New Fabric Collection!

New Fabric Collection!

Spring is an exciting time of year with trees leafing out, flowers blooming, and the weather warming up for spending time outdoors. I’ve been anticipating spring even more than usual because my newest fabric line, Everlasting for Art Gallery Fabrics will be available in May at your local quilt shops and favorite online retailers.

Everlasting is my seventh collection for Art Gallery Fabrics and it tells the story of love, marriage, and family.

The summertime palette or navy, coral, blush, and teal pull at my heartstrings as I associate this collection with my daughter, Anna. As my only girl, Anna and I have had a special bond. She has a creative mind, is a nurturing mother, is smart, positive, and has a tender soul. Sometimes I see myself in her mixed together with the other important women in my life, my mother and grandmother but mostly she’s her own person and I love her dearly. I’m so proud of the woman she’s become.

Photo credit: Red Tree Photos

Everlasting has a classic elegance to the prints that were inspired by my daughter’s wedding. The colors for her wedding were navy and sunflower yellow. The bridesmaids, groom and groomsmen all wore navy. Anna’s bouquet was simple, ivory roses and the other flowers and colors came from seasonal wildflowers.

Photo credit: Red Tree Photos

My daughter wore my mothers 1959 wedding dress and the cut of this dress couldn’t have been any more perfect for my daughter’s classic yet modest style. See more about this collection and the other spring collections in the AGF Fabric Collections | May-August 2019 Look Book.

Just as it would be hard to image a wedding or springtime without flowers, I can’t image a fabric collection without floral prints. Joyful blooms and fresh picked wildflowers make this collection feel like you’ve stepped into a summer garden party.

Rather than calling my Everlasting collection a mini collection (because there’s only 10 quilting cotton prints in one color way) I think of this collection as being an intimate gathering. 

Everlasting has all the things needed for stitching beautiful quilts from the large floral hero print, medium scale prints in coordinate colors, and beloved, low volume blenders. Think of this fabric line as a marriage ceremony with only close loved ones in attendance.

There’s three knits and one rayon prints—perfect for summer garment sewing!

In just a few short weeks, the Everlasting LookBook will be published for inspiration viewing and quilt shops will have these prints in stock for your next make. Let your local shop know you’d like them to carry Everlasting from Art Gallery Fabrics and as online stores start listing their inventory I’ll be adding links to those shops on my Fabrics page.

Meanwhile, myself and a bunch of other super talented makers will be busily stitching up beautiful and inspirational projects from Everlasting prints. Here’s a peek at a new quilt pattern I’m working on called, Diamond-Cut. I can’t wait to show you more!

Happy New Year - 2019

Happy New Year - 2019

My last post was the end of November 2018 so I need to fill you in on what’s happened between then and now. December went by so fast I didn’t even get a chance to make an appearance on this space-my apologies.

Holly Spring by Sharon Holland

My December revolved around friends and family and I just didn’t bother with keeping up my social spaces during that family time. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving through Christmas and I hope you did as well.

If you follow me on Instagram you saw that I had painted similar sprigs of holly art for sale and then painted larger pieces as gifts. I was very pleased with the response to my art and am very encouraged to continue painting and eventually selling prints and originals in the future. Thanks to everyone who purchased my art!

Holly by Sharon Holland

Right after Christmas and up until writing this post I’ve managed to find extra time to paint. I’ve been exploring acrylics and revisiting watercolors when painting these following pieces.

October Bouquet by Sharon Holland

Daisies by Sharon Holland

Floral Wreath - yellows - Sharon Holland

Floral Wreath - reds - Sharon Holland

Exploring with different mediums and styles is a good way for me to reacquaint myself with painting. The more I create, the more my style as an artist will emerge. I feel I need to make a larger body of work before I decide which paintings to turn into prints and what sort of products to offer (note cards, posters, fabric, original art, etc).

In the world of design there’s a lot of hurry up and waiting going on behind the scenes. It’s not always easy to have things to share because release dates are set way into the future. Very soon spring fabric collections will be revealed and this week I’m putting the finishing touches on a short intro video for my next Art Gallery Fabrics line. The photo above shows my office workspace littered with ideas for a fall collection that I’m currently working on and the photo below is a still shot from my promo video.

Sharon Holland - Designer

Case in point is my quilt featured in Quilts & More magazine. I made this quilt last spring and sent it off to my friends at All People quilt as soon as it was finished. Because a magazine need to work so far in advance, it was not going to show up in print until the Spring 2019 issue—that’s a long time to wait to be able to show you my quilt! Good thing I had plenty to keep me busy with until now because I really hate wating!

Sense of Direction by Sharon Holland. Used with permission from Quilts & More™ magazine. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

This fun quilt is made using fabrics from my Signature collection for Art Gallery Fabrics and AGF Pure Elements solids. Great for even a beginner, this full-size quilt is a quick to piece and with it’s simple, diagonal quilting it’s also quick to finish.

Sense of Direction by Sharon Holland. Used with permission from Quilts & More™ magazine. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Sense of Direction by Sharon Holland

Look for the Spring Quilts & More magazine on newsstands beginning January 11th.

Quilts & More Spring 2019. Used with permission from Quilts & More™ magazine. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

What a bright and beautiful way to start out the first post of the new year with all these flowers and colorful quilts and projects!

Looking ahead, I know many of you are wondering if Maureen Cracknell and I are planning a new sew along for this year…well, remember that hurry up and wait aspect of designing? After much deliberation we both decided we’ll be skipping this year. Preparing a sew along takes months of advance work which both Maureen and I don’t have at our disposal right now. Speaking for myself I have personal and artistic growth reasons why I need to step away from a sew along this year.

Over the last two years and three sew alongs we’ve prepared you for patchwork success and pushed you to push yourself as an artist. When we start our next sampler (hopefully in early 2020) you’ll be ready to take on bigger challenges right along side us.

You can expect to see new fabric lines from both Maureen and myself, blog tour appearances, and with various “irons in the fire” you won’t be without new inspiration, new sewing projects, and fabrics to add to your stash throughout the year. We hope you’ll continue to stop by our blogs and other social platforms to say “hi” and see what we’re up to.

Cheers to a new year and all it has to offer!

Tapestry Fabric Collection

Springtime means Quilt Market time! This year the spring Quilt Market will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have never been the SLC and am looking forward to seeing it--I've been told it's beautiful. 

This Market I will be showing my newest fabric collection Tapestry for Art Gallery Fabrics.

Tapestry weaves together an eclectic mix of multicultural-inspired motifs, combining traditional designs with modern graphic brushstrokes in soft, earthy tones.

Summer Garden Colorway

Winter Garden Colorway

I love designing new collections and creating a story around what I am designing. The story helps me keep focused and makes for a more cohesive group of fabrics. I don't like matchy matchy but the prints need to make sense and compliment each other--almost as if one were pulling fabrics from their stash to make a quilt. I like to think my collections have a curated look to them. 

The story for this collection started with the cat print. Catalyst as my print is called made me think of a cat sunning itself on a Persian rug or out in a sunny courtyard. It was as simple as that that started the thought process behind Tapestry. Here are a few behind the scene looks at the inspiration for some of the prints. 

Photo courtesy of Ellen Eichelberger

Vintage photo of movie star Clara Bow 1920s

The Tracery pattern was inspired by the beach ball in this 1920s photo of Clara Bow. I thought this would be a fun blender type print and the way my pattern turned out as radiating hexagons it reminded me of ripples in a pond.

Vintage African mud cloth

I have a fascination with African fabrics and created my Mudcloth print from the various graphic imagery used in African textiles.

Tree of Life on Mata ni Pachedi, printed cloth offering to the mother goddess http://eyeburfi2.tumblr.com/page/16

The Tree of Life pattern is used in many cultures and was the perfect motif to add to my garden of prints. I love woodblock printing so my print Eternal was created to simulate the woodblock printing technique. Complete with birds, my print has a light airiness to it and great left whole cloth or cut up in patchwork. 

The print Rosewood was also created to look like a woodblock print and another nod to handcrafted global-inspired artistry. 

Over the next several weeks I will be busy sewing quilts and other samples for my booth. I have two fabulous makers helping me this time. Heidi Staples of Fabric Mutt is making bags for my booth and Alexis Wright of My Sweet Sunshine Studio is making children's clothing from my new collection.  Here's a tiny peek into some of the quilts I have been sewing.

Totem by Sharon Holland Designs

Destination by Sharon Holland Designs

Good news for all of you waiting for me to republish my Orange Peel Table Runner project. I will be remaking the runner with my new Tapestry fabrics and rewriting the instructions to update this super popular free project. This runner was the first pattern I ever wrote and published on this blog when I first started in September of 2010. I cleaned house and pulled many of my old projects because I have changed formats and let's be honest--improved considerably since those first early days! I am hoping next month to have that project available again for free downloading. 

Art Gallery Fabrics has designed some fun graphics to share on your social media feeds. Use Either or both of these "I Want Tapestry" buttons to let your favorite quilt shop know you'd like them to stock the collection in their store! xxxx