As soon as fall arrives, I naturally start thinking about the upcoming holidays and what I will be making for handmade gifts. If you’re also planning your make list — or you find yourself each year wishing you’d started earlier on your holiday sewing — the annual Gifting Handmade Maker’s Showcase may be just the nudge you need to get going.
THE MAKERS
I’m so honored to host such a talented group of makers in this special Thank You tribute to the kind, generous, and skillful ladies who test for me throughout the year. This is my opportunity to showcase and celebrate each of them as artists—not simply as testers. For the Gifting Handmade Maker’s Showcase, the parameters asked that my testers use any of my fabrics current, still in print Art Gallery Fabrics collections and create whatever they wished—anything they felt would make a wonderful gift for friends, family, the home, or a keepsake for themselves. The event also invites you to explore new patterns and techniques, serving as our gift and source of inspiration for you, our followers.
Past Years
This year marks my 5th year hosting the Gifting Handmade Maker’s Showcase, so the number of beautiful gift ideas that have come out of this event over the years has really grown and still remains a wonderful resource. If you’d like to look back on past projects and inspiration, here’s a list of all the weekly recap posts for the previous 4 years:
2022 Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 1 Recap
2022 Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 2 Recap
2023 Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 1 Recap
2023 Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 2 Recap
2024 Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 1 Recap
2024 Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 2 Recap
2024 Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 3 Recap
2025 Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 1 Recap
2025 Gifting Handmade Showcase Week 2 Recap
Our Sponsors
I want to give a big shout out to this year’s sponsors, Ash & Elm Quiltery and Prym Americas, for generously supplying the Gifting Handmade event with wonderful prizes that are exactly what you need to help you move your sewing projects forward. We kicked off this year’s Gifting Handmade on October 9th on my Instagram feed with a 16-piece fat quarter bundle giveaway of my new Charming One collection for Art Gallery Fabrics, kindly provided by Ash & Elm Quiltery. The finale giveaway will also take place on Instagram and features a useful notions bundle from Prym alongside a 12-piece fat quarter bundle personally curated and donated by me.
The Inspiration
It’s been an inspirational first week of Gifting Handmade projects! If you’ve been following along each day on Instagram you’ve already seen images and learned the details of the projects posted so far. This blog post will give even more details about the maker and their gifting idea, project links, and fabric selection.
DAY 1
Amanda Bagin
DAY 1 Began with Amanda Bagin of @quiltsbycritter on Instagram and Art by Critter on Substack and also for her Etsy shop, debuted her new pattern and tutorial to make beautiful Checkin’ It Twice stockings.
Amanda created the Checkin’ It Twice stocking, which is darling and refreshingly modern. She blended ombre shades of Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids — White Linen, Macadamia, Cinnamon, and Balsam Fir — with coordinating prints from my Spruce collection to achieve a warm, contemporary holiday look.
Amanda’s step by step tutorial for her Checking It Twice stocking is free and she takes you from start to finish to make the perfect stocking for filling with even more gifts!
DAY 2
MALLORY SMITH
On DAY 2 Mallory Smith of Fieldstone Fabric made us all stop our scroll and stop to look at her beautiful Let It Shine quilt made in my Charming One collection.
This beautiful Let It Shine quilt is available as a pattern (PDF and printed) to make your own version and also as a kit in Mallory’s shop in this Charming One version.
Mallory’s block design is especially interesting and clever because the careful fabric placement gives the impression of multiple block designs occurring across the quilt, yet it’s simply an optical trick. That visual play creates depth and movement, resulting in a lively, surprisingly complex quilt that feels fresh and exciting. You can learn more about Mallory on Instagram @fieldstone.fabric or on her blog and shop her wonderful selection of fabrics in her Shop!
DAY 3
Melissa David
On DAY 3 of the Gifting Handmade Maker’s Showcase, Melissa David of @quiltingabovetheclouds on Instagram out did herself by making 2 Pascal Carrying Cases (pattern by Center Street Quilts).
The Pascal Carrying Case pattern includes both a large and a small case option. Melissa made the small-sized version with a creative twist. Rather than beginning with a single piece of fabric for the exterior as the pattern suggests, she opted to use a Charming One precut Wonders Strip Roll, precut Jelly Roll batting, and the Gypsy Quilter Jelly Roll Tube Maker tool to construct and quilt a rug-weight panel that now serves as both the exterior and interior of the case. Once her panel was made, Melissa then proceeded to follow the instructions to assemble the case.
Everyone on your gift list would find a case like this useful — it's a practical, stylish solution for keeping essentials organized. Use it to safely store devices, sewing-on-the-go tools, journaling supplies, art materials, and more.
DAY 4
Victoria Newmyer
For DAY 3 of the Gifting Handmade Maker’s Showcase, Victoria Newmyer of @midlife_quilter on Instagram charmed us with her beautiful and practical Every Day Reversible Apron pattern.
Victoria’s one-size-fits-most, beginner-friendly pattern uses straightforward techniques to create a sturdy, all-purpose apron that’s practical and attractive. You can sew an apron for every holiday and enjoy two looks in one, since the design is fully reversible for added versatility.
The charming Every Day Reversible Apron Victoria, created for Gifting Handmade, features prints from my Spruce collection for Art Gallery Fabrics and includes a coordinating ribbon loop from my Spruce collection for Renaissance Ribbons to hold a towel. The design pairs practical functionality with sweet, holiday fabric motifs, making it a lovely and useful gift-ready piece.
DAY 5
JOYCE ULM
For DAY 5 of the Gifting Handmade Maker’s Showcase, Joyce Ulm made us all want to go through our scrap basket and make the free Winona Makeup Bag from Art Gallery Fabrics! Joyce is the owner of Eva Maes Custom Quilts and sells handmade items as well as long arms quilts custom orders. You can also find Joyce on Instagram, @evamaescustomquilts.
Joyce used prints from my Charming One collection for Art Gallery Fabrics to make her makeup bag and coordinating makeup remover pads. This delightful pouch is versatile and practical, ideal for everyday use, travel, or organizing small essentials. It would make a thoughtful gift — especially sweet when filled with pampering extras.
Don’t let the hexagon shapes on the pouch intimidate you—this gorgeous zip bag has no Y-seams to sew, and it’s actually much simpler to construct than it appears.
DAY 6
Danae West
For DAY 6 of the Gifting Handmade Maker’s Showcase, Danae West of Olive and Elle Quilt Co. debuted her beautiful new quilt pattern, Cora Belle. Get the Cora Belle pattern on Danae’s website.
Danae used prints from my Charming One collection for Art Gallery Fabrics along with a print from my Fanciful collection. Paula Sheen from @pj.quilts did the gorgeous long arm quilting on this quilt.
You can purchase the pattern and this elegant 57” x 75” throw quilt in Charming One fabrics as a convenient kit from Danae’s Olive and Elle Quilt Co. shop.
DAY 7
Sharon Holland
On DAY 7 of the Gifting Handmade Maker’s Showcase, I finally had the chance to show off the Spruce Patchwork Hearts throw quilt I’d made back in August for this special gift-giving event.
This throw quilt was long arm quilted by Joyce Ulm of Eva Mae’s Custom Quilts. The batting inside is Hobbs Batting Tuscany Cotton Wool batting.
My Patchwork Hearts pattern was released at the beginning of September, and you can purchase the PDF pattern in my Shop — or maybe you already bought the pattern and just need a little nudge to finish this fast, easy quilt in time for the holidays. Consider this your gentle push: Ash & Elm Quiltery (in the US) and Bundled Fabric (in CA) both have kits available for the Patchwork Hearts throw quilt. I backed my quilt with the Crossed Threads flannel from the Spruce collection.
For my Patchwork Hearts throw, I wanted to create a quilt that didn’t shout Christmas but instead felt quietly festive and cozy throughout the whole winter season. I used Art Gallery Fabrics linen blend for the background, which brings a warm, homespun texture and coordinates beautifully with the earthy tones of the Spruce prints. Note that the AGF linen is wider than standard quilting cotton, so if using linen, like I did, you’ll have some leftover linen fabric when cutting out the quilt.
Thank you for following along here, on the blog, and on Instagram during the first week of the 2026 Gifting Handmade Maker’s Showcase. If you enjoyed what you saw and feel inspired to start sewing handmade gifts for your friends and family, keep following next week — there are six more Makers sharing inspiring projects and a grand finale giveaway still to come. Remember, this year’s giveaways are being hosted on my Instagram page @sharonhollanddesigns, so you’ll need to be on IG to enter.
