Everlasting Blog Tour

Everlasting Blog Tour

I’m so excited for next week when the Everlasting Blog Tour officially begins! Thirteen incredible designers and sewists from around the globe have been busy stitching behind the scenes to make this upcoming blog tour truly remarkable.

This May saw the release of Everlasting, my seventh fabric line for Art Gallery Fabrics. Romantic, summer-inspired prints make sewing easy with a classic palette of navy, red, turquoise, and blush. Everlasting has been a huge success and is available in shops everywhere. See FABRICS page for stock listings of online shops.

I knew right away I wanted this collection to have a blog tour and coordinated a list of wonderfully talented makers to share their love of stitching with all of us. Here in the States we’re enjoying summer and I know I’d love these long, lazy days to never end. So, to keep those summer vibes going, over the next three weeks you’ll find inspired sewing posts, exciting makers to follow, beautiful projects, and of course, weekly giveaways all focused around my Everlasting fabric collection—you won’t want to miss a day!

EVERLASTING BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE

Friday, July 12 - Sharon Holland

Monday, July 15 - Marija Vujcic

Tuesday, July 16 - Carolina Moore

Wednesday, July 17 - Dana Willard

Thursday, July 18 - Lisa Ruble

Friday, July 19 - Dritz Sewing

Monday, July 22 - Eleri Kerian

Tuesday, July 23 - Marisa Wilhelmi

Wednesday, July 24 - Sharon McConnell

Thursday, July 25 - Modernly Morgan

Friday, July 26 - Alexis Wright

Monday, July 29 - Priscilla Geissler

Tuesday, July 30 - Maureen Cracknell

Wednesday, July 31 - Elina Temmes

My Blog Tour Makes

You know I couldn’t host a blog tour without contributing so this pre-blog tour post is also my opportunity to share my new Everlasting makes with you.

I was originally planning on making a new free quilt pattern for the tour but decided instead to make hand quilted pillows. I’ve been wanting to make a Pineapple block for ages and pillows seemed the perfect application! Also, these pillows are going to be gifted to a friend and it’s a win-win when I can make a project, blog about it, and use the finished piece as a gift!

Everlasting Pineapple pillows by Sharon Holland

It was very tempting to use more than just one print from this collection but I wanted to keep these pillows very classic and slightly rustic. Red and white, or in this case natural with Art Gallery Fabrics Linen and the bold red Flutter Buds cotton print. Besides, you’ll see the rest of the prints in action during the tour from the other makers!

To get perfect Pineapple blocks I used the Bloc_Loc Pineapple Ruler and it was so easy! Simply cut strips to a desired width depending upon your ruler size. I have the 3/4’’ - 1-1/2’’-size ruler and cut according to the 1-1/2’’ size to make a 21’’ square for my pillow top. Bloc_Loc has a helpful video, cutting charts, and printable instructions.

Once the piecing was done and my block measured 21’’ (unfinished) I basted a 23’’ square of Hobb’s Tuscany Silk batting scrap to the wrong side of the blocks. I didn’t use any backing because it is intended for a pillow and not having the backing reduced the bulk for hand quilting.

I hand quilted with DMC #8 Perle Cotton thread in ecru for a more traditional look. Once both blocks were quilted I used my Hidden Zipper tutorial to add Dritz Sewing brass zippers, giving a professional finish to my pillow covers. The finished size of my pillows is 20’’ square.

24’’ Brass Upholstery Zipper by Dritz Home

With the insertion of feather pillow inserts these pillows have a high-end designer quality to them and I cannot wait till I can give them to my friend—she’s going to love them! She loves red, too!

Everlasting Pineapple Pillows by Sharon Holland

My next make to share was created because I love easy-to-wear summer dresses and had the strong desire to stitch something for myself. My daughter and I wear basically the same size and have similar tastes in clothing. In fact, our tastes are so similar that we bought the same dress, in the same print, on the same day, and we live a state away from each other. We both liked how it fit us so I had the big idea to use it as a template and try to make a knit dress with it.

Now, I don’t want to take any business away from pattern companies or Indie pattern designers. This project may actually do more to encourage you to BUY a pattern rather than make your own hack like I did because after finishing the first one I really want to make more adjustments to my pattern and try it all again. Never the less, I will quickly go over my not-so-skilled hack and let you be the judge.

1. I used the grid side of a roll of gift wrap as my template paper because it was wide enough to accommodate the store-bought dress (once I get my final templates I’ll transfer it to freezer paper, so it’s sturdier). With the dress inside out, I taped it down to the paper with washi tape, trying not to stretch it out of shape.

2. I drew the shape of the dress, adding a 1/2’’ seam allowance and marking the back and front necklines. I cut out the shape using the taller back neckline and then folded the cut out in half. Once folded I could do more cutting to mirror image the sides. After cutting the mirrored shape down the center (where it will be placed on the fold of the fabric) I went ahead and designated one side as the back (higher neckline) and the other I cut a lower neckline for the front of the dress. From paper scraps I cut out the pocket shape. For a great tutorial on sewing pockets into a garment visit Dana Willard’s Made Everyday You Tube channel.

3. Finally I took a piece of rope and roughly measured around the neck and arm openings to determine the length of binding needed to finish the garment openings. Use a straight ruler to determine the amount determined with the rope and add 1’’ to that total for seam allowance. Since I’m sewing with knit fabric I simply cut my binding on the straight of grain from selvage to selvage. I cut 1-3/4’’ wide strips.

Everlasting Flutter Buds knit by Sharon Holland

Overall it wasn’t a bad first attempt and some very minor tweaks may yield just the perfect fit.

I do love this Flutter Buds print in blue knit and so does my daughter so we’ll both have one to wear this summer. I also want to make myself one in the red Cherished Wishes knit print. There’s enough unused fabric from my dress attempt that my granddaughter will be getting a summer dress(s) to match!

Everlasting by Sharon Holland for Art Gallery Fabrics

The extremely talented Marija Vujcic will be leading off the Everlasting Blog Tour on Monday, July 15th. Be sure to stop by each of the makers blogs to get the full story about their Everlasting makes and get to know these incredible women even more.

Blog Tour Giveaways!

I know you follow me on Instagram and I’ll be posting daily to keep you in the know about the tour. Each weekend I’ll have a weekly recap here on the blog and announce the special giveaway that week from one of our sponsors! Dritz Sewing, Bloc_Loc Rulers, and Fat Quarter Shop have generously offered fabulous prizes to be given away during the tour.

You’ll have two chances to win each week!

1. One chance is here on the blog by leaving comments on the weekly recap posts (see details coming next weekend).

2. The second chance is on Instagram. Starting today (Friday, July 12) if you repost any of the tour makers projects (including mine or any of the tour graphics) posted during the Everlasting Blog Tour, tag the project’s maker with their IG account, #ArtGalleryFabrics, and use the #EverlastingBlogTour hashtag on a public Instagram account and you’ll automatically be entered into all the IG giveaway drawings for this tour! Enter as many times as you’d like by reposting blog tour images—just be sure to give tour makers proper credit and tag them in your repost.

More details about giveaways, how to enter, and giveaway drawings will be announced at time of giveaways.

Everlasting Look Book - Part 2

Everlasting Look Book - Part 2

Today’s post takes a closer look at the non-quilt projects I stitched for the Everlasting Look Book. A Look Book is a free, virtual magazine that Art Gallery Fabrics publishes for each new fabric line and is loaded with sewing inspiration. Many talented sewers and designers contribute to the Look Book to bring a variety of projects sewn in fabrics from a collection so you can see the prints, colors, and different substrates in use. This post will just be about what I sewed and contributed.

Myrna Purse

I wanted to make some different sort of projects this time and was looking for the right print for the Sallie Tomato Myrna Bag pattern. I have also wanted to try working with the Sallie Tomato cork fabric and again, this was the perfect time!

I love the size of this bag and all the exterior zippered pockets. The cork was amazing to sew with and the only extra care needed for sewing with it is to use clips instead of pins. My Crossed Paths print from Everlasting goes with everything from jeans to dresses. I’ll be making a second purse as a gift and when I purchased this natural cork I also picked up a teal colored cork.

The only two things I will do differently in the second bag will be to position the loops for the handle at the top of the bag rather than the sides and add an interior pocket.

Radella Mocassins

I told you I was looking to make some different sort of sewing projects and these Radella Mocassins by I Think Sew looked so cute I just had to give it a try!

My ruby red slippers are made with Everlasting Cherished Wishes print as the exterior and Art Gallery Fabrics Linen for the lining. I had left over cork from my bag so I used it for the soles of the moccasins and it worked beautifully.

These slippers turned out so well that my Mom has requested a pair. After I make the new bag with the teal cork I will have left over cork for the soles of her slippers. I’m thinking the Something Blue print will looks perfect on both the bag and the slippers with the teal cork!

Strawberry Pincushions

The reds in Everlasting are so delicious that making strawberry pincushions where a must! I found a free tutorial from Down the Grapevine Path for making these quick stitching cuties. I ended up printing out the PDF a few times and adjusting the scale of the pattern to get the size of strawberries I wanted. Just experiment a bit till you find what size you’re looking for.

These were so much fun to make I stitched one from every print in the collection. To get an old-fashioned feel and heft to the pincushions I filled mine with crushed walnut shells—I’ll put an Amazon link at the end of this post. The walnut shells make for easy filling and add nice weight to the small pincushion. These would make cute ornaments too!

Fabric Haul

Check out this fun look at my Everlasting fabric line with Melissa from Art Gallery Fabrics, it’s a great way to get a personal tour through my prints and find out which AGF Pure Solids and Blenders work well with this collection.

I don’t know about you but I can’t get enough sewing with these prints!! I’ve many more projects on my cutting table and am working on a free quilt pattern to share with you next month.

In fact, during the last half of July I’ll be hosting an Everlasting Blog Tour with 13 other amazing designers from around the world who are already busy stitching up gorgeous projects to share with you. There’ll be three weeks of inspiration and of course, giveaway prizes to giveaway! More details on the tour next month so until then…happy sewing!

Everlasting Look Book - Part 1

Everlasting Look Book - Part 1

The second most exciting thing to having a new fabric collection is to have Art Gallery Fabrics publish the Look Book for the collection!

Over the lasts several weeks I’ve been busy sewing projects with my new collection and photographing them in preparations for the Look Book. In this Part 1 blog post I’ll give you a more personal tour of the quilt and pillow projects I made plus the beautiful Hourglass Quilted pillows Maureen Cracknell of Maureen Cracknell Handmade stitched for this virtual magazine. Next week, in Part 2, I’ll show more of the other pretty (non-quilt) projects I made—there’s just too much for one blog post!

Quilts and Pillows

Lily Pond Quilt

Lily Pond quilt designed by Sharon Holland. Made and photographed by Art Gallery Fabrics.

Every Art Gallery Fabric collection has with it a FREE quilt pattern. The Lily Pond quilt made with Everlasting prints and AGF Pure Solids is a remake of a quilt I designed a couple years ago for International Quilt Festival magazine 2017, using Maureen Cracknell’s Soulful fabrics for Art Gallery Fabrics.

It’s amazing how fabric placement can change up the entire look of the new Lily Pond quilt (above) compared to the same design of the Celestial quilt (below).

Celestial Quilt design and made by Sharon Holland with Soulful fabrics by Maureen Cracknell for Art Gallery Fabrics

Hourglass Quilted Pillows

Hourglass Quilted Pillows by Maureen Cracknell

How perfect would these Hourglass Quilted pillows by Maureen Cracknell look with the Lily Pond quilt or the Infinity Loop quilt below!?!? Maureen has a free tutorial on her blog for how to make these beautiful pillows.

Over Memorial Day weekend Maureen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were hacked and then deleted by the hacker. This malicious act has been devastating and erased years of Maureen’s photo memories and work achievements. I know many of you follow both Maureen and I and if you’d like to continue receiving her beautiful daily dose of sewing inspiration on Instagram please follower her on her new account @maureencracknellhandmade. She’s no longer on Facebook and may not reopen an account there. Read more about what happened to her social accounts on her pillow tutorial post.

Infinity Loop Quilt

Infinity Loop Quilt designed, made, and photographed by Sharon Holland

I’ve been waiting since my first Art Gallery Fabrics collection, Gossamer to remake my Infinity Loop quilt and Everlasting was the perfect collection to use!

The Everlasting Infinity Loop quilt is filled with Hobb’s Poly-Down Batting. It’s a slightly different loft than the Hobb’s Tuscany Polyester batting I also love but equally as soft and drapey. I love that you can leave wider spacing between quilting stitches too and chose to quilt a HUGE floral motif on the loop rows and spaces between the loops.

Infinity Loop Quilt designed, made, and photographed by Sharon Holland

This intermediate to advanced level quilt pattern uses both foundation paper-piecing and traditional (curved) patchwork piecing. It’s well suited for a scrap quilt and I didn’t even preplan fabric placements—just sewed and put it together with very little fussing. The Everlasting collection has a well balanced mix of light, medium, and dark prints as well as a variety of print scales that gives a scrap quilt a flawless scrap look without being super match-matchy! Find this PDF pattern on my SHOP page.

Diamond-Cut Quilt

Diamond-Cut Quilt designed, made, and photographed by Sharon Holland

For the Everlasting Look Book I designed a new quilt pattern called Diamond-Cut for the SHOP. I’m so in love with this quilt and purposely made it very scrappy. Large Nine-Patch diamonds show off the prints and float in a background of the new Blossomed Pure Solids from Art Gallery Fabrics.

Diamond-Cut Quilt designed, made, and photographed by Sharon Holland

This is a full-size bed quilt that has a modern-vintage style and ease to it. I also used Hobb’s Poly-Down batting inside and chose a simple and quick vertical stitching to create puffy channels. I think it gives the quilt an elder-down cozy look to it. Needless to say, this is now the guest room quilt!

Reversible Pillow Cases

Reversible Pillow Case tutorial by Tidbits made by Sharon Holland

As I was styling the bed and Diamond-Cut quilt for photography I realized that if I made pillow cases it would not only save me from buying something new but also be an opportunity to show off more of my pretty Art Gallery Fabrics!

I found a great tutorial for these Reversible Pillows on the Tidbits website. I even had just enough of some beautiful trim I bought a few years ago at Quilt Market to finish the edge of these three cases. It was so handy to have reversible cases and three turned into six with a quick wardrobe change.

Everlasting by Sharon Holland

These projects in this post are by no means the end to the quilts and pillow projects you’ll find in the Everlasting Look Book, these were just mine and Maureen’s contributions. Next week I’ll blog about the other projects I made that were a fun and delightful change from quilt making. It’s always good for the mind to mix things up a bit and I learned some new sewing tricks!

Visit the AGF Creative Blog for additional Everlasting inspiration AND a chance to win a bundle of Everlasting fabrics! Hurry, the giveaway ends June 4, 2019.

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!