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

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

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Hourglass Quilted Pillows

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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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.

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.

Apples to Apples

Can you guess what’s the theme is for this blog post? Yup, apples and I have two super fun (and scrappy) apple-themed projects for you to make.

Aurifil 2018 Designer Block of the Month block by Sharon Holland

Apple Season Coasters

It’s always nice to have some quick, small projects that use up scraps and yet are still useful! I had designed these apple mug rugs several years back as a project for my magazines I worked on. The neat thing is I had originally made them with Art Gallery Fabrics and I am again—only this time with my Signature prints and Maureen Cracknell’s newest collection called Autumn Vibes!

Download the free PDF pattern for making these easy coasters. It’s the perfect time of year to have extra mug rugs on hand for family gatherings and cozy relaxation with your favorite hot drink.

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If you’re like me you have lots of beautiful fabric scraps as well as left over pieces of batting. I couldn’t stop at just making a set a four Signature Apple Season coasters, I had to make a few more.

Later this week I’ll be sharing a beginner-friendly quilt project made from Maureen’s new Art Gallery Fabrics collection called Autumn Vibes. The beautiful fall colors and motifs really speak to me. I had some scraps left over from the quilt and made an additional four coasters.

Wouldn’t these make the cutest hostess gifts? I can just picture them tucked into a basket with mugs, tea or hot cocoa, and don’t forget some cookies or apple butter!

Aurifil 2018 Designer Block of the Month

Last fall I was asked by Pat Sloan to be part of this year’s Aurifil Designer of the Month sampler sew along—how exciting, huh?!!! This year’s theme is “The Places We Go” and the 12 designers are to make a block inspired by favorite places.

I decided to use New York City, NY as my muse and what better way to show this iconic city than with a Big Apple!

For the free PDF download on how to make this block along with my interview with Pat Sloan and a further look at this block and my inspiration, visit the Auribuzz blog post about my September block-of-the-month.

You can jump in at anytime to make this travel-inspired quilt and get to know all the fabulous designers behind the blocks, read about their inspiration, and meet new quilty friends as you share and post your blocks. As host, Pat also has loads of awesome prizes and tips, too!

I used a variety of Art Gallery Fabrics prints and Pure Elements solids in my block. The color theme for this year’s Aurifil quilt is black and white plus one color of choice. There’s so many amazing black and white graphic prints from AGF that narrowing it down was the hardest part! I kept the apple a bit simpler and used solids except for the Mudcloth Bachelorette print that made me think of apple seeds. Of course, Aurifil thread was used and I had some luscious colors to choose from.

Here’s a look at my small and large Aurifil Color Story box sets of curated threads to go with my Art Gallery Fabrics fabric collections. Look for them wherever Aurifil threads are sold.

Happy fall everyone!