Bonzer Trunk Show - Up Close With Sarah Fielke's 'hand quilted with love' Quilts

Sarah Fielke chats about her 'paint by numbers' quilt from her new book 'hand quilted with love'

There was a buzz around Manhattan on Thursday night this week, Sarah Fielke was in town and we all gathered at the Art Quilt Gallery in Manhattan to see her Trunk Show for her latest book 'hand quilted with love'.

Under pressure, my attendance being the envy of several friends (particularly Sarah @Quilt Candy who told me about the trunk show before The Art Quilt Gallery even announced it!!!), I knew I had to report back.  Grabbing a seat at the end of the row so I could keep standing to get some great photos to share with you all, I snapped away - here goes, I hope I haven't let you down ;)

For the Trunk Show Sarah brought along a selection of quilts from her new book but obviously she couldn't squeeze all of them into her suitcase for the journey from Aus!  She also kept apologising for the quilts being in need of a good ironing, something I'm sure we can all relate to, however, none of us were there to look at whether or not her quilts were ironed, it's more about the how and why when we get a chance to see quilts we've only read about up close isn't it?!!!

Sarah tells us that she doesn't wash fabrics before using them, occasionally she might drop a small piece of fabric in a white cup of boiling water if she's a little doubtful about its dye fast hold, just to see what happens.  Sarah says that today's manufacturing methods should make fabrics dye fast but she recommends if you do experience a problem with a particular fabric that you notify the seller or manufacturer to make them aware.

Sarah often hand quilts appliqués (see CORRECTION note) in front of the TV at night - her tip is to use a silver, non acid gel pen to mark your pieces and quilts as it will shimmer in the light and although it won't wash out it will wear away while other colours of gel pen don't. CORRECTION at 5 May 2013: Sarah has left a lovely comment on this post and explains "I use the gel pens for hand appliqué, not for hand quilting. Please don't use them for marking your hand quilting lines, it won't come off and you will curse my name forever!"

 

 

Made with 100% cotton, high quality men's shirt fabric taken from shirt samples and bound with fabric cut from men's ties.  Sarah only ever used natural fibres - drills, linens, cottons, etc, she doesn't mind what fabrics she puts together within a quilt but she does want everything to be natural. 

Sarah's not a fan of the Clover Bias Tape Makers that I love (see my tute here) she prefers to make her bias strips using a Clover Hera Marker to score her seam lines then irons the seams into place and that's how she's made the teapot and cup handles in this amazing quilt.

 

Sarah's starting point for this quilt was the vintage grey and orange 'feed sack' fabric around the centre and the quilt grew from there.  She doesn't design her quilts on paper but prefers to use her design wall to audition different colours and sections until she finds what's right.  Unused sections are often pieced together later into baby quilts.

Never having made a jelly roll or solid quilt, Sarah felt challenged by comments from her blog readers to take the plunge and here's the outcome.

Here're all the other snippets of info I can remember that Sarah shared with us:

• Sarah stores her fabric by colour in a bookcase that her husband built around and over her door in her studio.  She keeps stripes and dots separately along with the small animal prints that she includes in every quilt she makes.
• A novice quilter about to take her first class asked for Sarah's advice, Sarah suggested that she shouldn't follow the rules.  She said to learn the foundations so you can make a quilt well but to follow your heart and your own ideas and not to listen to those who tell you how quilting 'has' to be done.
• Art Quilt Gallery owner, Dale, asked Sarah what she thought the main differences were between quilting in Australia and the US.  Sarah thought it was probably the use of colour, bright colour and particularly the use of bright colour that isn't combined with white.  She wondered if this was influenced by the quality and amount of light and sky in Australia.
• Sarah's machine quilting is all done by Kim Bradley.
• As Sarah is making her quilt top she has a plan in mind for her hand quilting and she irons all her seams according to where she will be quilting.  These days she likes straight line hand quilting to enhance the piecing rather than a detailed pattern which adds to the design and possibly detracts from it.

Sarah signing my copy of her latest book 'hand quilted with love'

 

And finally, me with Sarah

 As she left NYC to fly back to Australia, Sarah posted on her blog 'the last piece' and she said that she'll be posting a podcast of her Trunk Show soon - when she does I'll share it on my facebook wall so you can catch it.

For details of other fabric, yarn, trim and notion stores that I've visited around the world along with the NYC stores I love, exhibitions and events I've attended and wonderful people I've been lucky to meet click the links below or in my sidebar :D

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