Everlasting Blog Tour - Week 3 Recap + Giveaway

Everlasting Blog Tour - Week 3 Recap + Giveaway

I wish this blog tour was really everlasting because I’ve loved seeing all the magnificent sewing projects by the blog tour makers! Hasn’t it been incredible!!???!!!

Art Gallery Fabrics released my Everlasting fabric in May and the classic palette of navy, red, turquoise, and blush has stolen my heart in this collection created about love, marriage, and family.

I invited the industries finest to make beautiful things with Everlasting fabrics and blog about their projects. The results have been astonishing and over the past three weeks each day has felt like Christmas morning. I want to give a huge round of applause and my sincerest thanks and gratitude to the following fabulous ladies:

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

Take a look at the Everlasting Blog Tour Week 1 Recap, here and the Everlasting Blog Tour Week 2 Recap, here. To find this collection online, find shop stock lists on my FABRICS page.

Week 3 Recap

Day 11 began our week with Priscilla Geissler of Cotton Stitch Collective. Priscilla doesn’t have a blog but can be found on Instagram and on Etsy. Her ability to transform fabric into useful and beautiful objects is a true talent. I’m still swooning over her Melinda Handbag she made in the Everlasting Bouquet Muse print and cork. The bag pattern is by Sotak Handmade and with left over fabric, Priscilla made a Slimline Wallet by @cpeicheff. Priscillas craft(woman)ship is outstanding—find out more about her work on Instagram and Etsy!

Everlasting projects by Cotton Stitch Collective

Day 12 belonged to my good friend and Art Gallery Fabrics designer-sister, Maureen Cracknell. You know how much I love Maureen and adore her Quilt As You Go, scrappy style of patchwork. Maureen has an amazing eye for mixing prints and getting the perfect boho-chic look. Maureen used all the prints from my Everlasting collection and lined the bag with AGF canvas from her Sun Kissed collection—I love how our collections play so nicely together!

Everlasting Project by Maureen Cracknell

Day 13 and the final day of the Everlasting Blog Tour stopped at Elina Temmes from Finland. Elina can be found on Instagram and she’s a prolific and masterful sewist. When I say prolific, I mean it! Elina made three quilts (all hand quilted) and three pillows for this tour and each one of them are a masterpiece. My four-image recap collage could not possibly show you all the incredible photos of her projects so go to her IG account and see everything for yourself—you’ll be blown away!!!

Everlasting projects by Elina Temmes

Have you been inspired to sew with Everlasting fabrics? —I sure have been!! Between this stunning display of creative projects from the blog tour and the Art Gallery Fabrics Everlasting Look Book you could be sewing with Everlasting fabrics for years just to make everything found in these resources!

Now it’s your turn to make something with my Art Gallery Fabrics Everlasting prints and when you do, be sure to tag me @sharonhollanddesigns on Instagram and use the hashtag #agfeverlasting —so I don’t miss your post.

Week 3 Giveaway

This week’s giveaway and final prize for following along on the tour is a chance to win a 10-piece fat quarter bundle of Everlasting prints from our sponsor the Fat Quarter Shop!

Everlasting fabrics photo courtesy of Fat Quarter Shop

THIS WEEK'S GIVEAWAY SPONSOR IS: THE FAT QUARTER SHOP

The Fat Quarter Shop was founded in 2003 by Kimberly Jolly. An avid quilter, Kimberly began her shop as a side business while still working a corporate position, cutting, packing and shipping right out of her house during evenings and weekends. From the very beginning, she was committed to delivering top-notch service for every single order and customer. As the Fat Quarter Shop's reputation grew, Kimberly decided to make it a full-time operation. Her husband Kevin joined her not long after, and with his help, lots of hard work, and a tireless commitment, the store began to grow. Over the past few years a few more people have joined the staff! As a team, they continue to branch out with the best fabrics, exclusive kits, quilt clubs, BOMs, and more. And they will always be driven by the passion that Kimberly founded the store upon, which is always giving you the best products and service!

SHOP  *  PINTEREST  *  TWITTER  *  BLOG  *  FACEBOOK  *  YOUTUBE 

Giveaway now closed. Congratulations to Sarah Suter!

* Note * This giveaway is open to EVERYONE! 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 get a hold of you!

1. Simply leave a comment here under this post! (First comment entry).

2. Follow Fat Quarter Shop on at least one of their social platforms -see links above. Just let me know that you did by making a separate comment here to record that entry. (Separate comment - second entry). 

3. My followers get a third entry! If you follow via subscribing to my posts, through Bloglovin (or other service), or on Instagram, just let me know by making a separate comment here to record that entry. (Separate comment - third entry). Note: I'm no longer on Facebook.

4. Help spread the word!! I know that many of you already do, so I thought it would be nice to add that as another way to enter! Spread the word about the Everlasting Blog Tour on YOUR instagram, facebook, tweet, pin, blog post, etc... (separate comment - fourth entry). 

That’s four possible entries! Enter now through Monday, August 5. The winner will be picked at random around 4 pm Eastern. I’ll post the name of the winner on this blog post once they've been notified and responded to my email.

Don’t forget you have a second chance to win this same prize by reposting any of the the Everlasting Blog Tour makers projects on Instagram. Simply 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 the IG giveaway drawing 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.

Happy sewing,

Sharon

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!

Tallinn Fabrics Blog Tour

Tallinn Fabrics Blog Tour

Today's my stop on the Jessica Swift Tallinn blog tour! Tallinn is Jessica's first fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics. Now available in shops, Tallinn is inspired by Jessica’s travels through Eastern Europe. Picturesque Estonian villages, graceful swans, & a deep love for combining quirky folk motifs come together in her playful collection. 

I was thrilled when Jessica asked if I wanted to be part of her tour and sew with these beautiful fabrics! Here's the amazing line up of talented designers also posting about their makes.

Thursday April 19 – Mathew Boudreaux | Mister Domestic 
Friday April 20 – Katie Skoog | The Simple Life Company 
Monday April 23 – Sharon Holland
Tuesday April 24 – Eleri | Sew and Tell Project
Wednesday April 25 – Paola Baker | Love of Fabrics
Thursday April 26 – Maureen Cracknell
Friday April 27 – Alexis Wright | My Sweet Sunshine Studio
Monday April 30 – Isabelle Selak | South Bay Bella Studio
Tuesday May 1 – Cassie Massolia | Lily Shine Creates
Wednesday May 2 – Becca Plymale | Sunflower Seams
Thursday May 3 – Alisa Kutsel | A Stitch In Between
Friday May 4 – Sharon McConnell | Color Girl Quilts
Monday May 7 – Karen O’Connor | Lady K Quilt Designs
Tuesday May 8 – Sarai Schuk | Sarai’s Hobbies
Wednesday May 9 – Elise Baek | Elise & Emelie
Thursday May 10 – Jessica Swift
Friday May 11 – Gwyn LaSpina
Monday May 14 – Loni Jakubowski | Havin Sew Much Fun

Kantha-Style Duffle Bag

I knew I wanted to play with texture and enhance the ethnic vibe of these prints with Aurifloss embroidery thread so I decided to make a quilted duffle bag. I want to tell you right up front there's no pattern for this bag. It's something I've designed but there just isn't enough time in the days to do it all so I'm very sorry not to be adding a pattern in with this post. Instead, we will enjoy Jessica's prints and learn more about some of the products used to make this fun bag.

The fabrics used in my bag are: Tigris Indigo, Magija Pumpkin, Baltic Swans Sky, Lore Rooftop, and Odessa Dream.

Simple, varied width strips of fabric were sewn together into panels for the front and back of the bag and I free-form, hand stitched chunky running stitches with 3-ply strands of the 6-ply cotton Aurifloss embroidery thread. 

To keep adding texture and interesting details to my duffle bag I incorporated Dritz Extra-Large Eyelets in this marvelous antique brass finish to the closer-edge of the bag and on the boxed corner tabs. Eyelets are super easy to apply with the kit and a hammer. 

Another Dritz product used in this project is their cording for the drawstring and a little extra bling with a tassel made using Dritz Tassel Cap kit. I loved this natural color of the Dritz Twist Cord that picked up the colors in the Odessa Dream tan floral in Jessica's collection. 

Can you believe I've never made a tassel before with these awesome tassel caps!?!? It's so easy! I used Art Gallery Fabrics solid knit fabric. 

I simply cut a piece of knit and folded it widthwise. Then I took a pair of shears and snipped fringe through the folded layers, leaving the folded edge uncut. 

To make the tassel I followed the directions on the back of the Dritz Tassel Cap package and used Aleene's No-Sew Fabric Glue to roll the knit tassel and attach to the antique brass cap. 

Inside my bag I've used more of the navy Tigris Indigo print along with the fun Baltic Swans Sky print for the pockets.

Plenty of pocket room to tote all your gear on your next vacation get away, quilting workshop, or wherever you wander!

I hope you've enjoyed my stop on the Tallinn blog tour! Be sure to follow along with the other makers and on Instagram by following the hashtags #TallinnFabrics and #TallinnFabricsBlogTour.

Explore the Tallinn Fabrics collection:The Collection | The Lookbook | On Instagram

Bountiful Blog Tour Week 3 Recap

Bountiful Blog Tour Week 3 Recap

The last three weeks have been a virtual feast for the eyes, as 16 highly talented designers blogged about their Bountiful fabrics makes. I love how each Blogger was inspired by the prints in my newest fabric line and the different Art Gallery Fabrics substrates to create amazing and diverse projects for this tour. Revisit week #1 and week #2 to see all the fabulous projects. 

Learn more about my inspiration behind the Bountiful collection in this Art Gallery Fabrics video interview.

And learn more about this week's Makers:

Monday

You all know how much I adore my Sewcial Bee Sampler co-host, Maureen Cracknell! My tour would not be complete without one of Maureen's special makes. Her fearless use of prints and on-trend style is an exciting combination. I am crazy over the tote bag Maureen stitched in her signature herringbone design. Be sure to visit Maureen's blog to see all the details inside and out on this bag!

Photo by Maureen Cracknell

Tuesday

Most of you know Lynn Harris (Little Ren Hen) for her intricate patchwork quilts and author of Every Last Piece but did you know she can also sew garments? Lynn and her granddaughter used the Haymow Stack and Vine Umbra knits from my collection to make to most comfy and gorgeous garments. See all the pieces and read about who made which piece on Lynn's blog. I adore this photobombing chicken in the photo of her grand children in the Haymow Stack print. 

Photo by Lynn Carson Harris

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Anjeanette Klinder showed us her stunning hexagon quilt design. Because of family health emergencies, Anjeanette was not able to have a finished quilt by the time of the blog tour. I highly encourage you to follow her progress on this quilt and her other makes because Anjeanette is an extremely talented designer and exceptionally skilled quilter. See more of her makes on her blog. 

Photo by Anjeanette Klinder

Photo by Anjeanette Klinder

Thursday

I knew when I asked Mathew Boudreaux of Mister Domestic to be part of my blog tour he'd make something extraordinary--even before he knew what that make would be--I knew it would be good! M.D. is always pushing the creative envelop and I love how he incorporated all the latest and greatest quilting tools and techniques to bring us something new. This guy's amazing and you need to find out what he's up to and get the tutorial for this cushion on his blog. The two cushions he made for my tour are spectacular from the Tumbling Block top to the AGF denim handle! A big thanks to his daughter Helena for letting me borrow these pillows for my Bountiful booth at Quilt Market next month. xxx

Photo by Mathew Boudreaux

Friday

Friday was a special day because we had the dynamic duo of Alexis Wright of My Sweet Sunshine Studio and Sue Stone, owner of Needle in a Fabric Stash quilt shop teaming up to blog on our final day of the tour. Each Maker blogged about their project but the two joined forces in photographing their projects, bringing us beautiful in-use photos and settings. You may remember these two pairing up during my Coastline blog tour for the amazing quilt and garments shoot by the ocean. 

Alexis is a garment pattern designer and sewer extraordinaire for Violette Field Threads. She took the Evelyn dress pattern to a higher level by adding Flying Geese to the bodice. For those of you making Sewcial Bee Sampler blocks, this Flying Geese pattern she used is next week's block #13! Too bad the weeks didn't align but Alexis's points sure did! I'm blown away by the creativity of this dress and the levels of meaning it has to myself and my friend Alexis. This is truly thoughtful design at it's best! See more of this remarkable make on Alexis's blog. 

Photo by Alexis Wright

With Earth Day on April 22nd, what better way to use your fabrics and save the world at the same time with Sue Stone's Use, Stash, and Repeat pattern. Sue brought us three re-usable shopping tote bags made from an assortment of prints from my Bountiful fabrics. I want to make all of them! Roomy totes in pretty prints make shopping even more fun. Best of all they fold up small to always have on hand. See these hard working totes in use on Sue's blog and stop (or shop online) at Sue's shop for Bountiful fabrics!

Photo by Sue Stone

In the past, I've always had a fabric bundle giveaway at the end of a blog tour. This Bountiful blog tour will be a little different in that the bundle giveaway will be an Instagram, one day only event, for Cat Callicoat's Autism Awareness drive. On Saturday, April 29th, for 12 hours only, you will have an opportunity to enter your name into a drawing for a fat quarter bundle of all 20 prints from the Bountiful collection. Visit Cat's instagram feed as she helps us to understand more about Autism through her family's struggles and triumphs. Daily prize drawings from your favorite shops and makers help to spread awareness on the month long event. Follow me on Instagram for next Saturday's prompt and how to enter your name into the drawing. 

Be watching Art Gallery Fabrics this week for the Bountiful Lookbook release. AGF Lookbooks are virtual magazines full to the brim with gorgeous photos of sewing inspiration. I can't wait to see how the creative AGF team has put together the Lookbook for this collection. 

It fills my heart to have so many people joyfully creating with my fabrics and I want to give a huge thanks to all the talented designers that made the Bountiful Blog Tour a success.

Heidi Staples - Fabric Mutt

Emily Dennis - Quilty Love

Minki Kim - Minki Kim

Heather Andrus - Quilt Story

Sharon McConnell - Color Girl Quilts

Silvia Sutters - A Stranger View

Elina Temmes - Elina Temmes

Kim Niedzwiecki - Gogo Kim

Katie Skoog - The Simple Life Company

Cindy Wiens - Live a Colorfullife

Maureen Cracknell - Maureen Cracknell Handmade

Lynn Harris - The Little Red Hen

Anjeanette Klinder - Anjeanette K

Mathew Boudreaux - Mister Domestic

Alexis Wright - My Sweet Sunshine Studio

Sue Stone - Needle in a Fabric Stash

I'm also excited for next month when I bring you new quilts and projects for Spring Quilt Market in St. Louis. I've been busy, busy, sewing and quilting. At some point I have to stop thinking of new projects to make and finish all the one's I've started--I'm having so much fun with this collection!