Fanciful Look Book

Last week Art Gallery Fabrics published the Fanciful Look Book, showing off my new blender and debut Designer Essentials collection for AGF. The 10 new colorings plus the 2 original colors from my Bookish line make for a beautiful 12-piece blender range to coordinate with my other collections and the Look Book shows you how well they mix and match with your favorite Sharon Holland prints.

Click the Fanciful Look Book button below to view the virtual sewing catalog.

I’ve already blogged about the New Wave pillow, Scallop Bunting, and Quilted Carryall projects shown in this styled baby room photo above so this blog post will be about the Fanciful quilts.

One of my all-time favorite quilts to give as a baby gift is my Hold Tight quilt. I’ve always made the Hold Tight quilt in solids in the past because of the array of colors available to achieve beautiful transition colors where the balloons overlap but as soon as the Fanciful blender collection was finalized, I knew I wanted to make this quilt with this blender collection!

For the Fanciful version I wanted an extra lux quilt so I used Shannon Fabrics Cuddle “Minky” in white as the backing. Terri Neil of Quilting Rubies did the long arm quilting for this in a pantograph called Fanciful Flyers by Urban Elementz and I added the hand stitched quilting “strings” to the balloons after it was quilted but only stitched through the quilt top and batting so the quilting on the back of the quilt was uninterrupted.

To add a little extra pop to this Hold Tight quilt, I supplemented the different blenders with my Tiny Dancer prints and I love the scale change of this additional larger print. Above is the conversion of using less number of fabrics and upping the amount of each used to a fat quarter. Construction, background, backing, and binding remain the same as in the pattern for the throw—just the number of fabrics used to make the balloon is reduced and some fabrics show up in more than one balloon in my Fanciful version, rather than the original version of fabrics only being used once per balloon.

Evergreen Quilt

Here’s a bonus project for blog readers and one you wont find in the Fanciful Look Book! The Evergreen (or also known as Hinterland) quilt is a free pattern from Art Gallery Fabrics, designed by Sam Vanderpuy.

I took some liberties with the pattern that I will share and streamlined the number of fabrics to make cutting simpler.

To make my version I used 1/3 yard EACH of 8 Fanciful blenders and streamlined the cutting to be almost an even distribution of the 8 colors. I also chose not to add the occasional upside down strip set triangles because I wasn’t pleased with the skinny lines not lining up perfectly so I kept the quilt to all Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids in Latte for the triangles and skinny strips (background).

The beautiful fan quilting was done by Terri Neil of Quilting Rubies. To give this quilt some extra fun I used Chenille-It Blooming Bias tape for the edges in white. You can learn more about how to add a chenille edge to your quilt with my video tutorial, HERE.

I love the idea of stars over the mountains and how this quilt backing of Compass Points print from my Shine On collection gives this quilt a front and back that’s equally fun and graphic!

This is certainly a quilt that will grow with baby and would also be a beautiful wall hanging as the child gets older.

Be sure to check out the Fanciful Look Book for more sewing inspiration and looks at how lovely these blender colors coordinate with prints from my past (and upcoming) fabric collections. This is the perfect way to extend your stash of Sharon Holland fabrics!

Next time on the blog…

Another baby quilt and a hack for the Quilted Carryall bag you wont want to miss!

Bookish Look Book

Whenever Art Gallery Fabrics releases a Look Book for a fabric collection that means the collection is available in shops and that there’s going to be a virtual catalog full of beautiful photos and inspirational projects for that collection. I’m so please to announce the Bookish Look Book is now available for viewing!

Bookish

Bookish is my eleventh fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics and celebrates the love of reading. Think of your favorite sweater, a hot cup of tea, and curling up with a good book and cozy quilt and you've just imagined the story behind Bookish. This collection tells a tale of classic romance and modern whimsy in dusty-colored book covers of rose, burgundy, teal, peach, and gold.

Myself along with the AGF Studio and other talented makers contribute projects to the Look Books. You’ve already seen some of my Bookish makes here in my Charming Cabin quilt, Carry Out pie carrier, and Relaxation Set project blog posts.

Charming Cabin quilt by Sharon Holland

Carry Out pie carrier by Sharon Holland

Relaxation Set by Sharon Holland

This blog post will be about the additional projects I created for the Bookish Look Book plus a project made from a pattern in my SHOP I know you’ll love making. Any of these items would also make great gift ideas for the upcoming holidays.

DIY Swing Fabric Basket

This useful and pretty DIY Swing Fabric Basket is a free pattern from Sewing Times blog. She also has a video tutorial to follow along for sewing. It’s a roomy-size catchall that’s perfect to hold all your sewing items if you’re like me and like to carry supplies to other rooms in the house.

I used the Bookish prints Wildest Dreams and Page Turner for the exterior prints and Flights of Fancy for the interior. I think these baskets would be fun for kids and little Legos or travel play items you want to corral.

Coffee Cozy

One of my most favorite prints in the Bookish collection is the Favorite Sweater print and when thinking about what sort of projects to make with the fabric line, I immediately that about a mug cozy!

I looked through many of the free mug cozy patterns on line and found this great tutorial on the Living DIY Style blog that’s so beautifully presented in a tutorial and also has several size and finish style options for different size mugs. Bring on that cold weather—I’m ready to snuggle down with my quilts, a good book, and mug cozy!

Study Haul

Photo courtesy of Art Gallery Fabrics

It’s really exciting when a makers wants to make one of my pattern for a Look Book and extra special when it’s made in my prints for my Look Book! Joyce Ulm, sewist extraordinaire used the Bookish Passport print for the exterior and Open Book print for the lining and stitched up the Study Haul book bag.

Photo courtesy of Art Gallery Fabrics

Fabric Covered Books

I’ve had a lot of you ask about the books I recovered in fabric and for a tutorial on how I made mine so for the last part of this blog post I’ll share how I took these thrift store hardcover books and covered them with the 16 different quilting cotton prints from my new Bookish collection.

Gather your supplies and follow along with my tutorial video below (only viewable on the blog page, not in the newsletter) as I recover a hardcover journal in my Bookish Romance Novel print.

Fabric Covered Journal by Sharon Holland

To see more of these projects along with quilts, clothing, and other sewing ideas and inspiration in the Bookish virtual catalog Look Book on the Art Gallery Fabrics site and immerse yourself in the Bookish experience!

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.

Trimming HST and Flying Geese Units

Trimming HST and Flying Geese Units

As a pattern designer I strive to make my patterns as easy as possible for all level of quilters to follow and for each maker to finish their quilt with true to size blocks and sharp points on units like Half-Square Triangle units (HST) and Flying Geese Units. Tips and tutorials make for better patchwork and in a recent discussion with my quilt testers group I realized many newer quilters are unsure of how to trim up units like Half-Square Trangkes and Flying Geese.

You’ll find many tutorials on this blog about how to make these different sort of units but I’ve not addresses directly on how to trim these units down to size if you don’t have specialty rulers like my favored Bloc_Loc Rulers. This seemed the perfect time to add this lesson as I’ve a new quilt pattern coming out in October that utilizes several different types of units.

Before we get into trimming of these two unit types you can review unit construction on these earlier blog posts:

• Half-Square Triangle units (two at a time)

• Eight at a Time Half-Square Triangle units

• Quarter-Square Triangle units

• Triple-Square Triangle units

• No-Waste Flying Geese

• Quick Corner Units (construction similar to flippy-corner Flying Geese)

Trimming HST units

Half-Square Triangles are the easiest units to trim to size and can be done without any specialty rulers. I’m using a left over HST unit from making Sweet Home roofs as an example in this tutorial.

Stitch two triangles together using a 1/4” seam allowance or make HST units according to a pattern instructions. Press unit open.

For this example I’m using a 6-1/2” square Creative Grids ruler that has a 45° diagonal line marking as well as the normal grid line markings. A square ruler works best for HST units.

In the above left image, use the ruler to size up the HST to see what usable size can be made by lining up the 45° marking with the seam line and making sure there’s at least a 1/4” seam allowance on all side. As you see, a 4’’ square or smaller can be made from this HST unit.

With the ruler in position, trim the top and right sides of the HST with a rotary cutter as seen in the above right image. Reverse these instructions if you’re left handed.

If working on a rotating mat, rotate everything 180° without disturbing the HST. If on a stationary mat, turn the HST so the trimmed sides are opposite of their starting point.

Slide the ruler down so the diagonal marking still aligns to the seam line and the 4” markings line up with the newly trimmed edges. Trim the two remaining sides to square the HST.

The image above uses the same method to trim a HST unit to 5” square using a regular 6-1/2” square ruler and a 6-1/2” square Bloc_Loc ruler.

Trimming Flying Geese Units

Flying Geese units take just a little more care when trimming and squaring to size. A regular square ruler is still the best tool for this job if you don’t have a specialty Flying Geese ruler for trimming.

I happen to have a square ruler the same width as what’s needed for my Flying Geese unit but a larger ruler would be just as useful but require a few more passes to cut since you could only cut up to two sides at once with a larger ruler.

Determine the cut size of your Flying Geese unit. In this case I need to trim my unit to 3-1/2” x 6-1/2”. Subtract 1/4” from the height of the unit. Example: 3-1/2” minus 1/4” is 3-1/4”. This is well marked on my ruler as it’s the center of this 6-1/2” ruler. Place the measurement mark (in this case 3-1/4”) on the point of the Goose. The point of the Goose is used as the reference point and will help establish the 1/4” seam allowance. Note how the 45° marking on the ruler lines up with one seam line on the unit and there’s enough fabric on all sides of the Flying Geese unit for trimming.

Trim both the sides and bottom edge of the unit as shown. If your ruler is larger, trim bottom and one side of unit.

Rotate the unit or mat so the Goose now points down. Align the 3-1/2” mark (or the cut size needed) with the trimmed bottom edge of the unit (now located at the top).

Trim the Goose point edge and remaining side, if necessary so all outside edges have been trimmed as needed to size which includes the 1/4’’ seam allowance.

Above shows the no-measure needed trimming of a Flying Geese unit using a Bloc-Loc Ruler.

There are other rulers on the market that are considered specialty rulers and cover more than one size of unit. I’ve only used the Bloc_Loc rulers but have heard good things about the Wing Clipper ruler from other quilters. Here are some examples available on Amazon using affiliate links:

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Having all your units true to size will make patchwork assembly a breeze and no more fudging or wrestling your pieces into place. There’ll be no more clipped points, or wonky blocks. Taking time to trim and square up units is all part of the patchwork process and since you’ve already put in so much time and money into your beautiful quilt It’s well worth the extra effort to assure it’s made as well and as near perfect as it can be!

Happy trimmings!

Heart Quilt Sew Along - Week 3

Heart Quilt Sew Along - Week 3

It’s the final week in the Heart Quilt sew along. This fast and fun sew along has been hosted by myself and Maureen Cracknell with special thanks to Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew for allowing us to use her Heart Block in our quilt layout.

If you’re just joining us, you’ll want to get up to speed by reading first weeks post announcing the sew along. If you’re already making heart block or at the point to start adding the sashing and borders—check out week 2 HERE.

This last post is dedicated to turning that top into a quilt plus I’ve added an extra bonus project for all those left over half square triangles from trimming the large flippy corners off the hearts!

Quilting

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm directing you to the blog post for Finishing that was originally posted during the Sewcial Bee Sampler sew along. You'll find all the tutorial information for spray basting, quilting, and binding your quilt. The sizes have changed but the concept for basting, quilting, and binding your quilt are the same. As stated in that post, there are many ways to finish a quilt and I am blogging about how I finish my quilts. If you have a preferred method, please do it the way you're comfortable with. If you intend to send your top off to be professionally quilted, discuss with your long-arm quilter how they'd like you to prepare your quilt top and backing for being quilted. 

I'm not a professional quilter by any means. I get by and call my quilting style "organic" because it's not perfect and lines are not straight. I love the human touch that non-perfect quilting adds to my quilts. I used my mid-arm Viking Platinum 16 for quilting my top. The quilting guide lines were marked out ahead of time and the quilting went really fast after that to just follow the diagonal lines as shown below in the quilting diagram.

Quilting diagram

I used my favorite Hobb’s Tuscany Silk batting inside my quilt and love how light and drapey it is—especially for handling and maneuvering when quilting.

The backing on my quilt is from my Everlasting fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics and is called Summer’s Dance. For the binding I used Woodblock Ballerina that was also used for hearts.

Here’s another look at the prints that went into my quilt. My Heart quilt’s stitched from a curated mix of fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics Ballerina Fusion (a recolored mix of AGF designer prints), my Spirited, Everlasting, Signature, and Maureen’s Enchanted Voyage and Mystical Land collections.

My non-traditional Valentine colors remind me of sugared gum drops and candy. I’m crazy over this color palette and went with my heart when I did my fabric pull.

One of the biggest challenges of photographing quilts this time of year is the gloomy, cold weather. I had some grand plans for how to photograph this out doors but the wind didn’t cooperate. It started to rain shortly after we got these shots…

Be sure to check out Maureen’s blog to see her finished quilt top and bonus project from left over HSTs all made using a mix of Amy Sinabaldi’s MayFair and the new Foresta Fusion collection. Quilt kits for Maureen’s quilt are available at Lady Belle Fabric.

Photo and Heart quilt by Maureen Cracknell

Bonus Project

Since I finished my quilt by Sunday I could’ve easily stopped there, written this blog post and moved on to the other projects stacking up on my desk but no—that’s too easy!

Remember in my Instagram Stories videos where I told you to hold onto those large half square triangle (HST) waste pieces???

I turned mine into this fun pillow! As a bonus, I’ll share with you how to make one (or more) for yourself!

The beauty of this type of project is that it can be customized to any size you want. I happened to have an extra rectangular pillow I wasn’t using anywhere in the house so I used it as my pillow form. It measures around 14’’ x 26’’ and is probably not a standard size.

I trimmed 36 HSTs to 3-1/2’’ square using my Bloc_Loc Ruler then arranged them into a design. I would’ve loved if the design was symmetrical but no such luck in this improv piece using scraps. I don’t really notice it now that the pillow is done.

I added 2’’-wide strips to the top and bottom to get it all up to the size I needed.

I’ve done a few projects on this blog where I’ve incorporated Chenille-it Blooming Bias and I can’t tell you enough how much I love this added texture—especially to pillows!

After stitching quilting lines to outline the chevron shapes 1/4’’ inside the seam allowances I added the 3/8 inch-wide Chenille-it to my pillow top. Stitching the blooming bias down not only adheres the product but also works as quilting.

I added two echo rows of chenille to the background areas. To read about how to stitch and then bloom the chenille, read more on my Chenille Pillow with Hidden Zipper post/tutorial. Plus, to see the gorgeous decorator pillows I made more recently with my Spirited Trail Marker print and Chenille-it, read HERE.

For more Chenille-it projects, here’s a fun You Tube video!

Personally I love a zipper closure on a pillow. Especially in a case like this where I’m using an existing pillow as the pillow form and like to switch out or clean the pillow covers regularly. You’ll find my go-to method for adding a hidden zipper on a pillow HERE. It’s insanely easy to do!

Now, not only do I have a heart quilt to snuggle under this Valentine’s Day but I have a coordinating pillow to go along with it!

Maureen and I want to thank you for sewing along with us and sharing your progress of your blocks to Instagram. We love seeing your work and encourage you to follow along, share, and tag when you post. Use the sew along hashtag of #agfLOVEquilt and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns @maureencracknell and @cluckclucksew so we can see your progress! If you’re sewing with Art Gallery Fabrics don’t forget to tag them too as they love to see what Makers are making with @artgalleryfabrics !

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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.