The Last Piece

Happy Thoughts

With Christmas just around the corner and sad things happening around the world, I thought I would take a moment to think of the things that make me so lucky and so happy every day.

* My beautiful, safe and healthy boys

* My happy and supportive marriage to my wonderful husband

* The year full of incredible opportunities and experiences I have had

* The people who surround me, from my family to my beautiful friends, my students to my blog readers, my twitter and my facebook friends, my publishers, my fabric distributors and my Craftsy team! You are all incredible and I'm so lucky to work and play with you all.

To that end, today I'm off to Cottage Quiltworks for a morning I organised to sit and sew with a bunch of people from near and far. No teaching, just chat, sewing and making new friends, and seeing some old ones. I'll let you know what we all get up to.

PS. Nearly 800 people in my Craftsy class! Give yourself a present this Christmas and find out what they're all enjoying :) Abd don't forget, purchase anything $20 and up in my webshop during December and receive 50% off my Craftsy class. 

AWOL Again and Giveaway Winners

Oh my poor old blog. You seem to really be getting the short end of the stick lately. I think my New Year's Resolution has to be to pay more attention to you. PLUS I so totally owe you all a winner of my giveaway!

Ths winner of my Quilt Market Swag is:

Hope from hopetn.blogspot.com.au! 

AND the winner of the free voucher for a Craftsy class is:

COLLEEN PERRY! I'm so excited Colleen has won because I know she's been wanting to take a class with me for while now, and now she can, online with Craftsy - my class goes life NEXT WEEK! Hoping to see you there :)

Yay for winners, please send me your addresses ladies so I can get your swag off to you. And stay tuned over the next weeks and months because there will be fabric announcements, giveaways of my new fabric range AND of my new book coming in the lead up to Christmas, and in the New Year. 

Leaving you to go and write my guest posts on Quilt Market for True Up - I will make sure and let you know when they're up so you can go and see what Amy and I found over there. Meantime there is awesome stuff to see about the new ranges being released soon on Kim's blog so go and have a look. 

In other news, I'm on the Aurifil Christmas Ornament Hop next week so buzz in for that! This week's ornaments are made by:

Victoria Findlay Wolfe http://www.bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/

Lizzie B Creative dreamlaughcreate.blogspot.com

Pam Kitty Morning http://pamkittymorning.blogspot.com

There are some real cuties so make sure to check by and see them. 

So I bet you've been wondering what that beautiful quilt is above... it's one of the quilts I loved from Houston, it's a Japanese quilt made by Keiki Ohno, called A Temptation of Stripes. She used what she calls a "felt sheet with many holes" for the overlay, pieced her "stripes" together and then machined around the holes to quilt the layers together. I love the effect.

I promise by the end of this week to have blogged about the other quilts I saw that I enjoyed at Market, there are a lot! Last peek for today is from my friend Dan Rouse, this is his quilt Ripple which was hanging in the Moder Quilt Guild's section of the show. Dan always amazes me with the different way his eye sees a quilt, if you don't read his blog you should. Perhaps it's because he's a garden designer that he looks at fabric with a different eye. This is his take on a Drunkard's Path block.

My annual apologies for the lighting, it is so awful and yellow in the hall and it's almost impossible to get back far enough to take a good pic of any of the quilts.... I do my best :)

WIN My Quilt Market Swag!

Well I'm back from my whirlwind trip to Quilt Market in Houston, with of course a stop along the way to film classes at Craftsy. It was awesome to see everyone and I have loads of beautiful quilt pictures to share with you too. First up though, one of the cool things about Market is all the free stuff they throw at you. Feeling like I have had the trip and therefore the spoils, I thought I should share. 

I'm going to divide the spoils up among two lucky winners.

First prize will be the ticket to win a free Craftsy class - after all, they're worth between $30 and $50 usually and are totally awesome. Maybe if you win you might like to use to to take my group of 8 classes when they are online!

Second prize will win:

A copy of Jenean Morrison's Pattern and Design colouring book

A Liberty of London pencil and Stile Collection postcard

A sample of wool and wool threads from Sue Spargo

A Tsuru by Rashida Coleman-Hale pin from Cloud 9 Fabrics

A Modkid skirt pattern

An Anna Maria Horner needleworks notepad

A charm pack of Free Spirit Essentials

A Spoonflower 2013 calandar tea towel

Wowzers!! Lucky aren't you. First prize is open to anyone, anywhere in the world - and second prize is open to Australia and NZ only, sorry but the postage is a killer. 

To win, leave a comment telling me which is your favourite one of my quilts, AND what country you are in please, if you don't enter your country you will only be entered for the first prize draw. If you feel you would like to tweet or facebook the giveaway please do and I'm happy to give you an extra entry, but no pressure, I don't want to make you all jump through hoops! AND please make sure I have a way to contact you, if I draw a winner with no contact details I will just draw another one. Entries close Thursday, November 8, 5pm AEST.

Happy day all, I'm off to my studio for the first time in weeks and weeks :) xx

iSew Academy

Have you heard of the iSew Academy? It's the brand new iPad and iPhone app (you download it from the App Store) where you can download video tutorials on sewing and quilting. And you can print the patterns out to make projects at home. The app is only new but already they have some free of fantastic free tutorials and sew-alongs going on so you can try the app out, as well of loads of classes you can take.

The app is set up like an English private school - think Hogwarts but with sewing magic :) They have prefects and Houses and House Captains - and the exciting news is that I am going to be their Quilting Captain! What does that mean? Well soon you'll be able to download a whole bunch of video classes with me right onto your iPad. Look out sewing rooms, here I come!

So if you'll be at Houston for Quilt Market, head on over to stand 1569 to see the Head Girls, Louise and Belinda and the rest of the team.

I'll be there wearing my school blazer (!!) at 11.30 every day to say howdy - we will be doing a book signing on Saturday and Sunday as well as a giveaway of a copy of Quilting From Little Things and a St Ives Fat Quarter pack on Sunday.

You can have your photo taken in the photo booth, find out all about the app and get some Aussie lollies as well as say hi! It's a win win situation :)

If you're not going to Houston, check out the girls at iSew Academy at their blog, on Facebook or on Twitter. 

Mollie Makes

Issue 17 of Mollie Makes is out now, and includes a Cup of Tea and a Chat with ME! 

African Adventure

I'm home! And I'm 40! And what a way to do it. Still working out in my head how I can possibly tell you all about the incredible adventure my dad and my brother and I have been on. The thought that stands out the most is that being in wild places like we have been gives you so much faith in the parts the of world still full of untouched beauty. More to come. 

Aurifil Block of the Month

Remote control blogging! By the time you read this lovely peeps I will be in AFRICA on safari with my Dad, and turning the big 4 .0. Holy moley what a ride! I've left you a present though - 

This month is my month for the Aurifil Block of the Month! Stitching with this thread was a dream, it's so smooth and the colours are beautiful - plus there's the added bonus of using it right off the reel - so pulling pesky embroidery thread strands apart!

I've designed a summery little bit for all of you on that right side of the world - those of us on this side can dream about it and stitch in time for November. 

So hop on over to the Aurifil website and download my block and read my interview with Pat. Don't forget to check out the Flickr page too so you can see what everyone has been stitching - enter your block on the page and you could win the monthly prize. 

I leave you in the capable hand of my guest bloggers - something tells me there may be hijackings while I'm away. Have fun!

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.

Keep Calm, and Stitch on Winter!

So, after I went to Towoomba and Melbourne and Orange, I went to New Zealand. Told you I've been busy, and that's not even the end of it! It is the next step though, so I boarded my Qantas jet and spent 3 happy hours watching My Week with Marilyn and appliquing in an otherwise row of empty seats - the perfect flight.

Fenella from Stitch Playroom in Christchurch picked me up and whisked me straight away to a retreat in Pudding Hill! This is the first year of the Keep Calm and Quilt On Winter Retreat, and it was great fun! The place we stayed was in beautiful setting in the mountains at Pudding Hill.

Isn't that beautiful? For a girl from Sydney where there ain't no mountains or snow, the view from the front of our room gave me quite a kick.

Fenella and Shiree had everything beautifully organised, including little goodie bags for everyone, a shop at the front of the room and lovely morning and afternoon teas. 

With a lovely big light room to work in and lots of space - 

everyone soon got comfortable pulling out fabrics and making a mess, as quilters do!

With all skill levels in the class from absolute beginner right on through, there was a huge variety of projects going on, mainly projects from Quilting: from little things. 

And some old favourites too...

And some took their new found Step Down piecing skills and designed something of their own on the second day!

The two days went by very quickly and soon we were all packed up and off back to Christchurch - but I think that's enough pics for today. You can see the post Fenella wrote about the retreat here and Shiree's post here. Off to the studio to get some work done for me. 

Head in a Spin

What to blog about first? There's been so much going on with me that having time to blog has not been very pratical. Now that I have a little down time though I don't know where to start!

How about I start at the beginning? 'Coz I haven't told you about my trip to Toowoomba yet, and that was WEEKS ago.

I love going to Queensland because it usually means seeing my husband's parents. I know loads of people whine about their mother-in-laws, but not me - and that's not just because I know she reads my blog :) Having lost my own beautiful mum 12 years ago, to me Dorothy is the next best thing, and it doesn't hurt that I quite like her hubby too (heh heh). AND I get to look out at this every morning:

Beautiful. And so a trip to teach in Toowoomba for Lisa at Precious Time also meant that I got to spend time at the farm, and that the kids and Damian could come too. The boys spent a very happy few days riding motorbikes, cutting down trees and chopping firewood.

And while they were doing that, I got to go here:

Isn't that a fantastic space to teach in? A lovely light room, and everyone had loads and loads of space and room to lay their blocks out. 

We had a lovely group of ladies and everyone got right to work. Over the two days, we had Jazz Hands (pattern from Material Obsession Two):

Two versions of The Burbs (Material Obsession One):

Two versions of Looking Back (Material Obsession Two):

A Stars in Your Eyes (Quilting: from little things):

Two Made in Cherry's (kits available from my website):

A Night Garden (Quilting: from little things, perspex template sets for rotary cutting available from my website):

I think SIX different Whirligigs - but I only have a pic of one! (Quilting: from little things, applique kit available from my website):

Two versions of The Seasons (Material Obsession Two):

Two different Geese Around the World (Quilting: from little things):

And a Fruit Tingles (Material Obsession Two)- and a partridge in a pear tree!!! 

(Thanks to Lisa for letting me use some of her photos). They certainly kept me busy but it was a fantastic few days and I will be back in Toowoomba later in the year - and I think again after my new book comes out in April next year - right Lisa? :)

It wasn't all work though - I did get to go and play a little in Lisa's beautiful shop. If you're in Toowoomba it is certainly worth a visit to this pretty little blue cottage. Just look at all those quilters streaming in.

Precious Time is a treasure trove of pretty things and little nooks filled with gorgeous fabrics and kits.

This was just the most beautifully organised workshop and I had a blast. Thanks so much to Lisa for inviting me! One of the things I love so much about travelling to teach is the new friends I make in the process, and I've certainly made some great ones in the last few weeks. Lucky me :)