This weeks Down the Rabbit Hole is a tutorial for my Jazz Hands quilt! This week we will look at piecing the quilt by English Paper Piecing, and next week by hand piecing. Mirrors, sandpaper boards, my Sarah Fielke brand needles, my Aurifil 80 weight thread collection, clips, the Jazz Hands EPP template and papers and hand piecing templates AND the Jazz Hands pattern in paper or PDF formats are all available at www.sarahfielke.com ! You can hear all about the story behind the Jazz Hands quilt in Down the Rabbit Hole number 11 , from last week. Enjoy! Don't forget to join up to my new small project BOM - The Lemonade Stand here. Happy Easter everyone! Sarah

Hi everyone and welcome to The Lemonade Stand ! 6 months of juicy sweet fun, delivered right to your inbox. Six small projects, together with six small quilts in the same theme - so you can decide to make one or the other, or both! No lemons, just Lemonade! Each month the pattern will be available for you at my website, together with a video tutorial explaining all the tips and tricks, and little things you need to know to get it made. The patterns and videos will also be available each month for individual sale outside of the program. The individual patterns are more expensive than buying the 6 month program outright. The program is $70 USD (around $100 AUD), and each pattern will be around $17 USD ($25 AUD), so you are obviously better to sign up for the 6 months! However if you have a friend who sees your project and wants the pattern, they will be able to buy one singly. PATCHWORK SHOPS! This also means that each month the patterns will be released as paper patterns for wholesale. The patterns will be revealed to wholesalers in the month prior so that you have time to place an order, or you can choose to run the 6 month program, have the paper patterns delivered each month automatically and kit the projects as you choose. Please email bom2017@sarahfielke.com for more information or to sign up for a wholesale account. Each of the dolly quilts will be no smaller than 12" square and no larger than 18" square. The projects will range in technique, using both hand work and machine work. All projects are suitable for hand work - however not all are suitable for the machine. The projects will include a wide range of techniques including but not limited to appliqué, machine piecing, EPP, inserting a zipper, working with velvet, making bias tape and perfect circles. The mini pieces will include things such as a drawstring bag, a project booklet, a set of zip pouches, a needle book and an apron. The Lemonade Stand is NOW OPEN for full subscription , and the pattern program will begin from July 15, 2025. If you join before July 15 you have the option to pay by the month. After July 15, subscriptions will remain open only with the option to pay for the 6 months in full, or to purchase each pattern separately at a higher price. Template sets and notions are now on sale, and we will begin shipping before the beginning of May. For some months there will be the option of a fabric and/or additional notions kit. These will be in very limited supply! They will not be for sale until the project for the month is revealed, which will be on the first of the month, prior to the pattern being revealed on the 15th. The Lemonade Stand members will be the first to have access to purchasing the kits, which will not go on sale for the public until the patterns are revealed on the 15th of the month. Last year these sold out very quickly, so if you want one please buy them before the public sales open to avoid disappointment. PLEASE NOTE that the Month 1 kit, The Velvet Fog, is already available for sale so that it can be shipped with your template set. Please watch the information video, as it includes info about the potential projects, and info about the template set, notions and bias tape colours I have planned to use in my projects so that you can preorder them with your template set if you choose. Join up here

Hello and good morning to you Smites! As promised I'm going to have a little chat about some quilts at the Australian Modern Quilt Show, and how you should never ​ever NOT enter your quilt because you feel like it won't win a prize. With the entries for the Sydney Quilt Show opening soon, this is a really important topic and I want you all to listen closely - and then enter your quilts in a show, because it MATTERS! I saw some amazing and vibrant quilts at the Australian Modern Quilt show a couple of weekends ago. Everything from improv pieced to traditionally pieced, machine quilted to hand quilted, appliquéd and tied and curve pieced. It was a great display and a very enjoyable show. I judged the Sydney Quilt Show last year, together with Judy Hooworth and Rhonda Pearce, who are both amazing quilters of very different sorts - Judy known for her polished art quilts and Rhonda for her very beautiful traditional ones. We made a great team in my opinion - we agreed on most decisions and were very interested in each other opinions and willing to listen if we did disagree on something. It was a wonderful two days, and it gave me a lot of perspective as I was wandering around looking at the quilts at the AMQS! A lot of the quilts there had hung in the SQS (not all by any means, nut many), and some of the quilts we gave major prizes to in the Modern sections of the show didn't win anything at all at the AMQS, which I found very very interesting. Obviously a modern quilt show is looking for different things than an in air quotes "traditional" quilt show. At a modern show, equal weight (and sometimes lesser depending on the judges) is placed on design and the overall look of the quilt as to the construction and technique used to make it, meaning that a quilt with less technical elements or expertise can win a prize, where judges at a more traditional show might exclude a quilt from a top prize if, for example, the top is absolutely beautiful but the quilting is not, or everything is beautifully done but the binding is uneven and the corners messy. It doesn't mean that quilt WON'T win a prize, its just taken more into consideration. That also means that different things are looked at when a quilt is judged at a modern quilt show - wether the judges consider that quilt to have the attributes they want for the category they quilt has been entered into. It also depends very much on what has been entered! Best in Show at AMQS was not entered in SQS, last year so theres no way of knowing how it would have done - however perhaps Pip is thinking about entering it this year, in which case I will be fascinated to see what the SQS judges make of it! Hot Flush by Pip Porter The way we judge at SQS is that the categories are all laid out, and we judge that category. Anything that wins a prize for that category is then in the running for special prizes (Best Use of Colour etc), and the first prizes in each category are in the running for Best in Show. One of my favourite quilts at SQS was The Reef 80's Style, by Ann Richardson. We awarded it First in Modern Improvisational, and First Modern Design Professional. I nearly chose it for my Judge's Choice prize too. It was very much in my favourites mix as we looked at the Best in Show group at SQS judging, as was Red by Kathleen Troup. Red won First Best Modern Design Amateur, and Second Modern Improvisational. At the AMQS, Red was awarded Second Improvisational, but The Reef 80's Style missed out all together. This year for the first time, AMQS awarded a President's Award and a Amateur Encouragement Award, for quilts that weren't given prizes by the judges. And I'm so glad they did, because the Presidents Award winner was one of my favourite quilts in the whole show!! If I were judging, I would have gone in to bat for this one. Deconstructed Opera House by Susan Sheath Interesting isn't it! Now be VERY CLEAR, none of this is a criticism in any way AT ALL. I'm merely trying to illustrate that being juried in to a show (Quiltcon for example!) or winning a prize, is so very very much a matter of who the judges are for that show and for that year, and what the other quilts are for that category in that show. It doesn't mean your quilt won't win something elsewhere, and it doesn't mean your quilts aren't good enough for that show. I never ever beat myself up if I put a quilt in a show and it doesn't win anything, because I loved it enough to enter it and the judges were just looking for something else in that moment. Then there's the President's Awards, Judges Choice awards and Amateur Encouragement awards. Peeps, they're there for a reason! Not everyone has been quilting for 20 years and is a professional and makes quilts that win all over the place. Some people made a pretty quilt for their mum's 60th, and those are EVERY BIT as beautiful and important as the mega show stopper OMG look at that quilts. Every. Single. Bit. I guess what I'm trying to say is that don't ever enter your quilting thinking that it will or won't win a prize. Don't make your quilts TO WIN A PRIZE. Make your quilts because you love making them and they give you joy, and you lost yourself in them, or they were for your kids or your sister. Make them because when you finished you were so proud of yourself. And then enter them in a show, because without entries THERE IS NO SHOW AT ALL. No matter what "level" your quiltmaking is, seeing your quilting hanging in the show you enter it in will inspire someone else to hang their quilt next time, and thats about the best prize there is out there. Here's some other pics of my favourites from the AMQS - The colour, hand quilting and piecing all gorgeous. No wonder she got Viewers Choice as well as her other prize! Fragmented by Tamara Stunnell I mean HELLO I love this happy rainbow protea and I wish I owned it. Protea 2 by Grace Di Muzio This is my JAAAMMMM, I love an improv triangle! I teach a really fun improv triangle class that is one of my favourites to teach. Sawtooth No 3 Betelguese by Simone Symonds And here's my quilt. It's called Don't Miss Out. You may remember glimpses of me piecing this over the last year or so. I haven't posted it publicly online yet because its a finalist in a couple of other shows (see? Didn't win anything at ASQS but it's gotten into some other things that are a little tricky to be juried into!). This is actually a prime example of quilts that are not about prizes though. Iconic quilter Freddy Moran was a hugely important person in my quilting career, and I was also lucky to become her friend while teaching at Sisters over the years. I knew that she was very ill, and she I heard she had died I was very sad that I didn't get one last chat at Sisters with her. I went downstairs to my studio, and I took all the red fabrics off my shelf and refolded them all neatly, thinking about Freddy and her quilts and her cheeky personality. (A famous quote of hers is that red is a neutral). After a while I just started sewing, and this is the quilt that resulted. The quote is from Kathryn Hepburn. It's a little bit me, and a little bit her, and it reminds me of our time together when I look at it. So if it never wins anything, it's a quilt that means an enormous amount to me and no judge can change that, no matter who they are. So PUT YOUR QUILT IN A SHOW people!! And most especially, put it in the Sydney Quilt Show because we want to break out entry record this year. I'll post again when the entries are open, to remind you. In the mean time, make a block for the Giucy Giuce challenge at the show this year! Heres all the info, and the link enter. You don't have to be a QuiltNSW member, anyone can make one! And Giucy is going to judge it himself, and award the prize at the show. You can enter from overseas, you just need to email me president@quiltnsw.com because the postage will be a bit more for us to send you the challenge fabric. That's it peeps! I'd love to know what you think about all that.... quilt show prizes is a can of worms sometimes! Sarah x​

JAZZ HANDS 👐 This week I’m chatting about a sparky little quilt that wasn’t meant for a book but somehow snuck its way in. As usual the pattern is available in paper or PDF format, and the templates are available for hand piecing, peeper fussy cutting and EPP papers too! Next week I’m going to post a little tutorial about all the different ways to make these fun blocks, because they’re satisfying, stash busting and cute as a button 👐 You can buy the pattern and templates for Jazz Hands below: https://www.sarahfielke.com/search?q=JAZZ+hands&type=products¤cy=AUD https://www.sarahfielke.com/shop-all?currency=AUD&Category=Templates Happy Friday everyone! Sarah

Jungle Boogie is the quilt for Down the Rabbit Hole number 10! I love this quilt’s bold design but I also love both the versions I made because they were such a big part of my children’s childhoods. You can buy the pattern for Jungle Boogie in a physical or PDF format here: https://www.sarahfielke.com/product-page/jungle-boogie-pattern-printed?currency=AUD https://www.sarahfielke.com/product-page/jungle-boogie-quilt-pattern-pdf?currency=AUD Happy Friday everyone! Sarah

Ever feel like you're running and running but you're on the hamster wheel - never moving an inch! SO many things I want to be working at and SO SO many things I have to be doing instead. For example... ​*With so much going on my Lexi hoodies are still languishing.... I am making slow progress little by little on the appliqué in front of the TV at night but not enough to show you any improvement really. When I have the hand sewing I need done for the next BOM instalment finished I will get back to my hoodie with more gusto! How are you going with yours? I know there's quite a few of you making the appliqué version with me, and also the patchwork version. I'd love to see where you're up to. Drop a pic in the comments? *My Granny Squares quilt is still in exactly the same state is was in at the end of January. I am determined to finish soon, its so close!!!! I was going to send it out to be quilted but the more I look at all that lovely linen and Liberty the more I want to hand quilt it. I'm torn though, between the deliciousness of hand quilting it and the magnetic pull of just having it DONE and on the bed in the guest room. My friend Giuseppe (Giucy Giuce) will be staying in that room in September when he's here for the Sydney Quilt Show, and I want it done for then so that the room looks finished. Tell me what to do peeps, I can't decide. *Remember Fun with Dick and Jane - the quilt with the dogs running around the border? Well it's not done either but I am determined (I'm very determined 😂) that it's being entered in this year's Sydney Quilt Show. And yes, that does mean that the pattern will be done and available for sale at the show, and online. I have only one border left to appliqué before I can add the last one on, and then I'm hand quilting it. Which, if I'm to have it done for the show, I suppose answers my question about the Granny Squares really doesn't it. Sigh. *Where oh where are the Lap App patterns? You all keep asking me (thank you). The cover, with accompanying magnetic pincushion pattern, and the tote (which could be used for anything really, not just a lap app) will be available for sale on March 31. That's the day the competition will open too, you could win a really fun prize bundle of a Lap App, Lap App wool mat and steel magnetic sheet, a Lap App storage box AND have your pattern purchase refunded. Keep your eyes peeled peoples! *Will I run the Lemonade Stand again this year? Something else you all keep asking (thank you thank you). And the answer is YES!! You can register your interest here, and the subscriptions will open on April 1 - patterns start coming on July 1. https://www.sarahfielke.com/the-lemonade-stand-club ​ Whats the Lemonade Stand? Well from time to time we are all given lemons, and the program was born from my lemons 😉 It's a small project program, over six months, each month a dolly quilt (small quilt) and a small project such as a pouch, pincushion, project bag etc to match it. You can make one or the other or both! You can read all about it at the above link, and also see the pattern for the projects from last year. I don't reveal lots of the publicly but I will be giving you Smites some sneak peeks in the coming weeks. So they're the things I want to be working on, but the two things that have been snaffling all my time up like a Gobbledok (if you're an Aussie you know what that is) are my upcoming fabric collection and QuiltNSW. The fabric is in colour editing at present and its a tricky process... I would tell you more about it but I can't until the theme behind the fabric and the company I'm with have both been revealed. Then I'll let you in on some background. In the mean time, I took a few little pics of a very simple repeat that I did by hand to re-work one of the prints, so that I could show you how to make a basic fabric repeat... want to see? Let me know in the comments and if you're into it I'll make that a coming week's Smites. As for QuiltNSW, the Sydney Show work is beginning to ramp up and I am just swamped and my brain is bursting. I am still doing the sponsorship for the show as well as being Co-President (anyone in NSW like to take sponsorship over for me? Or be the Publicity officer? Bueller? Bueller?) We have SO MANY fun things planned for all our members, starting with Giucy coming to teach and lecture. If you're not a member of QuiltNSW, I really do recommend that you consider becoming one, even just for the next two years (yep, two years not one - next year is our 45th anniversary and believe you me, you want to be a member for the shenannigans we have planned for that!!). You don't have to be in NSW, or even Australia - we have lots of international members. For this year apart from GG teaching, we're having a Giucy Giucy block challenge, but thats a secret until next week - oops! 😮 Lucky we're in the Smites vault. Giuce is going to judge it himself and theres awesome fabric prizes, and the blocks will all hang at the quilt show in September. It's open to anyone in Australia, and you don't have to be a guild member for that, so follow QuiltNSW on Instagram or Facebook so you don't miss the info. https://quiltnsw.com/members/#membershiptypes Next week​ I'm going to give you a little run down of my visit to the Australian Modern Quilt Show over the past weekend, show you some quilts and have a chat about them and what found interesting about them and the judging. Having judged the Sydney Quilt Show last year, I was very familiar with some of the quilts entered as I judged them... it was very interesting to see what won prizes at this show, at our show, and at neither. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel - the Down the Rabbit Hole quilt this week was Charlotte Sometimes, one of my absolute faves! It's got a great story behind it too. Check it out. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCffLLv0ZdRcV_22dNvPk21w ​ See you next week peeps Sarah x PS - where we are up to in Slodki BOM - the small quilt...

This weeks quilt is a bit of a fan fave! It’s one of my faves too. Here’s the story of how I took the inspiration from a vintage quilt, and a favourite song. You can buy the pattern for Charlotte Sometimes in a physical or PDF format here: https://www.sarahfielke.com/product-page/charlotte-sometimes-quilt-pattern-printed https://www.sarahfielke.com/product-page/charlotte-sometimes-quilt-pattern-pdf Happy Saturday everyone! Sarah

​ ​Hello Smites and hoodie peeps! Well this week has been a blur of activity and I got next to no stitching done on my hoodie... I did finish the patchwork one though, here is a pic in case you didn't see it on social media. It really is a fun make and the pattern goes together beautifully. I had my first general meeting for QuiltNSW as Co-President this past weekend - I took my hoodie to sew on but ended up being so busy that not a stitch was taken. I hope to get more stitched down this week. Attached are the templates that I have used for the front of my hoodie. As I mentioned earlier, this is very choose your own adventure - so add as many or as few as you like! Keep in in mind the 3/8" seam allowance that will be on all edges when the hoodie is sewn together.  I've done a video for you with all the info you need, and here is the link to the bias tapes I have used as promised! All the other notions I use for my applique are also available at my website. Next week will be the final hoodie post for Smites - I am going to give you a template for a little bird for the back, and I promise I will have everything laid out for the back and sleeves, even if I haven't stitched them down! Have fun peeps, and if you are making this applique version of the hoodie please show me, I really would love to see them in progress! Sarah x o

This week I’m talking about a really really big one! This quilt is almost 3m square. Find out the story behind it, and some of the beautiful fabrics I used to make it too. You can purchase the patterns here: https://www.sarahfielke.com/product-page/the-big-pineapple-pattern-printed https://www.sarahfielke.com/product-page/the-big-pineapplequilt-pattern-pdf Happy Saturday everyone! Sarah

Strawberry Fields, forever! I’ve always loved this quilt, but it’s not my friend Erica’s favourite… watch this weeks Down the Rabbit Hole to find out why. Pattern available in the Material Obsession One book, and the Strawberry Fields pattern in both PDF and paper formats, available at my website. www.sarahfielke.com Happy Sunday everyone! Sarah

I FINISHED MY HOODIE!! I love it. I’m very excited to wear it but as it’s about a million degrees with a humidity level of a trillion percent in Sydney right now, I think I’ll leave it on the hanger for a little moment yet. I did put it on in the air conditioning so you could see it. I’m hard at work on hoodie #2 and 3, so look out for them in the next few weeks. This week in the video I’m talking about the construction of your hoodie, and putting the binding on. The designer of the hoodie, Melly, is also running a sew along on her Facebook page, so I am trying to include things that are different to what she is saying so that we don’t just say all the same things. I have also cheated a little here and there and I have some personal hacks for pinning etc that I use when I dressmake - wether these are actual dressmaking steps or wether they’re what I do I don’t know, as I’m just a quilter!! I’ve shared them anyway and if you‘re a dressmaker and you’re screaming YOU DON’T DO IT LIKE THAT then I humbly apologise and say that it works for me :D If your pattern has not yet arrived in the mail please let me know sarah@sarahfielke.com and I will get you started on cutting out. There’s a lot of cutting out to be done before you can start sewing so you will be busy I promise! Assembly Hoodie Melly’s instructions are excellent, and my hoodie went together like a dream. If you have never made a garment, make sure that you transfer all of the marks for pinning so that you know where everything sits. It is very very helpful if you are new to if you make the lining first, as its easier to stitch and also easier to unpick if you have trouble easing the curves in etc. I have included a video of how I pinned the curves in on the hood, this method is the same for the sleeves. Also make certain to clip where Melly recommends. This is important for any garment, but especially for this one as there is no ease in the fabric, and you will put a lot of strain on the seams when putting it on and taking it off if you don’t give it some ease. If you have any trouble with your hoodie construction, please feel free to shoot me an email - I’m happy to help! Binding Ok so I totally cheated with the binding. Melly has you making your own bias binding and that works perfectly, but I’m a girl for convenience when it’s a personal project. I sell quilt bias in a range of different patterns and colours at my website . It’s 1” wide when its flat, with a 1/2” turned under seam on both sides at the back. I have included video of how I used the bias - the method I used does mean that you see the stitching on the INSIDE of the sleeves, hood and bottom edge, but not on the outside, which is where it matters, right? You could also stitch it without doing that by opening one of the folds, and stitching the binding to the inside edge of the hoodie along the fold so it’s invisible. I am not a fan of the bulge you get when you insert the end of binding inside the other end, it can be very bulky - so I made a ring of binding to stitch to my sleeves and bottom edge, and I’ve put a bit about that in the video too. Have fun peeps and please feel free to join my Facebook group Sarah Fielke Quilts and post your hoodie progress there! I usually don’t allow posts about other people's patterns in there as its just for people making my patterns, but this time is special! :) And I think everyone would love to see your hoodies coming together. Just search Sarah Fielke Quilts in your Facebook search bar, ask to join and then answer BOTH questions AND agree to the group rules for entry (the only way I can screen spam accounts. I would LOVE to see your finished hoodies, and so would Melly! Please send them to me either here in a comment below the video, or via email sarah@sarahfielke.com and I will post them on social media for everyone to admire. Yay hoodies! I will post my finished vintage fabric hoodie here just as soon as it’s done - hopefully this week but maybe next. If you’re making the applique hoodie with me, the flower templates and next steps will be on the StitchyMites page this Wednesday. Sarah x