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.

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.

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