Kindred Look Book

Get ready for some summer sewing fun with my new Kindred fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics! Explore the Kindred Look Book for sewing inspiration…

I’m a little behind at getting out my blog post announcement for the Kindred Look Book because we moved three weeks ago. There’s been no normal schedule around here and we’re still unpacking but little by little we’ll find that new groove and I’ll be back to sewing and designing. Just getting this blog post out is feeling like I’ve turned a corner and am more organized!

My Look Book Projects

In April, I released my newest Rickrack pattern and the free Twofold Reversible Placemats & Napkins using fabrics from the Kindred collection. You’ll find both those projects in the Kindred Look Book and can read more about them in the two previous blog post, HERE and HERE.

Lady Belle Fabric has restocked quilt kits for my Rickrack cover quilt in Kismet to make it easy for you to get this same look!

Pillows

You may have figured out that I love pillows not only for decorating but pillows are a great way to test out quilt blocks, use up scraps, and add a bit of texture like with Chenille-It Blooming Bias.

With the exception of the Rickrack pillow, I’ve added Chenille-It embellishing on my simple pillow projects to add texture and additional interest. The Hourglass patchwork pillow is a free pattern on Maureen Cracknell’s blog and I added Chenille-It to the edges in place of binding. Find the pattern HERE and learn how to add Blooming Bias binding to a quilt HERE which is the same method I used on my pillow.

The other pillows I stitched for the Kindred Look Book simply use a fabric base (whole cloth) a 1/2" on all sides larger than the desired finished size. I layered the pillow top fabric with batting and a muslin backing and added one to two layers of Chenille-It during the quilting. Read how to add chenille to a pillow top and how to finish your pillow with a Hidden Zipper closure, HERE.

This was the method I used for the lumbar pillow in the Deep Roots (striped) print, the canvas Ikate Diamond print (above), and the flannel Tight Knit print with tassels (below).

Handy Baskets

The Handy Baskets pattern is another satisfying make because it’s fast, useful, and a free pattern on this blog! I use cork fabric inside these baskets to keep them standing up straight and it also makes them wipeable on the inside.

The Handy Baskets are fully reversible and a cute way to store items or catch threads at your sewing machine. I’ll have an Amazon Associates link for the cork I used in these bags. It’s a much thinner cork than the lovely, thicker and better quality stuff you get at Sallie Tomato. I found the thin cork easier to work with on this project and it still kept the sides from flopping and looks nice.

Bucket Bag

I’d made and photographed my Kindred Look Book projects right before my move and loved how fast these projects were during that very busy time. Fast can still equal fabulous and my free Bucket Bag project proves that!

Made from simple strip patchwork, the panels can be machine or hand quilted like I did prior to assembling your bag. There’s no complicated bag construction here so this is a great beginner bag!

Big eyelet grommets create a drawstring closure and the slouchy, casual boho-vibe is the perfect summer tote for the beach, day tripping, or shopping.

For even more sewing ideas and beautiful projects, check out the rest of the Kindred Look Book! Be following me on Instagram @sharonhollanddesigns as I set up my new sewing room and there’s going to be a very exciting giveaway coming in June, you’ll not was to miss as I collaborate with Arrow Sewing!

Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 2

Week 2 of my Crafting Handmade Showcase on Instagram has just wrapped up for this year but you’ll get the full recap exclusively here on my blog! In case you missed last week, every day since the beginning of December, I featured a gift idea made by one of my amazing pattern testers on a post on my instagram account @sharonhollanddesigns. Each project features various fabrics from my collections with Art Gallery Fabrics. You can read the Week 1 Recap blog post from last week if you need to catch up or keep reading for the Week 2 Recap.

Let’s review what happened this week…

GIFTING HANDMADE MAKERS

Day 8

Starting out this week is Joyce Ulm from @evamaecustomquilts with these beautiful Peek A Boo Beauty Bags! You can find the pattern for these bags from More Me Know.

Joyce used fabrics from my Shine On and Listen to Your Heart collections. She also added some amazing texture with that cork detailing on the side!

Joyce is an amazing sewer, and long arm quilter! She constantly comes up with the prettiest fabric combinations and her talent always blows me away. You can find these bags and more on her Etsy shop!

DAY 9

Day 9 of the showcase featured Victoria Newmyer from @midlife_quilter beautiful quilt! This is the Retro Garden Quilt Pattern by Rose Petal Quilt Shop, an intermediate level pattern but don’t let curves intimidate you—they’re much easier than you think. Victoria always has great tutorials and projects to share on her instagram feed and blog, be sure to check them out!

Victoria used three prints to create this stunning top, Delicate Balance Six for the background, and Flueron Six with Bright Star Six for the flowers!

Wouldn’t this make the prettiest quilt to display in your home all year long! Or possibly a pillow made with one of the blocks?! It would make the sweetest gift! 

DAY 10

Day 10 kicks off with Brittany Tunison from @brittanytunison and this incredible tote bag! This pattern is the Mod Fresh Granny Tote from Fancy That Design House. I am constantly amazed with Brittany’s eye for colors and fabric combinations which she brings into her own work as a talented pattern designer! Check out her patterns at White Plains Quilts.

Brittany used fabrics from my Willow and Bookish Collections with Delicate Balance Serenity Fusion as the background.

To attach the leather straps to the tote, Brittany used brushed brass Chicago screws for the perfect finishing touch. Wouldn’t this be the sweetest gift to receive? It would be the gift that just keeps giving all year round!

DAY 11

Are you ready to be wowed?!? Marija Vujcic from @maraquiltdesigns brings us this incredible table runner with 3D flowers for Day 11 of my Gifting Handmade Showcase! Marija is always coming up with the most unique and fun patterns and tutorials. You can find the Flower Basket Table Runner tutorial on her website here, and while you are there be sure to check out the rest of her designs!!

Marija used a mix of fabrics from my Listen to Your Heart collection, as well as some prints from my new Fanciful collection.

These flowers make a great hand sewing project for a night filled with hot chocolate and your favorite Holiday movie. You could add them to any sort of project! 

Isn’t the end result so beautiful?! It really takes the flowers from my print and amplifies them in 3D form! I couldn’t love this more!

DAY 12

Day 12 of the showcase shows off this lovely pillow made by Mary Gove of @thecurlyquilter! Mary took a block from the Lottie Quilt pattern by Penelope Handmade and made it into a pillow. Isn’t that such a good idea?! Be sure to give Mary’s Instagram a follow for some serious quilty inspo! 

Mary used prints from my Bookish, Willow, and Listen to your Heart collections, and Delicate Balance six in flannel as the backing. This palette brings such a feeling of calm and serenity, and would make the perfect addition to any room!

You could gift this pillow to someone special, or make it for yourself to add to your holiday decor. Either way, you can’t go wrong!  Mary said this about her pillow:

“My go-to gift lately has been pillows. It’s such a fun way to add texture and beauty to any space, plus anything that is a quick make and has a big impact, is a win in my book.”

I couldn’t agree more!

DAY 13

I am excited to be back again for Day 13 of the showcase! These Market Bags are incredibly fast to make and I put that to the test when I realized I didn’t have a project to fill in the day’s spot! I got to work and whipped these up in no time. I also now have a video tutorial for making the Market Bag that’ll help you better visualize the folding and sewing! I used my recently updated free PDF Market Bag pattern with improved instructions and new illustrations. You can download a copy from my Free Projects page.

For these bags I used prints from my Listen to Your Heart and Willow collections. I also used sherpa fleece for the handle of the Tiny Dancer print, and leather for the Timeless Ticking Stripe print—the mix of materials add such a festive touch!

These also make great reusable gift bags—it’d be like giving two gifts in one! The roomy bag holds a lot and then folds up small when not in use.

DAY 14

Tracey Taber-Perry from @ttabes80 also made an encore make for week 2 and wowed us all again with these incredible handmade beauty set items on Day 14. Tracey’s gift set collection is perfect for traveling or use in the home and would be an amazing gift.

Tracey used fabrics from my Kismet collection as well as a cotton canvas and flannel from my Listen to Your Heart collection.

The Flat Iron - Curling Iron Travel Case was made using this pattern from Sew 4 Home. Tracey lined it with insul-fleece so you can store your hot iron in it right away! It also has a pocket on the other side to put the cord in and keep it separated from the iron.

The free Curve Top Makeup Bag pattern is from Sew Very Crafty and Tracey said it took her less than an hour to make! They are the perfect size bags for your makeup and toiletries!

The mesh bag above is actually a lingerie bag that Tracey turned into a reusable makeup remover pad bag—clever idea! You can find the free pattern by So Sew Easy HERE. For the reuseable makeup pads, Tracey said she used 3 layers of AGF flannel and serged the edges. Talk about a quick and easy gift! The pattern for those DIY Reusable Cotton Rounds can be found at Hello Sewing—I definitely need to make all of these for myself!

DAY 15

Day 15 and the final day of my Gifting Handmade Showcase. The last inspiring project was made by Leah Bruski from @lapinsta and features my Phoenix Quilt Pattern you can find in my SHOP. Leah is a very gifted quilter and is a constant inspiration to our group!

Leah used fabrics from my Listen to Your Heart and Fanciful collections. I think they make such a great holiday palette but also a palette that works all year round!

The Phoenix quilt pattern is for an over-sized throw quilt but I also love these blocks for stand alone projects like pillows or bags!

Leah did an amazing job with this quilt, and I am so blown away by her fabric and color placement! I can’t wait to see how she decides to quilt this! 

Big Thanks to My Tester Group!

I hope you enjoyed the last two weeks of my Gifting Handmade Showcase and seeing each makers projects! I’ve loved seeing all the wonderful handmade gifts my testers came up with and anticipate all the joy these items will bring to the recipients this holiday season!

Gifting Handmade Week 2 Giveaway

With all those projects to inspire and Christmas just around the corner there needs to be a fabric bundle giveaway, right??!! I think so too! So, just like last week, one lucky winner will get a bundle of my fabrics I’ve curated.

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED

Congratulations to Jeifner!

I’ve pulled together the 12 quilting cotton prints from my new AGF Fanciful blender collection and added 6 coordinating hero prints from some of your favorite Sharon Holland collections to make an 18-piece fat quarter bundle.

That’s 4-1/2 yards total of fabric to dream and create with!

The giveaway is exclusive to this blog post, so make sure to read below for how to enter by commenting on the blog post (replying to the newsletter email does not enter you into the giveaway). Also, please note this giveaway is eligible to US address only—no international shipping, sorry.

Giveaway Now Closed

Congratulations to Jeifner!

*Note: This giveaway is open to US addresses only, sorry no international shipping. If you're a "no reply" or anonymous commenter, please remember to include your email address in your comment--you can't win if I can't contact you!

1. Simply leave a comment here under this post! (Counts as entry number (1) one.)

2. Leave a comment and let me know what’s been your favorite project or projects so for in the Gifting Handmade Showcase. (This comment counts as entry number (2) two). 

3. Be following me (Sharon) on Instagram @sharonhollanddesigns and/or be signed up for my blog post newsletters (counts as number (3) three entry) when you let me know in a comment.

That’s THREE possible entries and up to three chances to win! Enter now through Monday, December 19, 2022. I’ll be drawing one lucky winner from the comment pool from this post. The winning comment will be picked at random around 4 pm Eastern. I’ll post the name of the winner on this post once they've been notified and responded to my email.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and happiest of New Years!

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.

Listen to Your Heart Look Book

It’s been a bit since I’ve made a blog post! I’ve been so busy because we’re building a house right now and there’s so much that needs my attention on that front but I’ll make it all up now with a look at the projects I stitched for my Art Gallery Fabrics Listen to Your Heart collection, news about my first-ever blender collection for AGF called Fanciful, and an announcement about the Gifting Handmade event I’m hosting on Instagram starting December 1st!

Listen to Your Heart is a very special fabric collection from Art Gallery Fabrics because it’s part of the Season of Tribute series from AGF where the major fabric designers have a 12-piece quilting cotton collection of their most iconic and best loved prints that are recolored and grouped into this new fabric collection. There are also other substrates that coordinate with the collection and my group also includes a Tiny Dancer Home Decor canvas and three flannels.

Showing off Sharon Holland’s talent of effortlessly mixing the vintage with the modern, this group encapsulates her range of styles from whimsy romantic prints to courageous color palettes.

Sweet Home Quilt

The very first project I thought to make when planning my Look Book contributions was to make a Sweet Home quilt. I’ve hosted and co-hosted a couple sew alongs for this quilt pattern that can be purchased from my SHOP and this is my sixth Sweet Home quilt I’ve made—needless to say, it’s one of my favorites!

I love how the Listen to Your Heart collection looks great year round but if paired right, can become a cheery Christmas palette. The Delicate Balance background print is the perfectly playful background to the houses and because this print in the same coloring comes in flannel, I backed the quilt with Delicate Balance in flannel to match!

Brook Becker at Lady Belle Fabrics has kits available for a Sweet Home quilt just like this one plus the flannel for backing. That fantastic Baptist Fan and Heart quilting was long armed by Brooke at Lady Belle Fabrics so you can one-stop shop your fabric, kit, and long arm quilting needs in one great shop!

Charming One Quilt

Another all-time favorite quilt pattern of mine I love to make is the Charming One (and the Charming Nine) quilt(s). Both are free patterns on this blog. This Listen to Your Heart Charming One was made with 12 fat quarters (12 squares cut from each fat quarter).

This over-sized throw is a great beginner size and easy to quilt yourself. I used Hobbs Batting Tuscany Polyester batting for a very puffy quilt and it’s seen in the above photo on a double bed as a topper quilt for a comfy cottage look.

To get the list of the fabrics used to make this quilt, visit the Listen to Your Heart Look Book page for the Charming One quilt, HERE.

Juniper Basket

I love making quilts but I also like to stretch my sewing skills making small projects. I needed a project basket for my yarn and crochet needles and I wanted to make something using the beautiful Tiny Dancer home dec canvas from the collection. Svetlana Sotak or Sotak Handmade designs the nicest bag patterns so I was sure she’d have just what I was looking for in the Juniper Basket.

The pattern was so easy to follow and comes in two sizes. This is the smaller basket and just the perfect size for yarn, needles, and supplies.

Art Gallery Fabrics canvas is very draped and soft so it can be used for apparel, drapes, bags, home decor, and more! I used the Kantha print from the Listen to Your Heart quilting cotton and some AGF Denim for my project.

Crochet-Edge Flannel Napkins

I’d recently hosted a mini workshop on how to add a crochet edge to napkins or receiving blankets and was on a roll to make a set for the Look Book in Painted Prairie flannel.

The the Look Book flannel napkins I used Crochet yarn and the clamshell stitch around the edge to keep it simple and classic with all the emphasis on the pretty print!

I love photographing table scapes and especially love fall decor. I would love to phase out paper towels and have only cloth napkins—it would make even the simplest meal feel special!

Apple Season Coasters

And for the final project contribution, I made a set of Apple Season coasters from my free pattern. These are fast and fun to make and also make great hostess and teacher gifts. You can even get the kids involved in making them!

I think these would be fun in flannel, too and are addictive to make!

See these projects plus so many wonderful other makes from your favorite makers and sewers in the Listen to Your Heart Look Book produced by Art Gallery Fabrics. Prepared to be inspired!

Fanciful Collection

Here’s a look at my next collection that’s in shops now—it’s called Fanciful and is my first-ever blender collection!

Art Gallery Fabrics has created a new division called Designer Essentials and Fanciful is the first collection as part of that division! The blender print in Fanciful was first seen in my Bookish collection for AGF. The print is called Flights of Fancy.

There are 10 new colors in the Fanciful collection plus the original 2 colorings in Bookish for a total of 12 blenders that coordinate with my fabric collections. So, if you’re a fan of my collections and want to expand your stash with blenders, then this is a must for any Sharon Holland fabric stash!

You’ll get to see this blender collection a lot in upcoming projects…

Gifting Handmade

Starting this Thursday, December 1st will be a special event hosted by me, showcasing my talented team of testers. Gifting Handmade will run for 2 weeks. Each day I’ll be collaborating with a maker and posting about their project on my Instagram account @sharonhollanddesigns. Each maker (including my projects) will be made with fabrics I’ve designed for Art Gallery Fabrics. You’ll see a wide range of collections used and mixed along with looks at the new Fanciful blenders, too!

Top row left to right: Lindsey Fuessley, Christine Trotta, Liza Taylor

Second row left to right: Brittany Tunison, Terri Neil, Victoria Newmyer

Third row left to right: Joyce Ulm, Mary Gove, Tracey Taber-Perry

Last row left to right: Marija Vujcic, Elaine Satterfield, Leah Bruski

There’ll be a weekly recap here on the blog showing highlights from the makers along with links to their projects AND, yup, some fabric giveaways because I want you to have fun sewing with my fabrics, too!

I hope you’ll join us on Instagram on Thursday, December 1st and be inspired to gift handmade this year—there’ll be projects for every skill level and most are quick makes to get done in plenty of time before the holidays.

That Handmade Touch Book Hop

That Handmade Touch Book Hop

That Handmade Touch by Svetlana Sotak

I’ve been following the work of Svetlana Sotak for years now and am in love with her clean, practical, handmade aesthetic. When I heard she had a new book out I was excited to get my hands on a copy and be part of her book blog hop! Follow along on the hop via her Instagram feed at: @sotakhandmade

Soft Storage Bucket from That Handmade Touch by Svetlana Sotak

The book is called That Handmade Touch and is a Lucky Spool publication. It was so hard to pick just one project to make because honestly, I want to sew everything in this book but I needed to leave projects for the other blog hop makers to sew so I decided to sew the Soft Storage Bucket because:

1. It’s so darn cool

2. I can always use more pretty storage baskets

3. I’ve always wanted to work with leather handles and try adding rivets

That Handmade Touch by Svetlana Sotak

Never having added rivets to a project before was the only part of this project that made me nervous. Sewing up the bag was a snap and the instructions and illustrations were easy to follow. I think it took all of a half hour to make the bag and another 4 days to get the nerve to add the rivets!

Turns out, it was really no big deal to use the pre-cut leather and rivets—look for the affiliate product links at end of post. For the fabrics, I used the Sand Bar canvas from my Art Gallery Fabrics Coastline collection on the exterior of the bag and AGF Crosshatched Textured Denim for the lining.

This bag is just the perfect size and there’s so many uses for a bucket bag like this; toys, throw blankets, craft supplies, shopping, and the list goes on. I also like the fun option of rolling the top edge down to reveal the interior print or having it up for a taller bucket bag or easy-carry tote.

Don’t you just love the antique gold rivets with the leather!!!??? The leather adds the perfect accent for the coastal-look of this bag. I plan to make more of these to use as gifts for the upcoming holiday season—their roomy enough to fill with fun items and useful beyond just being the wrapping.