Hi all, I'm back! Still not 100%, I had a real dose of the rotten thing, but back on my feet at the very least. While I've been laying around I had a bit of a fiddle with something fun that I thought I would share with you! I had seen Jo Avery's triangle bird pouches on Instagram (you can see them at @joavery), they're very cute and I was planning to buy her pattern and make some Australian birds. I am very much all about that - if another designer has done something already, I will purchase their pattern and not attempt to work it out myself. I would expect the same from them. We all work very hard on out ideas and I respect their time and effort as much as I respect my own! Jo announced that she wasn't going to release the birds as a pattern as she thought people would copy them (? ok), and instead the pattern was going to be available for a short time as a free class to promote the classes for another group in the UK that she works with. I duly signed up, but the window to watch the free video was so short that I missed it. Reading Jo's information after signing up though, I realised that she had actually taken the pattern for the pouch itself (not the bird component) from Arounna Khounnoraj (you might know her as Bookhou online ) - which may also have influenced her decision not to make these pouches a saleable pattern! Anyway once all that had happened, I still wanted to realise my little collection of Australian bird pouches, for no other reason than that they tickle my fancy. So I did! I managed in the Covid fog to get the cockatoo done. I'm planning a galah and a magpie and maybe a kookaburra and lorrikeet if I can work them out. For now though, you can find Arounna's excellent YouTube video on the construction of the pouch here.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aivw6m8zniU I made mine in the exact same way (other than a few differences outlines below), machine stitching the L shape and then hand sewing the other parts together. It's very simple and makes a really lovely and tactile little piece. I didn't hand quilt the cockatoo, mainly because the idea of trekking to the studio (which is under our house) for white quilting thread was not appealing at that moment, but I will quilt the galah because I think it will add some fun feathery texture.​ DOWNLOAD TEMPLATES So what did I do differently to Arounna? I used one piece of fabric (that she refers to as lining), without adding the boro pieces on top. It might actually be fun to do boro for the magpie and the lorrikeet, to do bits of black and white or rainbow? I will see! I used iron on fleece for the batting, which saved me having to baste the piece at all before it was turned. I know she didn't baste, but I felt like that was going to make things a little baggy. So I fused the fleece to the front piece of fabric, then layered the piece of the lining (the yellow inside on my pouch) and stitched as she did. Fusible fleece is light and easy to use, and it made the pouch and wings easier to turn through without too much bulk. I added a small bead to the inside knot as well as to the outer end, so that it was nice and secure and wouldn't pull out through the hole. I want to try making some larger pouches using this technique too and I think the bead would be essential in that instance.  I added a beak, wings and an eye! So how did you make the wings and beak you say? Well as Jo hasn't released a pattern I made up my own, and as I'm not selling them or publicising them or putting them into the public eye, just releasing them to you fine peeps, that's fair game. You will find the files for the wings and beak for the cockatoo, lorrikeet and galah, as well as a magpie, and a generic beak, as well as a few differently shaped wings, attached to this post, along with a diagram of where to place the pieces when you stitch. Please note that you need to make the wings, beak and eye BEFORE you stitch the L shaped fabric pieces together!! To add the wings and beak, I cut the beak shapes from felt. You could make them from fabric and turn them too but I felt it was unneeded fiddle. To make the parrot beak, I cut two pieces of the top section and one of the bottom section, so that it wasn't too chunky and thick. I whipstitched around the outside of the beak using matching thread, and when I got to the bottom edge I placed the bottom beak section between the two pieces and stitched along both sides to secure it. You don't need to stitch the edge thats going inside the pouch closed. For the other beaks, I will just cut two pieces and stitch them together with nothing between.  For the wings, I cut a piece of the fleece using the template, and then ironed it to the back of the fabric. I them used the fleece as a template to cut two pieces of fabric for the front and back of the wing, around about 1/4" larger than the fleece. This really doesn't need to be exact. I then put the fabric pieces right sides together and stitched by hand around the outside edge of the fleece. You need to use little stitches, as small as you can manage for this, partly so that you get a nice smooth curve in your wing but also because you don't want holes in the edges of your stitching! Stitch all the way from the flat end of the wing, around the curvy part and out to the end of the fabric on the other side, and tie good knots. Then turn the wing through to the right side and give it a good press. I stitched a little bit around the edges of the wing, just with sewing cotton, for some definition. Make two wings! The eyes are just a little circle of black felt. I attached them with a big X for cuteness but you can stitch around the edges too using matching thread. Once you've made all the additions, place the beak xx and the wings xx. They need to be facing inwards, towards the body of the bird. Check the position of the wings particularly as its very easy to have them point the wrong direction... ask me how I know :) Pin or baste them in place, and then stitch around the outside of the L as directed by Arounna. Everything else proceeds as per her instructions, except when you come to stitch the area with the beak together by hand.  When you do that, stitch the INSIDE edge of the fabric together first, with the beak pointing to the outside edge. Then turn the piece through and stitch the outside edge. When you go to the beak, one side will already be stitched in (because it was machine sewn into the seam) so stitch the fabric to the other side of the felt with a slip stitch before closing the rest of the seam.  To make a bigger pouch, simply enlarge Arounna's template! It's important to keep the proportions the same, so it's easiest to just make hers bigger than reinvent the wheel imo. I've put together some little kit situations that are only for StitchyMites, if you would like to try making these little feathered friends and don't want to gather all the little bits! Not fabric, because Lord knows we all have plenty of that, but a little package with beads, leather thong and the fleece. Mind you, if you would like me to put some fabric and felt together for a certain kind of bird I can do that for you too, just ask. The fleece strip is off the bolt, so its enough to make four pouches, but once you've made one you'll be hooked I swear.  The kits will be $5 AUS (about $3 US) for the fleece, and enough leather to make one pouch, and a large and small bead - they're lovely wooden beads, not plastic. If you want more beads and leather, you can add another set of two (one large and one small bead) and enough leather for another pouch for an extra $3 per set. You can choose from any of the colours and sizes of beads that are shown below! As the sets aren't available for the general public, to order just send me an email  sarah@sarahfielke.com  and I'll sort you out. Make sure to tell me how many sets of beads and leather you want (just the one that comes with the $5, or extra on top), and what colour, shape and sizes of beads.​ They are nice and light to post, but if you want to add other things from the website, just place that order first on the site and then email me to add the bird kit in for no extra postage. Here's the bead options! I used a hexagonal bead for the end of the leather and a small round yellow one for the inside. The large round ones would be fine for the end bead, they're about 1/2" wide. You could also be more decorative and add extra beads onto the end for colour. If I was going to try a larger pouch, I would put the medium bead inside. Colour names from top left to right: red, hot pink, pink, orange yellow, green, blue, purple dark purple, brown, white And the sizes left to right: large, medium small The shaped beads are a bit larger than the largest round one, but not much. They only come in one size, and in fewer colours. pink, dark pink, yellow green, blue, dark blue So there you go! I hope you have fun making a bird, please send me pics if you do so that I can post them for everyone to see. They're so cute! Please ask any questions about their construction too, I'm happy to help. I'm hoping now I'm up and around a little more that I'll play with the other bird types, I'll make sure to show you when I do. Happy Thursday peeps  Sarah xx

Hi everyone I hope you're having a good Wednesday?​ I've been moping about with a horrible eye infection thats sprouted from somewhere or other. It's not something I'm prone to at all so who knows, but I do hope it sods off soon as it is not nice.  Apart from that its been a very busy time indeed.  Big News #1  My BOM program is open!! You can see the full sketch for Słodki at  www.sarahfielke.com  as well as sign up. All the info is there, but in short -  *There's a lot of piecing this time, with appliqué over the top ​for zip - much like the log cabin quilt I've been showing you *You can sign up to pay either monthly or in full for the 12 months *The videos are SUPER detailed - I will teach you everything you need to know to make the quilt *Once you sign up and log in there is a video all about the fabrics I'm using - essentially Art Gallery solids for all the piecing, and scrappy prints on the top. As I'm using all the one fabric collection I will be able to give you colour names in case you want to use some or all of the same colours as me. This info will come with the material requirements in June. *Also in June there will be a layout for a smaller quilt available, around 68" (170cm) square. The blocks will stay the same size, there will just be less of them, so that theres an option for those saying "it's too big!" And for those who always want a large useable quilt (like me!!), the quilt in its original form is 92" square or queen sized. *There won't be a fabric kit available from me BUT we have a shop in the UK who has expressed interest in doing kits, and if you are a shop or know one who you think would help out, let them know - and then there will be kits for those who want them. Big News #2 That's Accurate is LIVE and ready to go!! We've spent hours and hours getting the warehouse all set up, and Damo will be running my shop too from now on from the warehouse - so everything is GONE FROM MY HOUSE for the first time in 18 years. Oh the excitement!! That's Accurate is open mainly for wholesale right now, but there are some really fun EPP sets coming very soon for retail customers - and also we will cut CUSTOM for you. So if you have a quilt that you want acrylic templates or EPP papers (or both) cut for, just contact Damo  hello@thatsaccurate.com.au  and he will have a chat and work it out for you! And of course if you are a shop or designer, we are ready to work with you on custom sets for your own designs or customers.  You can see our beautiful new website here  www.thatsaccurate.com.au Big News #3 I have a new YouTube channel! There is a new video there right now all about the new BOM, showing a sneak peek of one of the blocks and how they're going to work. Hop over and give it a follow because I'm going to be posting Sarah Fielke info videos, as well as That's Accurate​ mini tutorials and EPP tips on a regular basis. And no, I never sleep. :D Now in case that's not enough news to be going on with, I have the next border on my log cabin, which I think I have decided to call Fun With Dick and Jane. Sorry for the wrinkles I just whacked it up on the design wall for the pic. ​There's going to be two dogs on the border, the other is sniffing along the ground because he's tracking his lost ball. And also maybe the rabbit that is running away in a border further out. :) The next border will be green and it has a tulip swag..... Hopefully by next week I'll have those doggies sewn down to show you, and also their balls and some flowers for them to nose through. Have a wonderful week peeps and I hope you are getting lots of lovely stitching done.  Sarah xx

Hey ho StitchyMites, I'm popping my head up over the wall quickly to say hello and then disappearing again. Apologies to be short and sweet this week but ​Damo takes possession of the laser machine for That's Accurate, and also the new business premises on Monday, which happens to be the same day as the Słodki BOM is revealed and opens for subscription, so its all systems go in the Fielke household this week. I'm starting to play with the blocks for my own quilt for Słodki now that the sketch is finalised. I will be making it in solids, which is very unlike me - the piecing is in solids, but the appliqué will be prints. The prints I'm fine with but I need to choose the solids carefully, and as I don't have a massive stash of every colour of the rainbow in solids, I need to actually purchase them to go forward. It's a nice opportunity actually, because although there won't be a kit for this BOM as I am not partnering with anyone (yay! back to normal format!), it does mean that I can give you the all the colours I'm using because they are all from the same manufacturer. If you're fairly new to quilting, and even if you aren't, you might not realise that all solid fabrics are not created equal. Different companies print on different base cloths - some use cheaper, thicker fabrics for their solids because they aren't printing onto them, so they don't care so much about the thread count. That means you're usually paying a premium for a brand name solid that's on an inferior cloth. Others use the same base cloth as they do for the prints, and yet others use a higher quality, finer thread count for their solids because the finer threads hold the integrity of the colours better when they're woven into one full colour - and also when they're pressed, and washed. Its all very complicated, but it does also mean that just popping out and buying any old solid fabric isn't what I'm after, regardless of the actual colour of it on purchase. I have a few favourite brands of solid fabrics, but I also wanted to make sure that the fabric would be fairly easy to get hold of for anyone who wants to use the same colours as me, or the same colour in a certain spot. I absolutely love Michael Miller Cotton Couture - it cuts and pieces beautifully and has a lovely silky hand, but it can be a little tricky to get hold of in a wide range of colours in some countries, otherwise it would have been my first choice. I love the Ruby and Bee solids from Windham Fabrics, because the colours are to die for, but they don't have a very dark navy (it's more of a royal blue) and that's likely going to be my background colour. I love the Tilda solids, but they aren't bright enough for this particular quilt. I love the Free Spirit Designer Essentials, but the colour range isn't wide enough for me for this project. And so I have landed with Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids. Art Gallery's fabrics are a very high thread count and the colours in their solid fabrics are vivid and bold. Their colour card is extensive and there are loads of shades and variations in each colour. I'm sold. Current state of affairs - tea very important. My background colour is (I think) going to be Heart of the Ocean, which is a dark navy that doesn't have too much black in it. I'm going to order some and make a test block before I commit to yards and yards. I like the idea of the bright colours and the simple shapes popping against the dark background. It's a long time since I did a BOM with a dark background too, the last one was actually the first one, Happy Days! Still one of my favourite quilts - and if you're on the fence about trying one of my BOMs, this is the one for you. You learn about 12 different techniques and there's three different border options, because I made the quilt three times. I was very ambitious about my sanity in 2016 :D You can view here OK peeps that's the whole box and dice for today, have fun with whatever you're up to - and if you're thinking you want an Art Gallery Fabrics colour card to have a play and get yourself ready for Słodki (which is pronounced Swod - ki by the way), I got mine from The Stitch Saloon here in Aus. www.thestitchsaloon.com Sarah xx​

Hi peeps! This week you are getting the real inside scoop and skinny.... its a little peek behind the scenes of how I design my BOM quilts. The next BOM is called Słodki, which is Polish for Sweet. The reason its called that is that the quilt has been inspired by vintage Polish tapestries and kilims. I have had to much fun designing these motifs and fitting them into a quilt that I could do about ten quilts I think!! Theres a very real possibility that I expand this to a book after the BOM is over and do a load of other smaller quilts with a similar theme. In my spare time!! :D The BOM opens for subscription on April 1, you can register your interest (which means you'll be sent a heads up email when its open!) at my website right now.  www.sarahfielke.com This is obviously not the finished sketch, and things in what I'm about to show you may or may not be the same in the finished quilt. This time around I'm going for a lot more piecing, with appliqué added​ on the top - kind of a cross between The Secret Garden and my new log cabin that I'm working on (only a little bit of progress on that shown below, but I've been busy with work things!!). I'm planning on piecing it from solids with all the appliqué stitched in prints, like with the log cabin - I'm really into that way that looks at the moment.  I started to design this quilt about 6 months ago, but it's only in the last 2 weeks that anything has actually gone down onto paper. It's been growing and changing in my head over those 6 months, when I have a quiet moment, or I'm awake in the middle of the night (can we just talk about menopause for a millisecond.... Will I ever sleep again...ugh) I take it out of my mental inbox and turn it around and over and round again. And then when I'm ready I start to sketch individual blocks and components, and only then it starts going onto graph paper. At the moment of showing it to you, this is what it looks like. You can see it still needs some components dropped in, and things need moving and resizing.  As I go along, I identify sections that aren't quite working for me and pencil them in. So that I won't have to redraw the whole thing a million times over, I tend to make changes on smaller pieces of paper, and then shift them around to see how they look or what needs balancing. Once I get everything drawn out and I'm "finished" (ha!), I will go over the whole sketch with a pencil and circle the parts that are appliqué.  After that I start to work out how the blocks will be constructed, the sizes and shapes and what can be the same sizes to minimize complication and the number of templates. Then I go through each pieced section and work out which pieces will be physical templates and which will be printed for the piecing and the appliqué so that the template sets can start being designed and worked on.  Finally, the sketch will be completely hand drawn again onto plain paper, then sent to Oscar to be tidied up in Illustrator. He basically goes through and makes my hand drawn lines a little tidier where they need to be, and makes sure that shapes are isolated so that they're easier to colour in for the colouring sheets! And then we show it to everyone. Thats the bit where I really don't sleep! Every time I release a Block of the Month design it's like sending a baby out into the world. These things live inside me for such a long time that there is always the terror that I'm the only one who will like it :) That's when I have to look at my favourite magnet above my computer and remind myself hahaha  Anyway I hope you all have a wonderful day, and that you like the look of Słodki and you consider joining me to make this sweet thing from August 1! Oh, and here's the update on the log cabin that currently has no name. Happy stitching  Sarah x

​Happy Wednesday everyone :) So today I thought I would show you the quilt I've been working on, that needed all those flying geese units. Theres a lot more to come yet, I'm only just getting started. The Sydney Quilt Show is in September, and I was fiddling around a little bit about what I was going to enter. I think I will put The Secret Garden in, because it hasn't hung anywhere before - last year I entered Big Woods, and Stop, Thief! I do like to enter the full amount that I can (which is two!) and I've been puzzling over the other quilt - I have something I would love to have finished, but its pretty complicated and I don't know that I will have it done and I don't want to rush it.  Every year they have a special category you can enter your quilt into, with a theme - this year its Log Cabin. Any kind of Log Cabin is ok - a traditional one, a wonky one, a very modern one.... so long as you can identify it as a log cabin, it is eligible. There are size restrictions etc, but as I've decided to make this quilt especially for this category, that doesn't matter at all! Log cabins can be round even, they just have to have strips that wrap around a central square. I thought I would put a real twist on the log cabin theme. I've seen a lot of LCs with inserts of piecing into the strips, but I haven't ever seen one with appliqué on them! One probably exists, I just haven't seen it. I started fiddling around and came up with the idea of one large log cabin that's the whole quilt, with stars inserted along the strips here and there, and applique in between. I had a bundle of Tilda solids I've been wanting to use for ages, and also some Liberty Patchwork ones, Emily Belle. For the most part the solids will be the strips, an the Liberty the stars, but that won't remain exact. All the appliqué in between is a little bit random and asymmetrical, some flowers, some circles, some hearts... some animals here and there (there's a rabbit coming next border). There will be some flowers and some vines and of course, lots of leaves :D The strips get wider then smaller then wider again out to the final border, and the colours rainbow out from the middle - so the next border is orange, then yellow, then greens through blues, and the final border is a dark blue that is the night time, and it will have moons and stars. I'm kind of designing it as I go, its just a concept really. Ideally I will finish the appliqué by about May in between all the work I have on (OMG the WOOOORK.... I have so much to do!!!) an then hand quilt it before September. Think speedy stitchy thoughts peeps, I really want to get it done because I love it. In other news, I hope you're coming to the Sydney Quilt Show this year because I have a stand! Half of it will be me and half will be for That's Accurate. Exciting times! I hope you're all well and safe where you are. See you next week.  Sarah x

Hello StitchyMites! I hope you're all ready to make more Flying Geese.​ Last week we learned about making them using half square triangle units - IMO the easiest option! There's a bunch of others though, I use the four at a time one a lot if I am making loads of them at a time. I've done this via a video again for you, as I think a lot of you enjoyed that! I've popped the ratios for making the units to different sizes below for easy reference. First up is how I most often make either half square triangle units (like I showed you last week!) using a half square AND a quarter square triangle ruler. I always like using rulers for triangles - they're quick to cut, and quick and accurate to piece. These methods are good too though and they do help deal with bias for those who have triangle bias phobias! Stitch and Flip To make Stitch and Flip Flying Geese, cut the rectangle 1/2" larger than the finished flying goose, and the squares half the finished width plus 1/2" So for a 3" x 6" finished flying goose, cut a rectangle 6 1/2" and two squares 3 1/2". Four at a time large squares = finished width of flying geese block + 1 1/4" 4 smaller squares = finished height of flying geese block + 7/8" So for four 3" x 6" finished flying geese, you would cut one large square 7 1/4", and 4 small squares 3 7/8". So here goes! This is a fabulous method of making Flying Geese which is quick, accurate and eliminates dealing with too much bias. Step 1 Cut a large square 6 1/2" and four small squares 3 1/2". These ratios stay the same depending on what size you want your Flying Geese. This size squares produces Geese 3 1/8 x 5 3/4. Step 2 Using a sharp pencil and a patchwork ruler, rule a line from point to point in one direction on each square. Then rule a line 1/4 to either side of that line. Step 3 Place a small square at each diagonal corner of the large square, right sides together. The small squares will overlap in the centre by 1/4". Step 4 Sew up both of the 1/4" lines that you ruled, but NOT up the centre line. Step 5 Cut along the centre line, giving you two triangles. Step 6 Press the two small triangles you have created open. Step 7 Place another small square in the corner of the large triangle with the lines you ruled running towards the corner. Step 8 Sew up the 1/4 inch lines as before. Step 9 Cut the triangles apart along the centre line. Step 10 Repeat with the other half triangle you have left, and you have created four Flying Geese! Step 11 I know this is very patchwork teacher-y of me, but PLEASE make sure you trim the "ears" off your geese (and any other triangles you are piecing) before you piece them together! You will have a much nicer and flatter result if you do. Have fun peeps! Sarah x

Hi peeps, I’ve been making a lot of half square triangles and Flying Geese units this past week! I’ve started a new quilt and I’m loving it a bit sick, it’s all I want to work on. It’s chock full of Sawtooth Stars though, and I discovered between making one border and adding the applique and then making the next one and starting the applique that I had inadvertently used two different methods to make the Flying Geese! That got me thinking about all the different ways I knew to make squares using HSTs, and to make Flying Geese units, and which ones I liked and which ones I didn’t, and I thought you might be interested too. This week it’s all about HSTs - I have not included using papers to make them, because honestly you DO NOT NEED THEM! It’s just another thing to buy in my opinion - mind you if you love them and you use them all the time then as always, whatever works best for you. Next week I’ll do another little video about the Geese and the bunch of different ways to make them that there are, and which I think is easiest. So start something with triangles! Or just follow along, thats good too 😊 Have fun stitching this week! Sarah xx

Hi Stitchymites! I hope you're having a lovely week. It's been so incredibly humid here in Sydney that I am very glad to have the cold and rainy day we are having today. I know that lots of you are having a very very cold winter so humidity probably sounds wonderful, but let me assure you its not all its cracked up to be! Especially for a menopausal woman in her 50's who is quite hot enough already, thank you very much :D With all sorts of brand new and exciting things on the horizon in the very near future, I'm taking advantage of Damo's new business venture not being quite ready yet and having him tidy some things up for me on the website and around the general "Sarah Fielke" space. One of the things he's doing is archiving my old blog - some of the content will be reposted, some repurposed and some deleted. In the doing of that we found this tutorial for sewing pouches I did in 2015! I still use the scissor pouch today, so I thought you Smites might like to make one too. I've updated the pattern for you to suit a few things, because my methods and such have changed quite a bit in the last ten years! These pretty little bags were made for a sew along for the launch of a new Oakshott collection. You guys know me, I love a bit of appliqué, so I designed some little flat pouchies to put all my sewing pretties in. They are all still kicking around in the studio with things inside, and I use the scissor one pretty regularly. These are dead easy to make. I have used needleturn appliqué because that's my thang, but you can easily use fusible appliqué or buttonhole or whatever you fancy. Or just piece the strippy bits on both sides, and leave the appliqué off! First click here to download the three pdf pattern sheets - BAG, STITCH, SCISSORS 2 To make all three pouches you will need: * 25cm (10") of dark fabric for the appliqué background on the pouch fronts. I used Oakshott cotton for mine, which they unfortunately don't make any more - but a Kaffe Fassett shot cotton would do the trick! You could just squeeze get all three backgrounds out of a metric fat quarter (a US FQ won't do it) but you would be safer with a 10" (25cm) strip. * fat 8ths of 8 different shot cottons for pouch backs, appliqué and lining fabric *Three 9" zippers to co-ordinate with your fabric * 20" (50cm) Pellon Fusible Fleece or similar *one piece of template plastic, or a laminating machine *silver gel pen to mark the appliqué and embroidery *appliqué tools - if you are using my appliqué method you will need liquid appliqué glue, a silver gel pen, milliners needles and 80 weight thread to match your appliqué fabrics *embroidery needles *Aurifil Mako 12 weight cotton in black and light pink (stranded embroidery cotton will work just fine too) The fleece, needles, 80 and 12 weight threads, and gel pens are all available from www.sarahfielke.com ​ First we are going to make the stripes for the back of the pouches. From each of your fat 8th's, cut two strips, 1 1/2" along the long side of the fat 8th. This should give you two strips 24" long. Cut each of these strips into three 8" lengths. Mixing the colours up as you like, sew the strips together into three pieces that are each 11 strips long, using a 1/4" seam and pressing the seams to one side. Trace the bag template onto the template plastic and cut out with scissors. Trace around the bag template to cut out two pieces from your stripped piecing. Cut another piece from the stripped piecing that is 4" long. Cut a piece of light green that is 4" wide by 11". Sew the pieces together along the long edge. Cut a bag back from this piece. Using the bag template, cut out 6 pieces from the fusible pellon. Fuse three of them to the backs of the three pieced backs you have made. Using a window or a light box, trace the word "Stitch" onto the green fabric, at least 3/4" from the bottom of the green piece.. Backstitch over the word (through the Pellon) using black thread - a single strand of Mako thread (it does not separate) or 2 strands of stranded embroidery cotton.. You should now have pouch three backs that look like this (without the zippers of course!) Now for the fronts. Using the bag template, cut three pieces from your dark appliqué background fabric. For the tape measure bag, cut a strip from one of the fat 8ths that is 2" wide. Using a Hera marker or by ruling a line, mark the back of the strip 1/2" in from each edge on the back. Trace the tape measure pattern onto the strip using a light box or window, with the top edge of the measuring tape lines right along one edge. Back stitch the pattern. Turn the embroidery to the back and press the edges to the back 1/2" along the lines you made. Using the appliqué glue or your preferred method, place the strip along the bottom edge of one of the pouch fronts, 2" from the bottom. Appliqué the strip to the pouch. Iron a piece of fleece to the back of this bag piece. For the thread reel, cut out the pattern pieces for the reel and the block of thread from the grey and pink fabrics. Cut them out a scant 1/4" from the gel pen line and glue them to the background using small dots of liquid appliqué glue. Finger press around each shape and stitch them to the background using thread to match the appliqué fabric. If you haven't ever tried my appliqué method before, I have an on demand class at my website that teaches you everything you need to know! Using a window or a light bow, trace the thread line onto the background with the silver gel pen. Iron a piece of the fusible pellon to the back of the appliquéd bag front, and back stitch along the drawn line using the pink 12 weight or 2 strands of embroidery cotton. To make the scissors, repeat the steps for the thread reel. The arrows on the scissor placement diagram show you which pieces go underneath which. Iron a piece of fusible fleece to the back of this piece when you have completed the appliqué. When you have appliquéd all of the bag pieces and ironed a piece of fleece to them, it's time to put them together! Place a piece of your bag lining (mine shown here is Cookie Book by Cotton and Steel - I had made all three pouches without taking pictures - very silly - and then didn't have enough for my insides when I made another for demo!) face up. Place your zipper face up along the straight edge of the lining, with the ends poking out. It's better to have a longer zip not a shorter one, you can always trim it back. Place the pouch front on top of the zipper, face down. Pin through all three layers. I hasten to point out that I am a quilter not a bag maker so these instructions are as basic as can be! For a more detailed (and very cute) zipper pouch instruction, check out Ayumi's post here - that's where I learned to put in a zip. Using your zipper foot, sew along the straight seam through all three layers. Unzip the zip halfway, and start at the end furthest away from the zipper head. When you get close to the zipper head, stop and lift your foot, unzip the zip past your needle, then lower the foot and sew to the end. Press the lining and the bag front away from the zipper, both to the same side. Repeat this process with the lining and the bag back and press them both away from the zip again. You should have something that looks like this. Seperate the linings from the front and the back of the pouch, and put them back together again with the linings right sides together, and the front and back right sides together, like this. Starting at an edge of the lining, sew all the way around the edge of the pouch, 1/4" in from the edge. When you come back towards where you started be sure to leave a good gap so you can turn the pouch through when you are done. **Be careful to have the zipper unzipped at least halfway when you do this! Or it's a pain in the proverbial. Ask me how I know :) Trim the ends off the zip for a neat finish. Trim the seams on the curved edges back a little to make them easier to turn. There is no need to clip. Turn the pouch right side out through the hole you left in the lining. Use a turning tool or a knitting needle or similar to push all the seams and curves out smoothly, and press as you do so. Your bag will look like this: Stitch the opening in the lining closed, either by hand or machine, and then push the lining into the bag and press everything down smoothly. And you are DONE. Fill with cute stuff. ;)

Hi Smites! I had such a lovely day yesterday. It is very very rare that I ever go to a class as a student - I am 99.9% of the time the teacher. Yesterday though I pretended I didn't have a million things that needed doing and I played hooky. The class was at The Crewel Goeblin on Sydney's North Shore. If you're from Sydney and you haven't ever been there, it really is delicious. I have been going there since I was a small girl, because my Mum used to sew there and also buy her quilting and embroidery threads there. I think the shop has only ever had three owners in it's nearly 50 years in business! The current owner, Julie, has taken it to new heights and the shop is stuffed full of beautiful embroidery threads of all kinds, French gifts and Sophie Digard pieces, and all the latest embroidery and tapestry designs and kits, notions and more recently some patchwork fabrics too. She has just expanded into the shop next door and now has a large, airy and bright classroom off the main store. I went with my mum, then I went for the threads for my first business (making and embroidery baby clothes and toys), and then for many year before we opened Material Obsession they had by far the best selection of perle cotton in Australia, so it was whee I bought all my quilting thread! And now it where I get all my embroidery supplies, linen, tapestry kits… all the stuff I don’t really have time for but somehow cram in anyway. I have been a customer for a long, long time. It's always a bit of nostalgia going there for me in more ways than one. My mum passed away when I was in my twenties, so the little memory lane trips of her that I sometimes have through my stitching are special gifts. The Crewel Goeblin was just around the corner from my Grandma's house on Werona Ave, so often a trip to her house meant leaving our house in St Ives, driving up through Pymble to Du Plessy Pralin for something sweet for morning tea, a little stop in at The Crewel Goeblin and then on to Grandma's for a visit. The visit always involved tea in a pot and a cake out of the big cream and mint tin in her 1940's kitchen, and chocolates. My Grandma was particuarly fond of their after dinner slices, and they came packaged in either a white box with a French man on it (ooh lala) or a beautiful flat gold box, that was then wrapped in thick white paper and gold cord and stamped with their logo and a gold sticker. So very elegant. Mum and I used to save the lovely gold boxes and put our embroidery threads and projects into them. I used to love them for my drawing pencils too. Recently my youngest son's girlfriend's parents, Gaius and Maria, came for dinner and Maria brought me a box of Du Plessy Pralin chocolates - they are still packaged exactly the same way in their gold box with the wrapings, and I hadn't seen them since my teens with my Mum. I'm embarassed to say I burst into tears. Poor Maria she probably thinks I'm a psycho. :) Did I save the box? Yes I did, and it now has embroidery threads in it. It's the little things. Anyway I digress! Julie put on a lovely morning tea and lunch (reminds me, I must email her for the orange and walnut cake she made, omg YUM it was amazing!! If she parts with the recipe I'll post it for you), and kept us all fuelled with coffee and tea. She did lovely kits up for everyone so we all had a damask napkin to appliqué on to, little Liberty pieces for our ladies dresses and of course the pattern. Sue Stichbury is an English quilt designer from Liverpool. She is primarily an appliqué teacher so it wasn't that I was LEARNING anything yesterday per-say, other than how to make tiny little scraps into cute as a button little people! Her work is very different than mine, and I admire it a lot, its so folksy and charming. Scruffy, she calls it. I have both her books, and I have made quite a few little projects from them over the years, most recently a thread roll for my friend Belle this past Christmas. She and I have followed each other online for ages, so it was very fun to finally meet in person. We were making this little quilt in class, she designed it especially for her Australian tour. It's called Baby Butterflies. It's about 20" square, so the little ladies are only about 1" or 1 1/2" each in total. Others in the class were working on this little cutie, but as its very similar to one of the quilts in the other books I thought I would make the butterflies - I have a ring of little ladies about half finished currently, and I made one for a friend's baby some time ago. This is Sue's quilt These are my butterflies It's the little details in these quilts that make them so special. All the ladies have different hair, from plaits to ringlets to bunches to windblown. Some have little dogs on leashes, others a kitty or a basket, or are holding a bunch of flowers. All the little houses have gardens, and clothes lines with quilts hanging over them, or kites or whatever you can think of really. In class, Sue sews a little lady for each student (either onto your quilt or on a seperate piece of fabric) and lets everyone request their custom person - and then tells a little story about each one! She had a very full class yesterday so she didn't quite get to mine (I told her to leave me until last, I'm a big girl), but I promised to send her some of my needles to try and she is going to put my lady into the post for me when she gets home from her trip. I'll show her to you when she arrives, I might make her into a thread roll for myself. Yesterday was a reminder that I need to take time for myself. It was refreshing to sit and stitch with like minded people, with no obligation and no deadline or agenda. I was absolutely exhausted afterwards too, which was another little reminder of how much personal energy it requires to TAKE a class! Quite a different wellspring I dipped into on my Wednesday. I hope your Thursday is lovely and if you have time, poke about and find out a little more about Sue- she’s a lovely and talented lady! You can find her at @calicoandstitch on Insta. I don’t think she has her own website but she’s here in Aus until the end of Feb, lots of shops have her book online (including The Crewel Goeblin), and in the UK she often teaches at Pincushion Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells. Sarah x

​Hi all This week I have a little video for you - after I did the last video, quite a few of you asked about the little figures I have on the bookshelf in my lounge room, so I though I would tell you about those! I have the information about the naive American figures somewhere but I cannot for the life of me find it... when I do though I will let you know. I did remember after I did the video that they are called Kachina dolls, and made by Hopi people. The figure with the feathers in his ears was made by Raymond Lalo - there is another piece of his on the gallery page at the moment. The gallery in Sisters is called Raven Makes Gallery, and it is truly wonderful. Tula and I have both bought many pieces there in the past, I have a gorgeous silver cuff bracelet that I bought last year and she has lots of pieces of jewellery and one truly incredible beaded cougar! I know that when I go back this year it will be high on my list of places to go and that I will probably bring another treasure home with me to join the others. I absolutely adore these figures, they are so beautifully crafted and unique. https://www.ravenmakesgallery.com/ The rabbit was made by Linde Ivimey.​ There's some links below to her Wiki page and also to some of the galleries that have her work for sale. Linde was married to Australian sculptor Bruce Armstrong when I knew her, which is over 25 years ago now, before I had my car accident. Bruce, who passed away last year, was a great mate of my dad's and we own several of his beautiful artworks - two of his sketches hang in Damian's office at home. My rabbit is a strange little beast but he has been with me since the day he came to me in the hospital, along with a beautiful message of healing from Linde. He has lived in my studio for years and recently came upstairs to live with my Kokeshi and Kachina dolls, where I think he resides nicely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linde_Ivimey#Biography https://martinbrownecontemporary.com/linde-ivimey/ https://www.portrait.gov.au/content/so-fine-linde-ivimey ​​ Bruce Armstrong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Armstrong_(sculptor) I know I was absent last week and I hope you will forgive me - I had just flown in from the USA and Damian's uncle passed away, he had to go interstate to the funeral and I was dealing with all the things that piled up while I was gone, along with getting him organised to go and be with his mum and dad. By way of apology, please treat yourself to a StitchyMites only discount of 10% off the brand new and extremely cute Sohmo Butter Cookie tins - use the code, cookie when checking out. See tins here. Here's a couple of videos of me showing you whats inside. Don't forget too that all the prices on the website are in AUD which at the moment is about .65 on the US dollar, so a whopping THIRTY FIVE PERCENT (or even more depending on the day) lower than the prices shown. A shocker for us in Australia but if you're in the USA nows the time to treat yourself!! Happy Wednesday peeps, I promise I will get back on track now that things are slightly calmer and I hope you are all well and happy. See you next week Sarah ​

​Hello StitchyMites from Los Angeles... sorry I'm late again this week but the show has been. very busy and I didn't get a chance to walk the quilts fully and take some photos for this post until yesterday. I'm off home today so next week everything will be back to normal, and not more overseas trips for a few months. Having never been to Road to California before I really didn't know anything very much about it, other than that it's a show thats been around forever and that I had never taught there before! I would describe it best as a smaller Houston I think. There are lots of nice stalls, around 350 I believe, mostly on the more traditional side of quilting.  Way less quilts than I was expecting though I have to say! The quilts that were there though were of course lovely, and there were several Aussies taking home prizes. Sue de Vanny won an Outstanding award for her quilt Born to be Wild  and Linda Crouch won an Outstanding for Machine Quilting with A Magical Winter Garden. Always fab to see the Aussies doing so well! Other quilts that caught my fancy were very varied! I loved this little bird by Kate Winegar, she took a class with teacher Maria Shell and learned the techniques she used to make it. The pieced background of triangles is especially wonderful I thought. the quilt is called My Pandemic Pal, as she started it during the pandemic to feature the little nuthatches she was watching out her windows. This was really one of my favourites!  Ricky Timms is known for his wildlife and nature themed quilts, but the style and colouring of this one is quite different to others of his I've seen. The plaited centres down the sides of the fish and all the curved piecing, and the rainbow colours really make the quilt sparkle in real life - the lighting at these things is never the best. The quilt is called One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. In the abstract section of the show the third place winner was my pick. Left Turn #2 by Barbara Danzi caught my eye - I always like quilts that take traditional quilting shapes (in this case, half square triangles), and turn them to something new. Plus everyone loves a blue and white quilt! First place in the pieced section was 100% the standout! Amy Pabst foundation pieced Watermelon Sugar on a 1947 Singer Featherweight, and her fabrics include silk dupioni, silk and synthetic blends and velvet, along with traditional patchwork cottons. There are 13, 384 individual pieces in this quilt - and each are tiny slivers of fabric. Each block would only be 4" max finished by my eyeballing. The precision in such tiny piecing is eye popping, and along for the ride there are little slivers of gold silk and textures from the velvet. First place indeed. I included pics to try and convey they detail of the thing to you, but I don't think a photo is ever going to do it justice. Last but not least is my favourite quilt of the show. Heartwarming Days by Aki Sakai from Japan. The Japanese quilters always bring the jaw droppers and this one. is no exception! The quilt itself is only about 1.5m square I would think - 60". So imagine how teeny all those little pieces of applique are.  I t is entirely hand appliqued, hand pieced, hand embroidered and hand quilted. Each panel has a different sweet little scene in it, and a lot of the pieces are 3D - the little teddy bear above this garden scene for example is an actual seperately made bear, and would be about 1 1/2" tall.  It's covered in sweet little scenes, and some of the other 3D details include an open oven door! I loved this little hexi embroidered detail too. The outer border is joined to the inside of the quilt buy all these tiny Suffolk Puffs (in the US you call these yoyos). Theres air between those, no backing of any. kind, and each one is only 1/2" across. Then theres the "binding" - can we call it binding?? The finishing?? The red border there is the edge of the quilt, which is about 1" wide. It's obviously been faced at the front and turned in a wide strip at the back to finish, and then all along the outside of the quilt are these little blue and red hoops of fabric, with the tiny Puffs mounted between some and little ladies or animals between others. That part is also entirely free standing -  the grey you see there is the curtain that the quilt is hung against. Thats some work right there peeps!!! OK its coming on time for me to finish packing up my bags and head to LAX for another 14 hours "across the seas in a tin can full of farts", as Spike Milligan once said! See you on the other side peeps Sarah x

​Ok so I'm reaaaallllly late this week, but between cutting and packing Lemonade Stand kits, cutting and packing kits for Road to California, making samples and packing all my bags up (and trying to get them under the weight limits!), its been a Week. Still, it's Sunday morning and I'm fairly organised except for being late for you guys, so I'm calling it a win. The bonus is that this coming two week's StitchyMites will be a round up of the quilt show at Road and my classes, so that will be fun! Lots of pretty quilts to show you I'm sure. For this post I'm back to an art gallery, this time the National Gallery in Canberra, for their initiative Know My Name. This series of exhibitions aims to address the underrepresentation of women artists and their stories within Australian history. I love that they're doing this, it's a fantastic thing to take these incredible artists and bring them into the spotlight. There is a joint exhibit at the moment between two very different artists, Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar, neither of which I have ever heard of. Both were artists creating in the early 20th century, in very different styles and places. Ethel Carrick I was absolutely, 100% blown away by! I would encourage you go to to Canberra just for her exhibition to be honest. She was a post-impressionist painter, who lived a truly extraordinary life, travelling the world and painting with her husband. You can read a little more about her here and see a few of her works ( https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/ethel-carrick/ ) but they really are wonderful in real life. Her grasp of light and movement is truly beautiful, and she was SO prolific!! It's a huge exhibition. The one I really wanted to show you though was a piece by Anne Dangar. I wasn't as taken with her as an artist, just a personal preference. I'm probably in the minority, as she was absolutely revered overseas during her time, just never at home. There were some paintings I loved but a lot of the pottery was a little dark for me. I'm not mad into Cubism so the designs just weren't my thing. You can read more about her here https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/dangar-anne/ and here https://nga.gov.au/on-demand/anne-dangar/ ​​ Around halfway through the Dangar section of the exhibition I rounded a corner into a small room, and there was the most wonderful textile piece that she had designed for the Exposition Internationale in Paris in 1937. The piece was designed by Anne and stitched collaboratively with some of her (adult) students, as the centerpiece of a display showcasing the work of Moly-Sabata (the pottery school where she was teaching and studying - in fact it is still in operation today) in the pavillion for the region she was living in. The piece was so well received that school was awarded 4,000 francs and Anne won a gold medal. The textile itself is designed as a banner. It has a hand pieced, embroidered and appliqued front and is backed with a plain homespun, so that it can be hung. Its around 60cm wide (24") wide, and few metres long. The piece was designed to tell the history of the Rhône region - I wish the information with the piece had given a little more context as I would love to know what all the panels represent. The thing that really grabbed me about it is the quirky animals - they are so wonderfully rustic and full of character. That fish!! I spent a good half an hour in the room with this piece and I loved every minute. When Anne Dangar died 70 years ago, villagers in France followed her horse-drawn hearse to the local cemetery that overlooked the Rhone river and the artists’ commune the potter called home in France for more than two decades. In Australia, Dangar’s death went unacknowledged by the press and the local artistic community, apart from a few mournful letters exchanged between friends, notably painter and one-time lover Grace Crowley. Says a lot doesn't it... I'm glad both these amazing women are being recognised in Australia now. If you get a chance to go to Canberra and see these exhibitions - they're on until April 27, after which more women artists will come out of the woodwork for the next in the series. Ok peeps I'm off to the airport in an hour or so... I must say that it seems very frivolous to be going to LA for a quilt show when so many people in LA are suffering from the terrible fires. The show is still going ahead however and I am under contract so off I trot - Road to California is running a number of donation programs to help quilters affected by the fires so I will find out more about those and let you know in case you're interested. Take care of yourselves and I promise to take loads of pictures of quilts for you! Sarah x