Sooo many things tell you all about, where do I start?? First up, the Sydney Quilt Show starts TOMORROW, so if you are a Sydney sider get on down there for the opening day! I am on the QuiltNSW committee and also the show committee, so that’s been sucking up a load of my time over the last few months as you can imagine. I’ve also won a prize so thats fun, I’ll be able to let you know what and which quilt it was for next week!
The Sydney Quilt Show is held at Rosehill Gardens, September 19 - 22. If you buy your tickets online, you go into a draw to win one of five $50 vouchers a day - the vouchers can be spent at any vendor inside the show, its like being given some quilty pocket money!! I will make sure to take lots of photos for you of the quilts and the vendors.
On Friday afternoon I am leaving for Melbourne to teach for a few days, for the Waverley Patchworkers. I’m teaching my Tweedle Dee Project Bag.
Its a big week this week but I’m most excited about the fact that I have this in my hot little hands ready to start reading on the plane. I’ve been excited about this for MONTHS…. I know, I’m easily pleased :D
I know I’ve said it before, but if you haven’t read The Thursday Murder Club series you really are missing out on a treat. This is Richard Osman’s new series - he is apparently coming back to the TMC but these are new characters and a new story. I can’t wait.
Now for the big news of the week! I have THREE exciting things to share.
The first is that my annual Christmas Ornament Swap opens for registration TODAY. As Smites members, you get your signup for free, using the code BAUBLE - but you MUST USE THE CODE, sorry but there are no take backs. Last year it took ages refunding peoples $5 because they forgot to use the code - so please use it :)
You can sign up for the Swap here! All the information about how it works is on the sign up page, and I will also send an email to those who sign up with more details on September 24, but it essentially works like this -
You sign up, you make a Christmas ornament. I assign you a partner. You send your ornament, a Christmas card and maybe little treat to your partner (only after the approved shipping date!!), and someone different sends you something in the post! It has been a lovely swap in previous years, I have only ever had one or two people flake out and not send, and I always have lovely people offer to fill those holes if they happen. I hope you will join in too!
Again - don’t forget your discount code!
FREE signup for the Christmas Swap for Smites is BAUBLE
The second exciting thing is that I had so many people ask about a online class for my little Sakura quilt that I decided to run one.
The class will be live via Zoom, and will take place on Saturday, November 23 at 9am. I’ve tried to get a time that will work for as many people as possible - 9am Sydney time will be around about (different time zones here so its approximate) 4 or 5pm in the USA, 7pm in Canada and 11am in New Zealand. I know that for Europe its awful, and I’m really sorry about that but if there are enough of you interested maybe I will run another one at the end of my day, which would then be the beginning of yours. Let me know if you’re interested in that.
The bookings remain open for StitchyMites only until September 23, at which time it will open for everyone so please book before then if you want to participate.
Class goes for 3 hours. During that time you will learn how to use a Micron pen for shading and enhancing your blocks, adding embroidery if you want to, and how to make the little EPP blossoms for the branch. The class is $300 AUS (which is currently about $202 USD or 181 EUR), and includes absolutely everything you need for the class, just open it up and sew -
- Zoom class
- paper pattern
- video tutorial to refer back to after class
- EPP papers and templates
- all fabric for the front of the quilt
- Micron pen
- glue pen
- 1 roll of Aurifil 80 weight
- 1 Sarah Fielke #10 milliners needle
- some little extra treats!
The kits will be posted out asap after booking, to give them plenty of time to arrive with students before the class is actually on. I am happy to combine shipping them with anything else you might want from the website too.
There’s no discount for Smites this time but I AM giving you first notification on booking in for the class. There are only 16 places, as I want to be able to interact with everyone and keep it feeling cosy, so I wanted to give you guys first option to book before it opens to the public. I hope you will join in, I’d love to see some of your smiling faces! I will be emailing the base on Sunday so get in quick.
Exciting thing number three involves this little pie chart. If you’re on social media you might have seen this, or even voted! After lots of people asked me if I would run Dollies Online again next year, I asked my peeps what they thought about a program for January - June 2025. Several hundred people voted and these are the results!
As the majority of people voted for either Dollies Online or small project program, what I’ve decided to do is come up with something where there is a small project, like a bag or a cushion, that also has an option to make that design into a dolly quilt. (A dolly is another word for a mini quilt, or small quilt). There will be 6 patterns, over 6 months. As I really wasn’t planning to run anything in January I’m playing a bit of catch up on this one, the program doesn’t have a name yet… but I’ve decided on all the projects and one is even finished, so thats a start! Got any great ideas for the name?? Let me know in the comments….
Subscriptions for the as yet unnamed program will open at the end of September :)
That’s all my news for today, I haven’t had five seconds to touch my Tripping Out quilt because the project I mentioned last week and the show have taken all my time. I’m hoping I will have some more done for next Wednesday, and also I’ll be able to give you a little sneak peek of the project thats been sucking up all my spare time… its pretty cute! :D
Sarah x
I‘m looking forward to the new program. My name suggestion: Sarah‘s Sewing Snacks.😉