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!
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