Willow Collection

Just a quick post today to wish you a happy spring, a joyful Easter, and give you a look at Willow—my next fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics!

Willow is already in shops in Australia and will start shipping to your favorite US shops this week! I’ve already been busy behind the scenes creating some very fun projects for the upcoming Willow Look Book due out at the end of the month but wont be spoiling any of the surprises today—this post is only about the fabric collection. Stay tuned for project post to follow.

Here’s a look at the 16 quilting cottons for the Willow collection from Art Gallery Fabrics.

Experience the mystical realm of Willow, a collection where flora and fauna enchant charming forests and dreamy castles in hues of mauve, leafy green, gold, and ivory.

Shops may carry yardage and/or precuts of the cotton prints. To check if your favorite shop is carrying Willow, visit my Fabrics page to see the shop lists with links.

Along with quilting cottons, Art Gallery Fabric collections include other fabric substrates for all your sewing needs. Above is the dreamy, drapey AGF rayon in the larger scale Cottage Favorite print. It’s the loveliest shade of forest green. I intend to do garment sewing for myself this summer and make dresses with this and my other rayons from past collections.

Have you had a chance to sew with AGF knit yet—it’s wonderful to handle and wear! The Fanfare from Willow is recolored in this marvelous sage-mint and pink and I can’t wait to show you what my daughter sewed for the Look Book in this fabric.

I love AGF flannel as much as I love the cotton which borders on obsession. I’m thrilled there are two Willow flannels and love them so much! Owl Things Floral (left) and Entwined on the right are the fun prints chosen for flannel substrate. Both would be wonderful quilt backings—I’m just saying :)

Willow Collection Inspiration

Before I start any collection I try to find an image online that sets the mood for the collection. I was lucky to find this romantic, magical bedroom image and it was the exact feeling I wanted for Willow! Unfortunately, I was unable to find the original source for this image to give proper credit to this beautiful image.

Once I have my mood and the perfect inspiration image to keep my focus I jump right in to designing! I start with reviewing the prints already in my archives as sometimes prints made years ago are just waiting for the right collection theme to come along. I also look at my own artwork I’ve done in sketchbooks to see if there’s things I can use. Then I start filling in the gaps with new artwork and eventually come up with a collection!

As you’ve come to expect from my collections, hand drawn elements are in each print and sometimes, like in the Rosewater Ballet print, I’ve used some of my past artwork in part of the design and added new elements to it to create a repeating print.

For the Fairy Ring print (mushrooms) I’d gathered up these mushrooms last spring and laid them out on the tray to study them for drawing, thinking the pattern was going to be a scattered print but loved how the mushrooms looked lined up as I’d pulled them and decided the print needed to be a horizontal stripe orientation. Sometimes the prints just make up their own mind!

Rural Idyllic is a print that I’d designed close to 12 years ago that’s been waiting for just the perfect collection to come along—I love a toile and this one is so much fun to add into your patchwork sewing!

For even more insights and back stories on the prints for my Willow collection, take a look at my Instagram posts @sharonhollanddesigns with the 9 tiled close up photos of the quilting cottons.

I can’t wait to see what you’ll make with Willow! If you’re posting on Instagram, please be sure to tag me @sharonhollanddesigns and tag the fabric collection with #agfwillow so I don’t miss any of your project posts!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Shine On Look Book

This week, Art Gallery Fabrics released the Shine On Look Book full of sewing inspiration made from my newest fabric collection—Shine On. I’ve been waiting patiently to show and tell about ALL the projects I made for the virtual catalog and this post will be dedicated to items not already shared yet on this blog (the quilt and accessories patterns I designed and wrote about on previous posts).

Originally, my husband and I had planned a January trip to Arizona but, it was cancelled and so was my plans for photographing my projects in a desert landscape. So, if I couldn’t go to the desert, I decided I could make myself a desert mural and use it in my studio photography.

Desert mural by Sharon Holland

This particular mural is not as large as some of my past pieces but at 6’ x 9’ and more detailed than others, it was still a challenge. I used regular acrylic household paint (like for interior walls) and painted on a painter’s drop cloth canvas. The course, unprimed canvas is tricky to paint on but has it’s own fun texture and keeps me from getting too fussy and hung up on details. You’ll see peeks of this mural as a backdrop to many of my photos.

Cactus Pincushions

Well, of course I need to make some fun cactus pincushions! The colors from Shine On are perfect for this project and it’s a great one to even get the kids involved in. I used Butterfly Threads Quilting tutorial and freeform made cactus pincushions of various sizes. I gathered grosgrain ribbon for a flower and glued it to the top.

Dreamy Clutch

The Dreamy Clutch is a free pattern from Art Gallery Fabrics and is a large zip pouch with a beautiful patchwork design. I used a decorative stitch on my machine to quilt the bag and laid both my blocks together on one piece of batting and quilted so the stitch lines would line up perfectly when sewn together.

This padded clutch is the perfect size to hold and protect my iPad.

Ilford Jacket

Undoubtedly you’ve seen lots of quilted coats and jackets online and have thought about making one for yourself—well, I have had those very same thoughts and doubts that I could even attempt anything like a coat! Was I wrong—it’s not that hard if you have basic garment sewing knowledge.

I looked at a bunch of patterns on the market and it was very hard to decide what to pick. To narrow it down, I thought about how those coats and jackets would look on me—for my short frame and how I wanted to wear my coat. I finally decided on the Ilford Jacket by Friday Pattern Company because it was cut more like a jean jacket (but comes in two length options), has pockets, and a collar. I liked the tailored look of the coat even though the cut is intended to be boxy and oversized.

Once I had my jacket pattern I could then determine how much fabric would be needed for the size coat I wanted to make. I’m 5’2’’ and around 124 pounds. I made the 2-4 Small size short jacket.

As for my quilted fabric, I first thought about my wardrobe and what colors I normally wear, what sort of clothing I’d be wearing with my quilted jacket, what time of year. Then I picked the fabrics and auditioned the colors with some articles of clothing and with my completion. It wasn’t until after I had my palette and Shine On fabrics selected that I then picked my quilt design. Again, there was a lot of thinking about what sort of statement and look I wanted my jacket to have and I landed on my Wild Honey quilt. Wild Honey is a free pattern on this blog. I had to make and arrange the block differently from the pattern to “make” the size fabric needed for the garment requirements so your fabric requirements may differ from mine and the number of blocks needed my differ from the pattern as well.

I laid out and arranged my blocks in mirror image thinking about how it would land on the jacket front, back, and sleeves. I’ve never done anything like this before and am glad I put so much thought into it before hand!

Once I had my necessary yardage covered in patchwork, I went ahead and made a quilt sandwich with batting and backing and quilted the fabric. Once the fabric was quilted I serged the edges to secure the raw edges of the patchwork and pre-washed the patchwork to preshrink before cutting out my pattern pieces.

For batting I used Hobbs Batting Tuscany Supreme 100% Unbleached Cotton batting.

Here I’m playing with the pattern pieces to make sure my mirror image idea would work—and it did! The blocks and the quilting lines helped me line up the pieces exactly where they needed to go to line up once sewn together.

All the pieces cut out and I could see things were looking pretty good already. The Ilford Jacket pattern in not written for working with quilted fabric so I did make some tweaks to the pattern to accommodate the bulk of patchwork. I should’ve made this blog post right after making it but didn’t think there was going to be such a long delay between finishing my coat and the Look Book so forgive me if my memory is a little fuzzy now on my tweaks.

Changes I made to adjust for working with quilted fabric vs. pattern instructions:

• I omitted Front interfacing but did add interfacing to the lining (non-quilted) side of my Collar

• Hems were serged then folded only one turn on my quilted jacket

• I used snaps instead of button/button holes and they were added before securing the plackets

• I added a hanging loop inside the jacket during collar assembly

Here you can see the snaps and the inside of the jacket which is the backing of the original quilted fabric. All my seams inside were serged during construction for a neat finish.

My use of the quilted fabric was so thrifty that there was just one handful of scraps leftover. The pre-washed quilted fabric, even in scraps was too precious to waste so I made these 4-1/2’’ square coasters. I wanted them to lay flat so I simply serged the edges and called it done. They have a fun, rustic look to them this way and a no-fuss attitude! I love the random patchwork piecing.

Rolltop Mini Backpack

The Rolltop Mini Backpack is a fun, free project from Vicky Myers Creations and there’s even a video tutorial. I pre-quilted the Renewal print from Shine on for the exterior of my bag and used Art Gallery Fabric Textured Denim for the bag opening. It’s the perfect day trip size or would also make a great backpack for kids.

Tie Something New

Tie Something New made and photographed by Mary Gove

The Tie Something New throw is a special collaboration project with Mary Gove of @thecurlyquilter on Instagram. Unfortunately, you wont find this project in the Look Book, there was some last minute changes and it wasn’t included as originally planned. So, this is a bonus project for you that you will truly love!

This pompom throw quilt was a project I designed originally for the 2018 Winter edition of Quilts and More and is still available as a back issue—so get yourself a copy—there’s two of my projects in that issue.

Photo courtesy of Mary Gove

The real fun of this throw comes from the handmade pompoms that tie the patchwork top to the Shannon Fabrics Minky backing. There’s no batting in this project and the drape is out of this world! You can watch an Instagram Reel tutorial I did @sharonhollanddesigns for how to make pompoms using a fork if you don’t want to invest in a pompom maker.

Photo courtesy of Mary Gove

Mary captured the true spirit of the Shine On collection with this bold throw. The limited palette prints she chose from the collection, the over-sized pompoms, and luxurious Minky backing are sublime for her Wyoming home.

This is such a great project if you’re looking for something snuggly beyond the typical quilt! Oh, and they wash up beautifully. I’ve been using the original quilt made for the 2018 magazine feature constantly since I’d made mine and have laundered it several times on delicate and low dry—pompoms and all!

Photo courtesy of Mary Gove

Just look at all that scrumptious texture!

Find the Shine On collection at your favorite quilt shop! I’ve started a shop list for Shine On on the Fabrics page to help you get started.

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Lilliput Look Book

Time has flown by and I’m behind in posting about my Lilliput Look Book that was released the end of April. My apologies but today’s the day to take a closer look at the projects I made with my new Art Gallery Fabrics Lilliput collection…

Lilliput is my first fabric collection designed with children in mind but it’s not your average children’s line because there’s so many prints an adult would love as well. Think sophisticated kids collection that focuses on nature and imagination.

I wanted Lilliput to have a very magical Look Book and so I created a painted backdrop to use in my home studio and created a fantasy forest in which all my Lilliput projects could be photographed and show the versatility of this collection from crib to kid.

This mural is no little thing, in fact, it’s about 9 foot by 12 foot and was painted onto a painter’s drop cloth canvas with household and acrylic paints. I color matched as best I could the colors from the collection and just freehand painted trees, leaves, and brush. I could only see about a 4 foot horizontal section at a time as I painted this draped over a ping pong table so it was a big surprise to see it up on the wall and coming out as good as it had!

You’ll see most of my projects have used this mural as an underlying theme to help create a magical, secret garden-type of mood.

Firelight Quilt

I’ve two new grand babies coming any day now and what a better excuse to create for my Look Book and make baby gifts at the same time! This crib size Firelight quilt is made from the Firelight quilt pattern released in February and you can find the pattern in my SHOP. I used Art Gallery Fabrics Smooth Denim as the background for the perfect boy quilt. The original Firelight quilt went to baby-to-be’s big brother so both boys will have the same style quilt with different looks.

I did a simple diagonal grid quilting in the ditch and bound the quilt with Smooth Denim in peach and backed with the navy dragonfly print from the Lilliput collection.

Make Your Own Crib Sheets

One of the easiest ways to personalize a nursery is to make your own crib sheets. I used Dana Willard’s of Made Everyday tutorial and whipped up this Forest Friends crib sheet in a matter of minutes.

Fox and Bunny

I don’t know about you, but I’m still a sucker for stuffed animals. I loved them as a kid and still do as an adult. Now I have grandkids I can live through them with new critters to love and cuddle. So, when I saw these patterns by Willowynn I knew I wanted to make them for the Look Book then gift them to the two older grandkids, ages 3 and 5.

Needless to say I had a ton of fun setting up this little tea party.

Whole Cloth Quilt

When I designed Lilliput and the Bog Party print I immediately thought I wanted to make a whole cloth quilt from this print so that’s what I did when it came time to so for the Look Book. I used the same print front and back and sandwiched two layers of Hobbs Tuscany 100% Premium Polyester batting for an extra puffy loft. I hand quilted a simple grid quilting design and used The Willow Markets tutorial for making a quilt like this.

This quilt has already been gifted to my son who’s also expecting their first child any day now.

Pillows, and More Pillows

The Cubist Illusion pillow is a free pattern from Art Gallery Fabrics. I adore this baby block look and want to do an entire quilt in this pattern in the future.

I used my own Hidden Zipper tutorial to professionally add a zipper closer to the pillow. If you’ve never tried it you really must—it’s easy and the perfect finish to a pillow. A pillow is also a great way to test out quilt blocks without the big commitment of doing a quilt.

Making your own pillowcases, like making cribs sheets is a great way to customize a bedroom. Pillowcases are an ideal project for beginner sewers of any age. I made these two cases using AGF knit from the Lilliput collection and they are now in use on my granddaughter’s bed. I used Dana Willard’s You Tube tutorial for these easy knit cases.

Pencil Pouch

This Rectangular School Kit is made using the free Odif pattern. Part of this project’s charm is that Odif makes a product called Odicoat that when applied to fabric will turn it into an oil cloth-like fabric. This makes a pouch nice for wiping off or as a travel or makeup bag to repel spills and stains.

Stitches From the Heart

This Stitches From the Heart wallhanging is a free pattern from our friends at The Fat Quarter Shop and was delightful to stitch up. The pattern also includes a mini version.

Since this project was small I hand quilted a clam shell design across the quilt.

Just For Fun

This had to have been the most fun I’ve ever had photographing a fabric collection because most of it was done in my studio over about 3 days. It was a lot of work but so enjoyable. This hideaway tent idea was just for fun and what I pictured my kids (when they were little) wanting to play in and dream the dreams that kids do.

Lilliput prints of Fort Imagination was used for the tent and Full Bloom covers the bottom cushion. You can see I got a lot of mileage from my backdrop!

Are you inspired to do some sewing? These were only the projects I made so to see more of these and the other incredible contributions by makers and AGF Studio, flip through the virtual magazine pages HERE.

Also, if you’re looking for Lilliput prints or any of my other collections, don’t forget to check out my FABRICS page to see which of your favorite online shops have them in stock. Soon, I’ll be adding my next collection Bookish to the collection list!

Happy sewing!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Time for Creativity

Time for Creativity

Creative arts by Sharon Holland

I hope this post finds you and your loved ones well? I and my family are all well at this time and doing our part to social distance and be smart about things. Thank goodness the internet let’s us stay connected and less isolated but for the most part my normal day-to-day life hasn’t been impacted much! I rarely went out normally, because I work from my home and am generally too busy, to get away from my desk or sewing machine.

This social slow down has allowed me to do more of what I love to do best—create! I’m hoping it also allows you to find the time to do all those artistic and crafty pursuits you alway wished you could start.

Art Gallery Fabrics Spirited prints by Sharon Holland

Right now you’ll find dozens of fabulous quilt alongs happening on Instagram and what better way to dig into that stash of fabrics than with a fun, virtual sew along with your online friends!

I’ve joined in on the Star Crossing quilt along hosted by Lisa Ruble of Love to Color My World blog and love this quilt design in my Spirited prints for Art Gallery Fabrics.

Star Crossing by Lisa Ruble

Here’s (a virtual mock up) what my quilt will look like when finished. This medallion-type quilt design is rewarding to make because you see instant results from piecing and it goes together quickly. The sew along started last Thursday and will run until mid April so it’s not to late to jump in and get started. Find all the details about the pattern and quilt along on Lisa’s week #1 blog post.

If you’re not one for sewing along with others and want to just do your own thing in your own pace, don’t forget about all the FREE and for purchase patterns available on this blog. The shear number of projects from my blog could keep you sewing for a year or more!

Prairie Flower quilt by Sharon Holland

Maybe you’d like to use this available time to start some sort of new craft or learn a new skill? I’m currently getting reacquainted with painting and purchased an online course on painting with gouache paint from Lena Rivo called Color Mastery. You can follow my painting journey on my Instagram page @sharonhollanddesigns.

Here’s just a few highlights from my recent landscape paintings. The scenes are from a trip my family made to Arizona last September where we visited Sedona and Flagstaff area. Luckily I took a bunch of photos that I’m now using as reference for these small paintings.

Red Rock by Sharon Holland

Beating the Heat by Sharon Holland

Grassland by Sharon Holland

Gallery wall by Sharon Holland

Maybe this is the time to stop saying “I can’t” and start learning how to do! I’m a huge fan of Skillshare and as an ambassador, I can offer you two free months of premium access to any Skillshare class. Yes, that’s anything and everything you’d have the desire to watch or ever wanted to learn more about! Use this affiliate link to start watching and get started doing, today!

What are your goals, dreams, and plans for your new-found time? Let’s make good use of this new type of norm by helping ourselves grow and lending a hand to others.

Keep healthy and safe. Be creative and help others if and when you can. For daily inspiration, join me on Instagram as I keep things inspirational and post about my sewing, painting, and creative endeavors.

Big, social distancing virtual hug to all!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.