Art Gallery Fabrics - The Creative Blog

Everyone cherishes their “me” time! That time of day where we can focus on something we enjoy, whether it’s sewing or reading our favorite novel. Now with Sharon Holland’s new fabric collection, Bookish you can cherish both moments at the same time! This collection encapsulates the delightful moments of drinking a hot cup of tea, reading a good book, and curling up in a cozy quilt. Bookish tells a tale of classic romance and modern whimsy in dusty-colored book covers of rose, burgundy, teal, peach, and gold.

I always have the pleasure of talking to our designers before their lookbook comes out, and I loved hearing what Sharon had to say about Bookish. In this interview, she mentions how interesting it would be to create a fabric collection that blurs the line between her passion for sewing and reading. Just like an author crafts a blank page into an enriching story as a needle and thread transforms fabric.

With 16 quilting cotton prints available, this collection is perfectly balanced with blenders, medium-sized prints, and large-scale designs that harmoniously work together in your patchwork projects. Enjoy making statement pieces with the large floral print called “Romance Novel” that I can see being used in the backing of your quilts. Or get real patchy with prints like “Passport” and “Camomile Bliss Prose” that you can fussy cut each individual design! 

*Knit print in Readers Story

*Rayon print in Romance Novel Picaresque

Use the available knit print for all-year-round makes, and with its four-way stretch, this fabric calls for the most comfortable apparel. You can also create dresses, skirts, and scarves with this eye-catching rayon, its deep burgundy, and warm tones make it perfect to transition into the fall. 

If you’re looking to accentuate these colors, check out these matching AGF Elements:

Decostitch Elements: Cafe Latte & Peach Whisper 

Floral Elements: Mocha, Bubble Gum, and Aquarium.

PURE Solids: Coffee Bean, Zambia Stone, Sweet Macadamia, Blossomed, Miami Sunset, Terracotta Tile, and Gingerbread. 

DOWNLOAD PATTERN

With just some simple half-square triangles, measuring twice, and cutting once, our “Heartfelt” free quilt pattern will be the one you gravitate toward when you reach out to read your favorite novel! 

Flip through the pages of our Bookish Fabric Lookbook where you’ll find projects you can recreate like an on-the-go reading pillow, sweet quilts, and even apparel!

Check out our “Let’s Talk Fabric” YouTube segment where you’ll get to see “Bookish” true colors, scale, and behind the scenes of the making of the lookbook! You’ll be inspired by how these fabrics can be transformed into patchwork projects that will spark that sew-jo. Watch a story unfold by watching the full video below and stay tuned till the end of the video for a GIVEAWAY to win a fat quarter bundle. The giveaway ends next week and all the rules will be in the description box. Good luck!

*Please reply within 7 days to claim your prize (check your email on August 30th!) If we don’t receive a reply, we will have to choose another winner as we’d like to be fair with all participants, and pass the opportunity to another contestant. Thank you! 

Sharon, as you all know is a talented designer, but she is also a very talented quilter! I highly recommend checking out her Instagram page because it’s always filled with tons of projects made by her and other makers that are truly inspiring. You can also check out the hashtag #AGFBookish for more projects, and we encourage you to share your own too! We love seeing them and sharing the love. Thank you all for joining me on this special release, and let me know in the comments below what featured projects in the lookbook are your favorite!

Until next time,

  -Jannelle

One of my favorite things to do at the beginning of every month is looking at all the exciting things that are happening and being released on our calendar! Discovering significant days that are dedicated to your loved ones, a unique cause, and this time around I there was something extra special happening… The whole month of September is National Sewing Month! 

At Art Gallery Fabrics, we dedicate our craft to those makers that transform our fabrics into something even more beautiful! This is a month that celebrates all you creatives out there and this is our chance to say thank you and to give you something more to show our appreciation. 

Our team would like to introduce to you all, MAKERS’ CALL! 

To celebrate National Sewing Month, we want to invite you on a creative journey with us, where you call the shots through the entire design process. Every week for the rest of the month of September, we will be showing you a series of things to choose from until the final project is made. This event will start by choosing your favorite quilt block, then choosing what project will be made with that quilt block, till the very end where you can download the free pattern you voted for! 

Starting today, we need YOU to choose your favorite original AGF block! We will be asking all over social media for everyone to vote for their block of choice and we will tally up the votes and announce the winning block next week on Wednesday, 9/15/2021.

If you have a platform everywhere, we encourage you to vote on all of them to make sure your favorite block gets chosen! Choose between Block A, B, or C. 

VOTE ON INSTAGRAM

VOTE ON FACEBOOK

VOTE ON TWITTER

VOTE ON YOUTUBE 

Mark your calendars for September 20th for part 2 of this series! Where we get to show you some project options you can create with the winning block, and where you get to vote again for the final project. 

Don’t want to miss the next post? Just follow the hashtag #AGFNationalSewingMonth where will be posting all the updates. We are looking forward to seeing all your votes, and we will meet again very soon!

-Jannelle

Shannon used Art Gallery Fabrics PURE Solids in Light Citron, Lemonade, Dark Citron, Raspberry Rose, and Plum Preserve for her #30DaysofImprovQAL quilt. Image courtesy of Shannon Fraser Designs.

Hi there, Shannon @shannonfraserdesigns and Amanda @broadclothstudio here! We’re taking over the Art Gallery Fabrics blog today to talk to you about improv quilting.

One of our favorite things about improv is its freewheeling nature: it's just such a fabulous way to jumpstart your creativity! But with that freedom, some folks get overwhelmed and don’t know where or how to start (ourselves included sometimes!). With this in mind, we created our #30DaysOfImprovQAL to serve as a creative “recharge”, tackling different shapes, different approaches, and different concepts in small daily “bite-sized” prompts throughout the month of August.

Over the 30 days, we had such a blast seeing everyone’s creativity come to life as they tried new techniques and took sewing risks. We also got lots of questions, ran into lots of assumptions, and came into contact with some verrrry interesting theories about improv. So today, we’re going to take a moment to look at these improv “myths”...and debunk them!

1. You’re good at improv or...you’re not.

This idea that you’re “born” to be good at improv or you just don’t have it in you is one of the biggest myths we encountered and it couldn’t be further from the truth! Improv is a skill and a technique. And just like lining up your seams perfectly, mastering applique, or learning free motion quilting, it takes practice. In our own practice, we’ve found that improv can be extra hard because it goes against so many of the sewing skills we’ve learned over the years!

Our advice: be patient with yourself and give yourself the time to unlearn and relearn and learn.

2. Improv is overwhelming.

It can be...but it doesn’t have to be! For some folks when the sky is the limit, their creativity doesn’t know what to try next, but when the parameters are super narrow, their creativity shines. It can be fun to puzzle out how you’re going to work with a limited color palette, figure out how you’re going to zoom in on a shape, challenge yourself to sew a block that’s a certain size or see how wild you can make one shape be through slicing and dicing.

Our advice: if you’re feeling overwhelmed, try giving yourself a very specific task, shape, or idea to explore before throwing in the towel.

3. Improv is anarchy.

Another “it doesn’t have to be!” Just because you’re sewing off-pattern doesn’t mean you have to live on the wild side and throw all design principles out the window. We love to use improv to shake things up, to challenge our preconceived notions about how things “should” be. But at the same time, we take lots of breaks to step back and really look at what we’re making, identify the overarching themes and decide how intentional (or not!) we want to be about the final composition.

Our advice: don’t forget that you are writing this rule book and you get to decide what and how the journey unfolds!

4. There’s a Ton of Fabric Waste in Improv.

Sure, you might trim down lots of funky seam allowances and end up with some odd shaped scraps as you go. But think about the possibilities of those scraps: it’s so easy (and fun!) to do a little crumb quilting and give those scraps a second life within your work.

Our advice: when you’re starting to get horrified about the size of your scrap bin, take a moment to sort through them and challenge yourself to put as many as you can back into use.

5. Improv has to be wonky and wacky.

If you want to use a ruler, use a ruler. Or pins. Or mark your seam allowances. Or whatever else makes it fun for you to sew. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. For us, improv is not only a skill but is also a mindset. Improv doesn’t have to have X number of wonky triangles, Y number of mismatched seams or Z number of freehand-cut strips to count as improv. Improv is about the intent, about exploring and experimenting.

Our advice: if a ruler helps you do that, and perfectly pieced HSTs helps you find your creative “flow”, then who’s to say that’s wrong?

Amanda used Art Gallery Fabrics PURE Solids in Vanilla Custard, Garden Fern, Tigerlily, Turmeric, and Apricot Crepe for her #30DaysofImprovQAL quilt. Image courtesy of Broadcloth Studio

At the end of the day, we both love to use improv for providing us with the time and space to try new things, to hit “reset” on our assumptions, and to challenge our instincts. If you’re looking to dive in, here our are best improv quilting tips:

1. Remember that improv is a skill that you can practice to become more comfortable at.
2. Think of improv as YOUR time to play, to try new things, and to explore: it can be as planned or as unplanned as you want.
3. Break things down into bite-sized chunks: play, try, and explore just one shape or a monochrome fabric pull!
4. Save your scraps and sort through them regularly to see what you can use (even if it means sewing a bunch together to create “new” fabric to play with).
5. Kick your expectations to the curb: be mindful of what makes you feel free to play, to be creative. If that’s a ruler, then use your ruler!

And if you’re looking for inspiration or a place to start, make sure to check out all the amazing makes from across the quilting community in the #30DaysofImprovQAL hashtag.

Good luck on your improv journey!

Shannon & Amanda

Shannon used Art Gallery Fabrics PURE Solids in Light Citron, Lemonade, Dark Citron, Raspberry Rose, and Plum Preserve for her #30DaysofImprovQAL quilt. Image courtesy of Shannon Fraser Designs.

 

 

 

 

 

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