! Sarah Fielke Material Obsession

Just the Best

The absolute BEST weekend!! So much fun. Let me set the scene for you - a few months ago, ten parents had a table at the school trivia night, had a few too many chardonnays, and paid a fair bit of money in an auction for one of the other school dads to come and cook dinner for us at one of our houses. Hey, the money all went to the school, we were being good parents, right?

The next day, realising quite how much we had paid, we decided that the dinner needed to be a special event, so we decided to go to my Dad's house at the beach. NO kids, NO cars, everyone sleeps over, and we make a real weekend of it. Little did we realise that "the dad" cooking was an absolute genuis and that the food would have been special enough on it's own! And so, on Saturday afternoon, we all set off here - 

 

and spent the afternoon lazing about and sipping Moet, while the amazing chef, Sy, and his lovely wife and assistant, Anita, worked amazingly hard in the kitchen. I did offer to help - HEAPS of times, but they wouldn't let me!

 

We had the most AMAZING meal, a mixture of Malaysian and Burmese food, some dishes of which were Sy's own personal receipes. And don't worry - we did let Sy and Anita out of the kitchen when they were done cooking for something to eat and a glass or two! The last of the party headed off to bed around two after dancing on the balcony to the Beach Boys.

We all stayed the night, had a swim (and some very needed bacon and eggs, cooked by my hubby), and all packed up and headed home for reality.... and kids......

Nothing better in the world than great friends, great food, great wine and a great setting. What a fantastic weekend. Just the best.

 

Sarah Fielke, Material Obsession, Material Obsession Two

P.S.

Oh come on girls, all that French General isn't MINE - it's kits I'm madly posting out for my Rouge et Gris quilt. I still have a few left if anyone's interested......