The Last Piece

The Best Bit, the Quilts

I've been trying to get time to post for you about the quilts in the Houston show ever since I got back! Unfortunately this is a post that takes some time as I want to label them all properly and not get mixed up. 

Can I preface this post by saying that ALL of these pics were taken in the section of the show in which photography is allowed by the organisers of the show, and that I asked and was told that it is fine to share these pictures on a blog so long as they are properly labelled? Contrary so some people's beliefs about quilt show photography on blogs, I am not trying to rip off anyone's design, but to share the experience of the amazing quilts at the show with the people who could not be there. It's a shame that I have to say this before I post, however I have been yelled at prior to this for posting exactly this - quilts from a section of the show in which photography was allowed, and for the press (which, through Sewn, I am), even encouraged. If your quilt is shown here and you would like it removed, please let me know and I will be happy to take it down for you. Right.

I'm starting with my favourite quilt in the show. I thought Keiko Goke was a genuis anyway, but when I saw this quilt it just stopped me in my tracks.

The combination of the beautifully pieces and yet wonky and offset Pickle Dishes, the colours, the embroidery, the scale of the blocks. It just hit me right in the eye.

What a stunner. Wow, I just love that quilt. I was so excited I forgot to get the name of it though! Anyone know?

This beautiful thing is called The White Garden, by Akiko Kawata.

I love the shapes of the flowers and the texture that the quilting has given the background fabrics. 

Here is Where's Johnson by Diane M. Sehorne. Admiring the paper piecing close up was easy....

But WOW when you get far away!

This quilt I have already seen on a number of blogs around and about, but I just had to put it up again as I think it was my second favourite of the show. 

Earth Trees, Earth Flowers by Yuko Kosaka. Look at that for beauty. Those checkered bits in the sashing there are WOOL!

Killing me with those colour combos. Just killing me.

There were so many, amazing appliques, unique ideas... here's an interesting setting, Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend by Jo Barry.

Loved the unusual use of background fabric in Metropolis in Bloom, by Kathryn Botsford.

And the piecing of the flowers and those little bits of check in the background in Grape Hyacinth by Margo Fiddes.

Simple piecing you say?

Not so. These diamonds are all machine appliqued with patterns of butterfly wings. Wings, by Rory Ross.

The Japanese quilters really are astounding. I loved this too, Flower Road, by Hideko Kubota.

Loving the checked backgrounds, and LOVING hand quilting. There are so few hand quilted quilts in shows at the moment. While I appreciate the skill it takes to machine quilt, I am absolutely a hand quilting girl.

Yay! I love me a good Dresden plate, and this one is a goodie! Orphan Blossoms by Timna Tarr

Very cool Pickle Dish setting, The Quilt #2 by Lynn Isenberg.

I love New York Beauties and this one is stunning.

mmm Look at all those repros! I know Kathie at Inspired by Antique Quilts will love this one :) New York Jazz by Patricia Mayer and Karen Watts.

This quilt was so beautful in real life, I hope it translates here. No Horizon 2 by Enid Gjelten Weichselbaum.

Now I'm not usually one for pictorial quilts very much, but this one really was just astonishing. 

Not only is the boy's face beautifully portrayed, but the quilting!!!

That there is Innocence, by Hollis Chatelaine (of course!). 

OK well I don't know how inspired you are after that but I'm wired, so it's off to the sewing room with me. I will draw the birdie giveaway on Friday so there is still time to enter if you haven't. Have a stitchy day everyone.

AQM Melbourne and a Giveaway

The Australian Quilt Market has been on in Melbourne this past weekend. I went down and it was such fun to see everyone and have a chance to show Aussies my fabric!

If you're an Aussie and wonder what I'm talking about, that's because this is a trade only show, a bit similar to Houston Market - I hesitate to draw comparisons here though, because the AQM is REALLY little and Houston is REALLY REALLY big. 

It's fun none the less, and the Charles Parsons stand looked lovely with all the Aussie designers! These pics are just my little end. Lynette Anderson, Rosie Quinlan, Michelle Marvig and me - how exciting to have to many Australian fabric designers on show, and that was just the ones that Charles Parsons are distributing, there are more!

Saturday night we were all invited to a lovely party for Homespun magazine's 10th birthday. It was great to meet Catherine Sanchez in person after many years. Lovely to catch up and meet people too, like Natalie, Monica and Mr Moonshine, Sue and Jim, Kate, Rita, Leanne and Melanie. Not to mention Clare, Melea, Necia and Shane! Busy busy. 

If you follow me on Twitter (@sarahfielke) you may have seen my birdies as I was making them last week to put in the birdcage. Now I have a question for you all.

ARE YOU MY PAY IT FORWARD PARTNERS??

I cannot find for the life of me where I filed so carefully away the names and addresses of my two Pay It Forward partners. If you are they, please email me, [email protected] , because I have a birdie each for you, as well as some other goodies. 

And what's the giveaway?

Well if you are tricky you will have seen that there are THREE birdies in the tree and only TWO PIF partners... So I'm going to give away birdie number 3.

I have a few things brought home from Market and various other sources of goodness that I'm going to give away coming up to Christmas, so stay tuned! In the mean time, enter to win a birdie simply byleaving a comment on this post and saying howdy. 

* Amendment - I've had a few questions about the quilt with the tulips on it that's on the wall of the stand. That is my quilt, it's called How Does Your Garden Grow and the pattern for it will be in the March edition of Australian Quilter's Companion. If you are interested in a kit I am going to do some, shoot me an email to [email protected] and I will let you know how much and when I will send them etc. Thanks!

Antique Beauties at Market

Slowly getting through the Quilt Market posts. This one is all the pics I took of the many, many antique beauties there were for sale and on display.

As an Aussie who is obsessed with antique quilts, seeing whole booths devoted to them is enough to give me heart palpitations. Lucky for Damian I couldn't get them all home in my luggage!

There were a couple of other displays in the quilt section that I couldn't take pics of, but I was able to photograph this exhibition of patriotic quilts belonging to Cindy Reynolds.

I love a good eagle. 

And I'm LOVING these stars.

These two were part of another exhibition that for some reason I only took two pics of.

Those half blocks are devine!!

• Ok now your creative juices are running, hop on over to the STC blog for some amazing free download patterns at their Handmade Holidays post - including the pattern for my quilt, Coming Up Roses!

More Quilt Market Goodies

You know when you go somewhere and it's exciting and there's heaps of things to look at and you think you took loads of pictures, then you get home and find you actually didnt?

Oh well, I did take SOME...

The most exciting thing I saw at Market was most absolutely the Tammis Keefe fabric from Michael Miller. Tammis was a designer in the 1940'2 and 50's, best known for her funky, quirky prints of animals. I have a couple of her hankies that I have had forever and a day - I don't actually even know where I got them from, (possibly my grandma) or when I realized that they were Tammis Kefe hankies, only that I love them and always have. I will dig them out shortly (still unpacking boxes from the move!!) and when I do I will show them to you. 

For me Tammis is right up there with Vera and Orla Kiely for sheer awesome designing. Which is why I was so excited to see that Michael Miller is printing some of her designs into patchwork fabrics. 

Keep your eye out for this, the pics do not do it justice, it's a must have!

The Kokka stand was as usual a place of beauty and wonder. I could easily have just run off with everything there.

All these little felty thingies at Kokka always make me want to take up making dolly food for a living, but lets face it, that's not going to happen!

Diawabo as usual had the most devine little hippos and strawberries and other cuties. They were also giving feeebies away and I got myself the cutest little pink bag with white hippos. 

I was quite taken with Art Gallery Quilt's little bag kits - I had seen them online at Hawthorne Threads, but they are nicer in real life and well worth looking at. Gorgeous stand too!

Everybody seemed to be talking about the Riley Blake stand.

As a mum of boys (who are ow way to old for pirates!) I thought this Pirate line looked really cute. And I'm gonna want me some of these sheep....

and deers.....

hmm, I should perhaps have called this post, Small Animals I Met at Market.

That's apparently all the pics I took, but head on over to see Kim at True Up who as always has the best, most comprehensive and informative Market Update. 

Today is a day of sewing bindings, I'll let you know how I go!

Balmain Baby

OK, I know I promised another Quilt Market post but I haven't had time to upload the pics yet - a few things left to do before I go to Australian Quilt Market in Melbourne next week!

 

In the mean time, exciting news I had heard tell of a while ago is about to become reality. Sydney will soon have a new patchwork shop - and not just ANY patchwork shop, an new arm of Calico and Ivy! If you have never been to Perth and don't know about Calico and Ivy, you should go right now and check it out. I know it's a long way though, so pop on over to their blog and read all about them and their new shop, opening soon in Balmain in Sydney. 

And not only is this beautiful shop coming to Sydney, it will also be managed by the lovely Sarah of Choccy Bangles. So pop in and say hi when they open if you're in the area, you won't regret it I'm sure - I know Ill be ducking in for some Liberty from time to time!

Quilt Market Snapshots

Where to begin?? I took over 400 pics at Market so you will have to forgive me if I rant on for a few posts. There are some FANTASTIC quilts, some fab new fabrics and all manner of lovely things to show, but I though I would start today with the antics and booths of friends new and old.

First though I have to apologise to my new BFF's at Fat Quarterly and say that I didn't get a pic of/with them!! Which seems amazing as I managed to spend half of Market drinking some sort of beverage with them at some venue or other. Katy says I like to party but I'm telling you now, that Ginger Monkey is a bad influence, and little Flossy is no slouch in the party department either. Lucky John was along to keep us all in line.

I DID manage to get a pic of the elusive Mrs Schmenkman, but I have promised not to post it and keep her real identity under wraps, or she may lose her quilty super-powers :) hee hee Seeing my dear mate Amy was just the best part of Market, I'm sure you are all aware of how much we chat from the amount we talk about each other on our respective blogs, but seeing her in person was just the cats!

I think Quilt Market 2010 has to be called The Year of the Aussie... everywhere you turned there was an Aussie accent, from shops to booth holders and designers they were EVERYWHERE. Of course my two Lecien designer sistas Rosalie Quinlan...

and Lynette Anderson make the top of my list! Their booths were gorgeous, and Rosalie's booth was a top place to hang out and rest my weary feet. Thanks for the use of the spare chair :)

Other Aussies of note were of course Sue Daley of Patchwork with Busy Fingers, who was so busy I couldn't get near enough to to have a picture taken - except in the hotel bar, where I didn't feel it was fair! My wonderful machine quilter Kim Bradley  and her hubby Dave had a very popular booth too peddling their perspex templates. Kelly from Don't Look Now was mobbed almost every time I walked past, so we snapped this pic of her stunning booth on the fly during a rare moment.

Rosalie's sis Melly had her own booth with her new fabric, Little Menagerie.

Also around about was my incredibly clever friend Lisa, in Houston taking classes after winning the Jewel Pearce Patterson Scholarship. Again no pic, but you can hop over to her blog and read about her adventures at Market and Festival, where she is probably still drinking gin and being feted at every turn. No just kidding, I think Festival is over :)

Catching up with everyone was brilliant, no matter how briefly! It was awesome to finally meet Pat, whose rulers I'm looking forward to trying so I can tell you all about them, and Monica, another Lecien Fabric-Sis extraordinaire. Had also been dying to meet our new fabric sis Bari J. Her next line of fabric will be with Lecien, woot woot!

Awesome as always to see Sue and Wendy, Kaffe, Brandon and Liza, Anna and Heather, Pokey and Pam, and to meet Cherri and Lizzy (who is just as cute in person as she seems on her blog) and Betz and Heather and Jackie! Had a great time doing a podcast with Jackie, I'll let you know when she has it up for listening.

It was also INCREDIBLY cool to meet Kathy from Pink Chalk and Kirsten from Sew Mama Sew, and also to almost fall off my chair in shock and swooniness when they told me they ordered my fabric! Fan me, I'm fainting. I think I may have turned a very bright red when they told me.

Oh man, the list goes on...if I have forgotten you please don't be offended, only know that the whirlwind of faces is so huge that the blog will go on for days if I keep going. It was awesome to see and meet everyone and such a fun party. 

Tomorrow the stuff I know you really want to see - the fabric. Or the quilts? Which first blogland, you decide.

PS. Quite a number of you have asked for pics of my booth - there ain't none 'cause there weren't one. With my fabric at Lecien and my patterns and books at Brewers, I decided that was quite enough and I would leave myself free to skip around and see what was what instead of standing in a booth all day. Hence the lack of pics!

 

This Little Piggy Went to Market

Yep, that is aisle 2100. I don't think you can really appreciate the vastness of Quilt Market until you're here. It's HUGE.

And hiding among all the thousands of fabrics is one I'm pretty fond of....

From Little Things!! All ready to be ordered! By real live shops!! It's so cool. Thank you, thank you al everyone who has ordered it for their shop and bought it at Sample Spree. It's such a thrill for me and I'm SO glad you all like it!

The Lecien booth at 1752 is chock full of Little Things goodness. 

We had a fantastic crowd for Lecien Schoolhouse too. Load of familiar faces and some friendly new ones too. I will blog and tell you all about the other wonderful Lecien designers tomorrow.

Market is such fun... I did two great book signings today for Material Obsession Two. Thanks to United Noions and Brewers for hosting me, and thanks so much to all the ladies who came by to have their books signed, it was great to meet you all. 

At United Notions.....

And at Brewers. Can anyone spot the GInger Monkey?

Launching my pattern line with Brewers has also been WAY too exciting. Check it out!

All in all, so far and so good :) Having a great time, thanks to absolutely everyone for the well wishes :)