Art Gallery Fabrics - The Creative Blog

Hi, Quilters!

My name is Jennifer Tryon from HomeMade, and I’m so happy to be a guest blogger here on Art Gallery Fabrics’ blog!

To introduce myself a bit more, I am the creator behind Homemade! At HomeMade, we are all about creating, learning, and having fun! This is why we have partnered with some of the best brands in the crafting industry to bring you one of kind virtual weekend crafting events.

If you haven’t seen the news on social media, we at HomeMade have partnered up with Art Gallery Fabrics to bring you an amazing quilting retreat that you won’t find anywhere else!

This retreat is our 2021 Virtual Quilting Retreat!

VIRTUAL QUILTING RETREAT:

The Virtual Quilting Retreat is a 6-week quilting event where I will teach you how to make a quilt from start to finish! During the 6 weeks, you will get access to 5 video classes where I will take you through each stage of the quilting process. ​Plus, when you sign up for the Virtual Quilting Retreat, we will send you a box with EVERYTHING that you need to quilt along with us!

Now, I know you may be asking, ‘’Hey Jen, what do you mean by EVERYTHING’’?

When I say EVERYTHING, I mean you will get the following in your box: All piecing fabric, Backing Fabric, Batting, Binding, Thread, Basting Spray, and a few other goodies!

The only things you will need to provide are a sewing machine and some basic sewing supplies (pins, scissors, rotary cutter, cutting mat, etc.) to complete the quilt.

FABRIC:

The best part about any quilt along is the fabric and Art Gallery Fabrics as has provided 3 AMAZING quilt colorway options! Meaning, you get to choose what color quilt you want to make during this event.

The colorway options Art Gallery Fabrics has provided are Holiday, Scrappy, and Classic. Below is a quick breakdown of each colorway and all of the gorgeous fabrics you receive in that kit!

Holiday: The Holiday Quilt is made up of both warm solids and prints from the brand new Cozy & Magical collection! The quilt top is against a soft lightly patterned background, with a festive quilting cotton backing and neutral binding both in cotton.

Scrappy: The Scrappy Quilt comes in a variety of bright vibrant colors against a bright white background, with a cotton backing and binding that will provide a pop of color!

Classic: The Classic Quilt features prints that have a beautiful teal blue background, complemented by vibrant patterns from Art Gallery Fabric's Sunburst collection in shades of lighter blues, pinks, and oranges, with a fresh and playful cotton backing and binding of different patterns!

BEGINNING QUILTERS:

One of the questions we have been asked the most since announcing this event is the following: Is this event good for beginners?

Our answer is YES!

If you are a beginning quilter this event is perfect because we have taken all of the guesswork out of the quilting process and gathered up all the supplies. Plus, besides having access to our video classes, we will also be having LIVE Q&A sessions with Amanda Brown from Janome! This means you can ask all of your questions that either have to do with the quilt we are making or just sewing in general.

SIGN UP TODAY:

If you are ready to break out your sewing machine to make this fun quilt, then click here to register for our 2021 Virtual Quilting Retreat! Also, use the code HOMEMADE30 at checkout to get $30 dollars off your box plus FREE shipping!

I can’t wait to see you during our event (which starts November 1st), and thanks again to Art Gallery Fabrics for allowing me to be a guest on their blog!

Happy Quilting,

Jen

Hi, Makers! 

Spooky season is here! One of my favorite holidays is Halloween because we get to do so many fun projects here at the studio. This time around the marketing team and I were thinking about all the projects we can create this season so we started looking for inspiration at things we’ve done in the past! 

That’s when we came across a super sweet quilt block I sewed for Instagram! Where I pieced some strips of Halloween-inspired colors from our Pure Solids range, applied Decostitch Elements in “Stellar” on top, and reverse appliqued to reveal the fabric strips underneath! If you’d like to learn how to reverse applique, click here and watch our Reels video that I filmed to show you a quick tutorial on how to create it! You can also click here to download the bat stencil. 

We received such great feedback from that post, I knew this was the block I had to dig out of my cubby to see what we can do with it. 

 *Pure Solids featured in Honey, Dried Carrot, Vanilla Custard, and Crystal Pink.

Trying to think of ways to recycle this block while still being an easy project, we thought a trick-or-treat tote would be perfect! This way you have the opportunity to recycle some past projects or UFO quilt blocks to give them a new life. This brings us to today’s post, where I show how to create a tote bag using a previous block! 

What I love about this tutorial is that you can easily adjust the size of the tote according to the size of your block and you also have the chance to use 2 blocks that are the same size in one bag (front and back)! 

Let’s get started!

Take a 12'' square of your choice of fabric for the back of your tote (our block measured 12'') or the same size as your existing quilt block, and quilt it.  

Place the back of the tote and the front right sides facing together and sew all three sides, leaving the top unsewn. Pin in place.

Take two (1) 12’’ fabric squares of the desired color for the lining and sew the three sides leaving the top part unsewn. Make sure to leave about 3’’ of opening on one side in order to turn your tote inside out. 

Insert the lining fabric inside the exterior fabric with right sides together. Line up side seams.

Create your handles first. Then, insert one of the bag handles between the exterior fabric and lining fabric about 3” from the side seams (like a sandwich). Be sure your handles are straight and do not twist.

The raw edges of the bag handles should be placed side by side, approximately 5” apart. 

Pin in place and repeat on the opposite side of the bag.

Using a 1/4” seam allowance, stitch around the top edge of your bag.

Turn your bag right side out and carefully press the top seam.

Push the lining fabric into the bag and press the top edge.

Topstitch around the entire top of the bag using a 1/8” seam.

And ta-da!! You have yourself a cute trick or treat bag for Halloween!!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! It was a fun one for me to create and I can’t wait to give it to my niece so she can use it this Halloween. I definitely want to use the tutorial again for some of the blocks I have laying around that I can transform into an everyday tote for my groceries! You can even get fancy with it and make the tote bigger by adding borders, have fun changing up the hand straps- there are so many ways you can personalize this project. Please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or tips you’d like to share! 

As always, please share your totes if you recycle one of your old blocks on social media by tagging us in your photo with the hashtag #artgalleryfabrics! 

Until next time, happy sewing!

-Jannelle 

Just when you thought it was over…

#AGFNationalSewingMonth is back with a final hurrah! For those of you who missed it, here’s a quick recap! Over the month of September, we celebrated National Sewing Month with a special event called Makers’ Call. This event would take you along the designing process until the very end where you get to download the winning free pattern! 

It was a thrill watching everyone be a part of this event, from choosing your favorite block to the final project. After counting over a thousand votes, the winning project was the TABLE RUNNER and we named it “Midnight Flowers”. We posted all about it in our last blog post where you can find all the fabrics used and the free pattern link! 

We received such great feedback after releasing this pattern but behind the scenes, we actually never told you how close of a race this was. The runner-up project was the Lunch Bag and we couldn’t believe it had lost by only 50 VOTES! After so many comments asking for the lunch bag and knowing it was such a close call, we knew we just had to bring it back as a BONUS! 

Introducing… Our “Midnight Flowers” Lunch Bag Pattern! 

DOWNLOAD NOW

The fun never stops!  Now you can download this pattern too and recreate your own version. Thank you all for being a part of this event and we are already planning something for the next one!  Make sure you tell all your quilty friends, especially if they were rooting for the lunch bag about this exciting news! If you make this pattern please share it with us by posting under the hashtag #artgalleryfabrics, we would love to see it!

Until next time, happy sewing! 

-Jannelle