The Last Piece

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......

Get Busy

 

Winners are Grinners

Drumroll please.....and the winners of these tasty little piles of loveliness are:

Blogless Annie, who said:

I love the "deer" little pillow. I've never been a big pillow lover but I'm starting to become a bit addicted to them, and as I love all things Christmas this one from Linda Lum Lebono is my favourite. It was tough to choose just one though. Thanks for the opportunity to win this great prize.

Katie B from Katie's Korner, who said:

Tough choice! My favorite of your favorites would have to be the deer pillow. So cute.

Artfulife, who said:

The fabric is so amazing! Glad I found your blog through Cart Before the Horse's blog. I will blog and link also. Hope you have a wonderful & creative week.

Donna at Kindred Crafters, who said:

i am favouriting the little deer pillow you selected this week, too. Super cute Thanks for the chance to win a great prize.

Marg! Hooray...see you on Wednesday night! :) who said:

the star quilt or something similar may be my next plan but we will see.... 

and last but not least, Jen at Stitching at Stone Cottage, who said:

this is definately my favourite of your favourites...wonderful fabrics..

Hooray for everyone, please send me your postal addys so I can send your Honey Buns and Calendars off to you. 

NEXT - OK, I have decided in a fit of madness to play along with the Pay It Forward program that I have seen around the place. I have signed up with Kylie at A Little Red Dress, and now I have to get some of you to play along with me! Here's how it works. 

1. I will make a little something for the first three people who comment on this post. It will be a surprise and it will arrive on your doorstep when you least expect it!

2. I will have 365 days to do it in.

What's the catch? To get a handmade prezzie from me, you have to play too. 

1. You must have a blog.

2. BEFORE you comment here, you must post about your Pay It Forward on your blog to keep the fun going, and display the Pay It Forward button.

 

Yay! How much fun. Can't wait to hear who is getting the three prezzies I'm going to make... enjoy your day!

Sarah Fielke, Material Obsession, Material Obsession Two

So Many Projects....

........and so many things to show you! I know that I haven't announced the winners of the competition yet and I PROMISE I will do that tomorrow, but first I have to show you another project that I have been working on. You might have seen the little Sweet Cuts badge on the side of my blog, sporting my mug. Well, here's what it's all about. 

Sweet Cuts have asked me to pick fabrics for a bit of a road test. They are going to cut kits for my quilts - I will pick the colours and fabrics, and they will cut the pieces TO SIZE EXACTLY. That's right - you don't cut ANYTHING. You just open the package fresh from the mailbox and sew! How cool is that. 

They are starting off with a nice easy one for everyone to throw together in a weekend - different colourways of my quilt, Bless You.

Here's the original quilt -

And here are the colourways you can buy the kit in. There's Blue for Boys (King single bed size) -

Pink for Girls (king single bed size) -

Fun and Funky (Queen bed size)-

 

and Sophisticated - ooh er.

 

Aren't they great? You get the kit cut in the exact fabrics shown and they are cut and delivered to your door ready for you to start stitching. As this is a test case there are only 13 kits for each - and some have already sold to Sewn customers, so you need to get in FAST. Which is why I'm blogging about this now and not telling you who won French General fabrics! Tomorrow I promise.....

PS. Welcome to Sew n'Sell my friend Erica with her line of patterns, Erica Spinks Designs. Check them out for lovely quilts, including the beautiful Sunshine on Roses that you all went crazy for when I blogged it not long ago!

Dollies Online! Dollies Online!

Amy and I have been waiting AGES to tell you all about this. AGES. We are doing something very exciting together.

 

We are running a dolly quilt program together! Hooray!

Basically what will happen is that you can sign up for 12 months of Dolly Quilt Pattern goodness, provided as a PDF directly into your inbox by Amy and myself. We will alternate months so that you end up with 6 Mrs Schmenkman patterns and 6 Last Piece patterns, all of different techniques and different skill levels to expand your quilting knowledge and satisfy your inner desire to make cute, cute, cute little quilts.

This is the first month, called Hurry Home, made by clever Amy.

 

Aren't those Kaffe's beautiful? I love that shimmery border. And this is the second month, Drawn and Quartered, made by me.

 

The other months we will keep under wraps so that you have a lovely surprise in your inbox each month. Even better though, if you sign up for the 12 month program, you will get an extra FREE and very very cute pattern of our dolly logo, that is designed just for those of you running along with us!

So what is a Dolly Quilt? For those of you that don't know, a Dolly is a small quilt, usually no bigger than about 20", that traditionally were made by children for their dolls. We're not making them for our dolls though, we are making them for US. They look great on a wall all hung together, framed or even as cushion covers......

The patterns will also be available by the month, but you will have to wait longer to get them and also ifyou sign up for all 12 you get the patterns for $10 instead of $15 (all prices in Australian dollars). 

Happy dance and woot woot.... come and play along, we are going to have so much fun! Plus, if you play you get delicious, gorgeous, flashy dancing dollies button like ours for your blog roll!! Clever, clever husband.

Dollies Online! Dollies Online!

Sarah Fielke, Material Obsession, Material Obsession Two

Del Hi Kits

While cutting a kit for the ever patient Deb today (you know who you are!), I realised that I have enough of this lovely fabric to make TWO kits. 

 

This kit is for my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, but using different fabrics. You can also see this quilt at Kate's blog, she recently finished it from a kit in the original fabrics. 

 

The three fabrics shown at the front would be the large squares, and the grey butterflies are also the outer border. The green spot is for the cream triangles, and the other pink and brown fabrics are for the small triangles. The brown scissors are the binding. 

The kit will be $135 including the pattern, but not the postage, which is $11 within Australia. I will quote on postage outside of Australia. If you would like the other kit (Deb owns the first one!), please send me an email at [email protected] and I will send you a PayPal invoice. Better be quick, there's only one!

PS. Don't forget to enter the giveaway, it's open until this Friday, October 16. Lots of entries, hooray for French General!

Giveaway Time

OK, back to earth after yesterday's excitement. And so I thought it was time I had a giveaway. I know that Sewn has a giveaway every week, but I thought The Last Piece hasn't had one for a while, and it's extra special!

While I was out at a warehouse on Friday, I happened to see this:

 

These slightly blurry pictures taken on my phone are actually the very first of the French General fabric, landed in Australia and being bolted to be shipped off to the shops!! I know you're all waiting with bated breath for it to arrive, and so I thought I would give you the chance to win some of your very own.

To celebrate the arrival of the fabric, and also the project using it that I have in this month's wonderful Down Under Quilts, I am giving away six, yes SIX, Honey Buns of the Rouenneries line, along with the newly released, beautiful Down Under Quilts 2010 calendar to six lucky winners. Thanks so much to Moda Fabrics and Down Under Quilts for the amazing prizes!

 

Don't forget that if you don't win the prize, you can still get a kit for the quilt from my Sew n'Sell shop, I only have enough for 10 kits and 6 are already sold so if you want one be QUICK! The fabric is exactly the same as the original quilt, no substitutions.

Now, what do you have to do to win? Hmmm.... OK, you can EITHER - go over to Sewn and then leave me a comment at The Last Piece as to which of my Favourites is YOUR favourite this week, OR you can go over to the digital version of Down Under Quilts Issue 137, and tell me which of the projects in there this month you are thinking of starting. 

You get one entry for a comment, and another entry if you leave a comment saying you have blogged and linked about my giveaway on your blog. AND, if you put on your blog a link to the Sewn Newsletter signup page, you get another entry. Don't forget to comment and tell me though. So that's three chances you can get if you get really busy!

OK, you've got blogging to do! Don't forget this is open internationally, I am happy to post to wherever you are :)

PS. New Sewn content is up - Ingrid Press is our feature artist this week, there is a fun circle block tutorial, a competition to win a $50 gift voucher and and article about quilts being shown in Times Square... go take a look!

PPS. It's giveaway city at the moment - how lucky are all of you. The very talented Linda Lum Debono is also having a giveaway of her beautiful new fabric line, Inspiration. If you go and leave a comment you could win one of five fat quarter stacks of the line! Go and have a look, it's just lovely. You might also notice that Linda's little deer cushion from her new book is featured in my Favourites this week.

WAY TOO EXCITING!!!!

Ok, sorry, I know I'm yelling at you all, but I am so excited. 

Remember this quilt? 

 

Well, now I can tell you it was for the International Quilt Fest: Quilt Scene magazine, which is coming out in honor of the 35th birthday of the Houston Quilt Market. And guess whose quilt is on the front cover?

 

Get. Out. How cool is that. I can't believe it. You can go over to the Interweave website right now and order it. I had no idea. I have nothing to say other than-

WOOT! WOOT!

And thank you Pokey! :)