Little villages are starting to spring up around the quilt centres. It's so much fun seeing these made finally - I think they are my favourite part of the quilt besides the rabbits themselves. Heres some of the lovely examples I've found.

By Wendy Whellum

By Isobel Hill

By Dory Abrahamse

By Heike Kuechler

By Andrea Gunther

By Lyndall Cummine

By Alice Williamson

By Inez Bolks

By Rima on Instagram

By Jay Lloyd

Keep building those villages, they're looking great!
​

By Karen Waite. 

By Susan Rodgers

By Sigrun Moller

By Janice Teed Black

By Fiona Musson

By @cathwb

Beautiful work, and all so different!

​Next post will be some pictures of those who have begun their houses :) 

​A few of you have expressed concern that as new applique-ers, you need some more up close instruction of the ins and outs.

Its taken me me a few days because the extreme close up with the video camera is not great, and my iPhone died a few days ago! I've not been able to sew due to some physical issues either, so it's been fun and games all around. 

All sorted now thank heavens, and here is the video. Please note that this is shot with an iPhone and so the sound and picture won't be fantastic- also it's just a little extra help and not a monthly update.

ALSO- the finger pressing part relates to actual needleturn, which we will get to in our March pattern. Your circles and stems are already pressed under :) 

I hope you find it helpful!

Lots and lots of you have made such a fantastic start on your Rabbit Hole circles! I've grabbed a few randomly from Facebook and Instagram for those not on social media, so you can see all the different colours, configurations and backgrounds. Even if you are on SM, you may have missed some of these beauties. I hope I've tagged everyone correctly :)

This one is by Alison Colbert - lovely contrast in the wedges!

I love the background in this on by Erin Brown! Great colours.

A soft and pretty example from Margaret Creek.

Denise Fitzgerald pieced all her wedges instead of leaving a solid one - lovely and sparky!

I love the way Janine Thompson has fussy cut the flowers going down her wedges.

Pretty as a picture from Sandy Caller. The stripes cut sideways are really effective for making the circle whirl.

Thats it for now - I will post some more in the coming days. I hope you're all having a good time with your circles and stems! 

**Order update. We now have enough template sets to ship all the orders up until today's date. Please bear with us while we pack and ship them, but they will all be sent by mid next week, EXCEPT for one or two that are waiting for more foundation papers, or thread donuts to arrive. We have had a real struggle with the papers, our supplier's shipment was involved in an accident before Christmas, and they still don't have any more in stock for me to purchase. I have been searching them out wherever I can and they are arriving in dribs and drabs. If your order is one of those waiting, you will get an email from my by the end of this weekend updating you on where we are and when I expect stock.

I'm doing my best everyone - please remember that when your order has shipped you will get an email saying it has, and a refund of excess shipping IF APPLICABLE. These emails are sent to EVERYONE without fail, if you don't get yours it's likely you have a filter on your email that hasn't let the email address through. Packages internationally can take anywhere from 10 days to 6 weeks - I have NO CONTROL over that, we are in the hands of the post offices. There is NO TRACKING on international packages unless you have specifically asked for it and paid for it - it can be anywhere from  $12 - 18 extra on top so I can't put tracking on everything without asking first. This is NOT MY POLICY, it's Australia Post's. 

When I was teaching in Sisters last I did an interview with Alex Anderson for The Quilt Show. It was great fun! I'm hoping to do another one, a full show this time, when I'm in the US next..... in the meantime, heres a link to watch my interview for free! FYI I come in at about 43 mins, but all the stuff about wool applique at the beginning is really interesting, and cute too :)


​The Quilt Show  http://thequiltshow.com/watch/show-list/video/latest/2004-into-the-woods-we-go-embroidery-with-whimsy-in-stitches?artist_coupon=20020212

It's been brought to my attention that there are some fusible bias tapes available at the link below for those still interested - I can't get any more to sell myself. Be quick though I don't think she has a lot:

studiomio.com.au/haberdashery/

Also for those wanting the Windham Fabrics background I used in my lesson 1 demo (see today's earlier post) I know it's in stock at the Cotton Factory in Ballarat - 

cottonfactory.bigcartel.com

Be quick peeps, you know how fast these things sell out!!

Well I think we can all say we've started! Even if all you've done is ponder :) I had had every intention of posting this blog the day the pattern dropped, but a load of 50 more template sets to pack on Tuesday and 9 hours of teaching on Wednesday soon put the kibosh to that. Oh well, here I am now.

I've loved seeing your wedge starts so much! I'm going to gather some up and post them here tomorrow, so that if you aren't on social media you can still see what everyone has been up to. Now that I've started blogging I will update this a few times a week with bits and pieces, so stay tuned and check back often.

A quick note though - please don't post process questions - quilt making questions - or issues with log ins and orders etc here, or I might miss them. For questions about orders or process, please email me at sarah@sarahfielke.com. For issues about the website or payments etc, please email Damian at bom2017@sarahfielke.com and then we can be sure your message won't slide by.

In this blog I'm going to be showing you some things that I'm working on ahead of you. Please please don't be tempted to jump ahead and think you know measurements or how we are going to do things! I don't want anyone to be disappointed when they realise we were doing things in a certain order for a reason. We've already had a few people cut circles at wrong sizes and sew things on that are going to be cut away afterwards - please be patient. When I show you pics of things I'm working on, they are in progress - that means that I am still designing the quilt, and also it's order of assembly. The order in which I've done things will often not be the order in which I get you to do things, for reasons of structure, ease of sewing, and learning technique. It's a BOM not a complete pattern, things come in sections and believe me, there will be enough work for all of you in the coming months! :)

That being said, here's a pic of where we are headed with this centre. When I took this I hadn't quite finished sewing all the leaves down.

There's been a few questions I can easily answer for you:

1. I can't fit all the circles on?

You need to stagger where they sit to get everything to fit. If all of the flowers are up at the edges then they won't fit, some need to sit lower and some higher. If you want them all to sit high, just put fewer flowers, thats up to you. At this point, all you should have is cardboard shapes.

2. How large is the circle?

The circle should finish at 13" diameter. Don't worry if it doesn't - this is applique and so more forgiving than piecing. While the piecing needs to be accurate to make the circle sit flat, if it's a bit bigger or smaller than intended, it doesn't have to join on to anything else, so you're all good!

3. Can I cut out the fabric flowers?

Please don't :) there are things you need to know about how we are going to make the flowers and the order that things are sewn down in. Also the template on the PDF sheet does NOT have seam allowance added. It's for the cardboard circles,  not for the fabric.

4. Why are we using bias for the stems when they're straight?

I mentioned in the video that if you are making your own stems you don't have to make them bias for this section, you can use a straight cut. If you have the tape - it's for convenience and speed!

5. What are the fabrics you used in the demo video?

The background fabric is from Windham Fabrics, it's called Wonderland by Angela Pingel. The two fabrics in the piece wedges are Cotton + Steel Basics and the navy blue with words is a sneak peek from my upcoming Windham Fabrics collection, Word Play.

Have fun sewing everyone! If I'm quiet online over the next few days, it's because I'm madly sewing samples for my new fabric collection, playing catch up on the BOM quilt  - and I'm also travelling to Victoria to see my son row on Friday and Saturday. I'll still be checking in, but sometimes life gets in the way of immediate Facebook responses :) See you soon!