The Last Piece

Winning

Hello lovely blog readers - we're both winners today! First I'm going to tell you who the winner of the Fat Quarterly book is......

Karen Mundt at Little Birdie Quilting Studio! Congrats Karen, please email me your details to sarah@sarahfielke.com and I can get your book out to you.

And here's how I'M winning! I'm leaving TODAY to go to Africa for nearly 3 weeks! Can you believe that?? Coz I can't. So I'm gonna be here:

Looking at these:

and his friends, and staying in beautiful places like this!

And how come I get to do this you ask? Well, I'm going to be turning

while I'm there. And my dad and my brother and I are off on an adventure. Woohoo!! You won't be forgotten though - my hubbs is going to post while I'm away, and you will find that some friends drop in for hijacking while I'm gone too. If you enjoyed Erica's last hijacking of my blog I think she mentioned some stick giraffes....

Think of me drinking gin on the back of a truck ladies! Toodles....see you on the other side.

Indygo Junction winner and the Bloggers BOM

The random numbers have generated and the winner is....

Terri at From Here to Quilternity! Well done Terri - please contact me asap with your details so we can get your prize out to you.

Meanwhile, since you're here already, why not click right here and find out all about the Bloggers BOM? If you don't already know, Jackie at Canton Village Quiltworks picked a bunch of fantastic designers (including me - thanks Jackie!) and sent us all out some Kaffe fabrics to play with. We all created a block using them and you can follow along the trail each month and make a fantastic BOM quilt with us - for free! You don't have to use the same fabrics or even the same setting pattern if you don't want to, you just get 12 excellent blocks from 12 designers all for you.

The May block was by Cathy at Cabbage Quilts:

It's a jewel box and you can get the instructions to make it at her blog. This month's block is by Pam Kitty Morning... can't wait to see what she gets up to! Should be up soon... while you're waiting why don't you check out the Flickr pool and see what others have been making with the block instructions so far.

September - Sherri McConnell - A Quilting Life

October - Vicki Welsh - Field Trips in Fiber

November - Stephanie Dunphy - Loft Creations

December - Pat Sloan - The Voice Of Quilting

January - John Adams - Quilt Dad

February - Amy Smart - Diary of a Quilter

March - Allison Harris - Cluck, Cluck, Sew

April - Amy Lobsiger - Mrs. Schmenkmen Quilts

May - Cathy Underhill - Cabbage Quilts

June - Pam Vieira-McGinnis - Pam Kitty Morning

July - Victoria Findlay Wolfe - Bumble Beans Inc.

August - Amy Ellis - Amy's Creative Side

September - Sarah Fielke - The Last Piece

October - Jackie Kunkel - Canton Village Quilt Works (me)

Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters

::If you are looking for the Indygo Junction blog post and giveaway, please scroll down one post!::

It never rains but it pours! Believe it or not I'm on another blog tour this week - this time for my good friends at Fat Quarterly. 

Don't know about Fat Quarterly? Wow, you need to find out quick smart. Friends Katy Jones, Brione Greenberg (both from the UK), Tascha Bruecher (a Brit living in Germany) and John Adams (from the US - you might know him as Quiltdad) run an e-zine called (obviously) Fat Quarterly, which is a fresh, modern, fun and beautifully put together mag that is delivered right to your email box every month. Check it out!

Hot on the back of the magazine is their new book, Shape Workshop for Quilters. The book is chock-a-block with 60 blocks and 12 projects for quilts, pillows and even a quilty clock!

I see a lot of new quilt books - and I mean a LOT. The thing that makes this book stand out from the crowd for me is the huges selection of blocks - for any quilter but I think particularly for a new or new-ish quilter, this book is a treasure trove is ideas and inspiration for projects that are achievable and fun.

I think my favourite quilt in the book is this one by my mate Katy - I just love the oranges popping against the Echino fabrics.

Then again, I really like this saw blade block....

Or maybe this starry cushion for my couch...

With all that in mind, you're lucky enough to get a cool freebie block pattern from the book, by John! It's called Pyramid Scheme.

Make sure and send me a pic if you do anything with it and I'll post them all at once so we can see what everyone got up to. 

Guess what else!! When Lark sent me a copy of the book to review, it got lost in the mail, so they sent me another one. And last week - a lady up the road turned up on the doorstep. She had been sent the book by mistake and happened to tell someone at her craft group about it. They happened to know me, gave her my address and she dropped it in - so now I have a spare copy to give away!! How totally cool is that. And so, if you're an Aussie or a New Zealander (sorry everyone else) you can leave a comment telling me your favourite quilt block. It doesn't have to be something from the book, just a block you think is really cool or different or effective. The winner will be drawn on Monday June 25, 5pm AEST.

Follow along with the rest of the tour and you'll find some more giveways, some more freebie blocks and loads more.

5/18 Kickoff at FatQuarterly.com and LarkCrafts.com!

5/21 Lily Quilts
5/24 Handmade by Alissa
5/29 In Color Order
5/31 Comfort Stitching
6/4 Generation Q
6/7 Sew Mama Sew
6/12 Pat Sloan
6/14 WhipUp
6/18 Sarah Fielke’s The Last Piece
6/22 Fat Quarter Shop
6/26 Diary of a Quilter
6/28 Amy’s Creative Side
7/3 A La Mode Fabric
7/6 It’s Sew Kiki!

7/10 Craft Buds!
7/12 Craft Foxes
7/16 {sew} Allegorical
7/18 Wrap-up Party at FatQuarterly.com!

It's a Pattern Parade!

When Amy Barickman at Indygo Junction asked me if I wanted to play along for her Pattern Parade, I was thrilled! I met Amy at Quilt Market last year and she is just as lovely as she looks. 

Don't know about Indygo Junction OR Amy Barickman? Well why not? Here's a little bio...

Indygo Junction Inc., founded by creative entrepreneur Amy Barickman, is an established sewing and crafts business that offers stylish and timeless high-quality patterns and a variety of idea-rich project books. Amy continues to work with artists and designers from around the world to create unique projects, having sold over 2 million books and sewing patterns. 

With a fresh, fashion-forward style, IndygoJunction.com connects creative enthusiasts of all ages. LIKE us on Facebook to receive a free ePattern PDF & sign up for our eNewsletter for a free eBook featuring a purse pattern, embroidery design and small quilt. 

 

There she is. Isn't she cute?

For today's stop on the tour, I'm going to show you this groovy Urban Tote purse pattern. Now, I had every intention of being a Very Good Girl and making this bag up - I even had a funky orphan block all ready to show off in the middle, like this:

- however clearly I am a Very Naughty Girl and haven't done that. What I HAVE done is to read the pattern through closely, so I can tell you how easy this bag is to put together. The instructions are so clear and easy to follow. I am SO not the bag maker, but I think even I could make this one up! Plus you've got the added bonus of being able to show off a block, some embroidery of a favourite piece of fabric in the centre panel.

The bag has a sturdy frame and a wide mouth so you can stuff it full of all that shizzle we all carry around with us. It would make an awesome craft tote too. And it has plenty of discreet pockets on the sides and and inside too for even more storage space. You can finish it off with fun hardware to add make the bag your own. 

Want to make it? I bet you do, 'cause I know I did! Well guess what, you can win a copy of the pattern: 

AND also this extra gorgeous Michael Miller fabric to make it!

To enter you can simply leave a comment on this post letting me know what you would put in the centre panel of the bag. Please make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you, or I will have to redraw the giveaway. The winner will be selected by random draw next Friday, June 22 at 5pm AEST.

As an extra surprise, you can collect a secret letter each day from all the blogs on the tour - my blog's letter is 

That's right, "V". Which stands for Very Very Nice if You Win. Because at the end of the tour, you can unscramble all the letters you collected to create the mystery phrase, then enter it at the Indygo Junction blog to win the Grand Prize. Woohoo!

And guess what else? You don't even have to win the giveaway to get a little giftie - as a special gift to Last Piece readers, Indygo Junction is giving you all a coupon for 20% off your next IndygoJunction.com order. Your code is PPBT4 and it expires at the end of the blog tour on July 13^th.

Make sure and follow along to see what everyone else gets up to!

June 6 – Indygo Junction Kick-Off Post 

June 9th - Nancy Zieman Blog 

June 11 - Sew Much Ado 

June 13 - Designs in Machine Embroidery 

June 15 - The Last Piece

June 18 - Lazy Girl 

June 20 - Sew Weekly 

June 22 - Tula Pink 

June 26 - Sew Mama Sew

June 28 - Mama Said Sew 

July 2 – Skip to my Lou 

July 6 - Indygo Junction Tour Finale

 

 

Such a Lovely Day

I had such a lovely day yesterday. You know sometimes you just wake up cranky, and you feel like the day is going to be a bust before it's even begun? That's how I felt yesterday morning, knowing I had a crazy busy day and I really needed to be at home - amazing how things turn around.

This year I have been so busy writing my fourth book and designing my new fabric range, I really havent had time for much else. Hence the lack of blog posts. And so with the Darling Harbour quilt show looming, I realised I had a) not made a quilt for the show and b) had not organised to be on anyone's stall or c) organised anything to do with it at all. I was kind of bummed because I've been "at" the show for the last 11 years. 

Two weeks ago I got an email apologising for the late notice, but would I please lecture to the Texstyle students like I did last year? These are the girls (and a few boys) doing textiles (fashion, quilting, sewing of some kind) for their HSC, which is the final year of high school here in Australia. I did it last year and loved it, so I accepted straight away to fit a few lectures in for them on different days, and one was yesterday morning.

Lumped myself into the car, grumped about the traffic, drove around in circles looking for a car park, hauled quilts and books and fabric samples upstairs and started my lecture.

Row upon row of bored teenage faces staring at me.... told them about myself and what I do, inwardly thinking, geez I know you're 17 but SOME response would be nice... and then. And then I pulled the quilts out and all their faces lit up, and they started asking questions. How long do they take me? Where do I get the fabrics? Do I really do all that by hand? What a cool career! Do I travel? Do I love it??

Well yes, by the time I left the lecture I was loving it substantially more than I was when I walked in. Back to the car, home through the traffic in a marginally better mood.

Next I was due to meet a friend who was taking me out for a treat for my 40th birthday (which is in July) - she had bought me tickets to see the Royal Ballet. I LOVE the ballet with a passion, but I have so much to do I was feeling really really guilty that I wasn't chained to my sewing machine.

Gorgeous Rosie took me for lunch, bought me a glass of wine, and then we sat through some of the most beautiful ballet I have seen forever. I could not have had a more perfect birthday treat at a more perfect time with my lovely friend. Drove to pick my boys up feeling quite jolly really - if a little bummed I had to haul my butt to a school chapel service that night!

Usual afternoon race around to get everyone from the train station and back to school in an hour for the concert... muttering slightly about ungrateful teens by the time we got there. Sat down ready to get through the thing as quickly as possible and home to my hand quilting.

And then the boys started singing the Evensong service.... the sound of those 80 odd boys singing a capella in that beautiful old stone chapel was just the most delicious thing. From 13 year olds with piping voices to my Charlie and his mates in the bass section. An hour of music that left me floating on a cloud. My dad came to the service too and took us all for a bowl of pasta down the road afterwards, and by the time the five of us spilled out onto the pavement laughing our heads off later in the night, I got in the car thinking, oh bugger it, I won't go home and work, I've had such a lovely day. 

So ther eyou go. You never know what the day will bring, no matter how well you think you have it pegged. :)

I am not AWOL from the Aurifil BOM!

I've been a bit naughty with my BOM posts so I have to apologise - the travelling and the blogging and the writing and the looking after of the kids sometimes over laps into chaos :) HOWEVER! If you missed the May Block of the Month please do go and check it out - Anna from Thimbleanna did the sweetest little Maypole block. If you click the link you can hop on over and read all about Anna and what makes her tick.

And this month is my lovely friend Pam from Pam Kitty Morning! If you don't know Pam already, you should. Pam's been blogging since blogs were invented just about, and she's always full of fun stuff and pretty pictures with red polka dots in them. Plus she designs the cutest fabric!

Pam's BOM block is just like her, sunny and sweet. 

Have you been following along with this Block of the Month program? If you haven't, it's not too late - you can still get all of the embroidery patterns and thread colours from the Aurifil blog, and if you want to see what everyone has been doing with the patterns, there's a Flickr page!

If you DO make one or more of the blocks, make SURE to post them to Flickr - Pat draws a prize every month from the blocks that are made, and you could win some yummy Aurifil! And plus, next months block is ME so I expect you to all get stitching and show me what you can do with it! It's a funky little Summertime block, which I know is a bit out of season for all you Aussies and Kiwis but just think, you can stitch one up and get the jump on the season :)

Stitch on ladies!