Art Gallery Fabrics - The Creative Blog

Hi everybody!

OMG!! We are beyond belief with your warm reception to the coolest sewing group in town : the FAT QUARTER GANG! Thank you SO MUCH for all your comments and your sense of humor :)

We assure you it's going to be a really fun event that'll take an entire year of awesome quilting and sewing projects! We are so proud of this "brotherhood" of loving bloggers <3

Now that we came back from Kansas City, let us show you a bit our backstage at the show. Exhibiting at Quilt Market is not an easy thing... It takes the love of a group of people that work really hard to show stores the new fabric lines and patterns for that season. 

This time was really funny... here are the crates arriving and Walter inspecting...

Sample Spree was the craziest ever!! We've been mobbed by the crowd... lol! Here is Angie getting ready for the 2 hours wild experience :)

Alex was emptying boxes and more boxes of bundles.

Walter looks really happy, doesn't he?

Fabiana was more than ready to start selling!

Kathy wanted to arrange fabrics by color on the tables...

Anais (for those of you that don't know her, she is our Social Media Coordinator) came to Market for the first time and was blown away by the whole thing... She loved it!

Laura came with us for the first time (she is Fashion Designer and Pattern Writer) and she was thrilled!

Pure Elements showing here - Color Blocking theme? 

Rhapsodia bundles - yummy!! 

For Art Gallery Fabrics booth this time we wanted to display color and more color, so we came with the idea of a giant quilt on the walls showing many of our fabrics (quilts? yes please!). Some benches with coordinated pillows and quilts finish the scene... 

Quilts Inc. liked the display at our booth so much that they gave us the Merchandising Award. What an honor... We're jumping and screaming a lot!!

We are well known for being funny and we love for you to have fun as well, so watch this video with the highlights of the show :)

In all, a very happy Quilt Market! It was really good to see well known friends again, meet new ones and have fun talking about what we all love: FABRICS & QUILTS!!

Because this is a very long post, we will start showing you new lines from our designers in separated posts, so be ready to be blown away with great design and beautiful colors soon.. 

XOXO, the AGF team

 Hi everyone!

Here at AGF we feel that sewing is some "hardcore" stuff and therefore when Pat came with the idea of recruiting bloggers to join a "little sewing group" it turned out so big that we decided to transform it into a gang; a gang of nice sewers and quilters nonetheless ... that is until they got into their roles.

Below is what happened (after asking them if they would join)...

We want to introduce to you the Art Gallery Fabrics FAT QUARTER GANG and its members:

Rachel "QUEEN QUILTA" Griffith is a quirky, southern girl who lives up north with her hubby and four kiddos. She loves to create, design & share her creations at her blog,  P.S. I Quilt. This "Queen Quilta" throws down for AGF and has been know to blend collections at the drop of a pin.

 
Lee "THE FEED DOGG" Heinrich is a graphic designer, mother of two, and blogs at Freshly Pieced . Nobody messes with her down at the LQS because they know she doesn't leave the house without a fresh blade in her rotary cutter. Her gang colors are Pure Elements Verve Violet and Light Citron.

Faith "FREE MOTION" Jones has been blogging at Fresh Lemons Quilts for 3 years. "Free Motion" takes her skillz to the streets in her Hello Kitty sewing machine and she loves working with Art Gallery Fabrics; especially the Pure Elements line which she used in her Summer Sampler quilt last year.

Shannon "SCRAPUCCINO" Cook is a wife and a mommy to two daughters. She is happily living a handmade life in "da streets" of Vancouver Island and blogs over at luvinthemommyhood. "Scrapuccino" is always busy sewing, knitting & designing, attempting to parent & stay sane at the same time. She battles the dreaded laundry pile and constantly has coffeee is in her system (definitely a necessity.)  Scrapuccino loves to stay up late at night, caffeinated and sewing away with her fave AGF prints. She is known for scrappin it out if you try to touch her AGF stash.. 

Katy "STASH SLASHER" Jones is representing the UK over at her blog I'm A Ginger Monkey. Many weaker quilters have lost fingers when they've messed with her stash. She's always packing rotary cutter and scissors - be warned. Stash Slasher is AGF crew to the core. Cut her and she bleeds pure elements Cabernet.

Maureen "MC HEMMER" Cracknell is a stay-at-home mama of three and a lover of all things crafty! She spends her days being creative and sewing as much as she can in her crib in "da streets" of Pennsylvania. "MC Hemmer" blogs at Maureen Cracknell Handmade and she can't wait to get stitchin' with her favorite fabrics, her Art Gallery Fabrics stash!!

Sukie "PHAT EIGHTHS" Newbold is currently currently chillin' in Salt Lake, UT with her hubs and 2 kids. "Phat Eighths" is an accountant by day and Sewing gangsta by night. Don't mess with this chick and her AGF stack.. she's been known to go crazy at the sight of Pure Elements and Summerlove. "Phat Eighths" blogs over at Sukie don't ya know.

John “Q-DIDDY” Adams is a father of three who loves to make quilts and blog about them over at Quilt Dad.  Q-Diddy is originally from NYC -- more specifically, from the borough of Brooklyn -- and has since taken his talents to the Raleigh, NC area. He resides in “da hood” with his crew, which includes his 7 year-old twin girls and a 6 year-old son.  Q-Diddy loves sewing with Art Gallery Fabrics and is ecstatic to be part of AGF's new posse.

Jeni "SEAM BUSTA" Baker has been sewing for about 10 years and loves to blog at In Color Order, about her sewing, quilting projects, thrifting adventures, and "killa" pet bunny George.  She can't get enough of Art Gallery Fabrics famous hand, and finds they are perfect for garments and quilts alike! She carries around a suitcase full of AGF and is ready to "sew a stitch" if tried!

Amy "STITCH RIPPA" Friend is a 30 something year old mom to three, former museum collections curator, turned sewing gangsta. "Stitch Rippa" has always loved art in nearly every form (especially graffiti.. cuz it's street art). She studied studio art and art history and found that she really enjoyed classifying and organizing art collections and that was her profession until she decided to stay home with her crew (children). To satisfy her creative side, she sews, quilts, occasionally screen prints fabric, and lately, has an addiction to designing paper pieced patterns with AGF. Check her blog at www.duringquiettime.blogspot.com.

Amy “SEW HYPE” Smart turned her back on the hardscrabble streets of her youth, but to her homies she’ll always be “Amy from the quilt block.”  She has four children and is married to an aspiring rapper. Although her "hood" at Diary of a Quilter is safe, she still carries a fresh rotary blade and is always strapped with a nine patch in the glove compartment, made from Art Gallery Essential Ovals, of course.  She’s got 99 problems, but a stitch ain’t one.

Now that you all have been introduced to our members let's share what you should expect from these "Sewing Gangstas."

• Every Monday, starting June 4th, 2012, a new Project will posted with picture tutorial. These lovely ladies & gents have some really amazing tutorials in store for you and they are ÜBER excited (can you tell by the pics?) to start sharing their talents with all of you.
• Every project that gets posted will have a giveaway for the EXACT fabrics used in the project over at the members blog (rules to that giveaway will be posted in each project). We will also randomly select lucky people to win patterns and such through the Flickr Fat Quarter Gang group. Feel free to post your projects as you make them... you never know when we are in the giving mood (and that's often.)
• Lastly... Have a blog? Wanna be a member? Well, we have 4 guest spots open for blogging "newbies." After all 12 bloggers have posted their tutorials we will have a spot open for a guest blogger (that could be you!) to post their project tutorial. This pattern will repeat itself for 1 year so you have 4 spots available.
• Also, if you have a blog, you can follow the Gang grabbing a "FQG button" located on the right side of our blog!

We think this is gonna be an event of EPIC proportions, so share and start inviting your friends to participate and have fun... with the gang!

Think you got what it takes? Submit your project ideas along with a link to your blog to [email protected]. Who know, you might end up with your own gang name and pic too :)

Lets SEW this!

<3 Your AGF Team

Pssst...

Wanna know how to start your own Fat Quarter Gang like us? Well here are some guidelines:

1. Find a few friends that love to sew and have some time on their hands. 

2. Convince your friends to all wear the same color clothes as you and create a secret sign or handshake. (Preferably a cool sign or handshake.)

3. Give each other cool nicknames, apply temporary tat's and sew your cool gang names onto your clothes.

4. Start walking around your neighborhood. *Don't smile.*

5. Holler at an occasional girl/guy walking by and ask people if they “Sew or what!”.
(By holler I mean shout) example: "Why hello miss do you sew or what!"

6. As people begin to notice your gang invite them to join. The more the merrier!

7. In order to create buzz about your gang create some sort of post and let people know what’s up.

example: Post about some cool projects that you’re doing and possibly host a giveaway or two… but keep it street.

8. Meet up in dark alleys and discuss color stories and the importance of good thread. You know hardcore stuff.

9. Use only Phat Quarta's (fat quarters) in your sewing projects... why? Cuz Phat Quarta's imply that you are gangsta, it's in the name ya know.

10. Always be ready with your mending kit hidden.. you never know when your need to "Sew a Stitch"

Congratulations, after following all these steps you now have your own sewing gang!

(featuring Kat "Von-Delicious" & Anais "SocialPath")

Some of you may be asking "What are these crazy people talking about?" and "Who could possibly be in an AGF gang?"

Well to find out you will have to stay tuned ... we promise it is well worth the wait :)

Let's sew this! ;)

<3 AGF team

Hello!!

So, Spring Quilt Market is over and although we had a lot of fun it is so nice to be home. We met some really great people and had a chance to mingle with some super cool bloggers and even more super cool people.

We are working on a video and photo's and all sorts of cool stuff right now... So a full re-cap in in the works.. I promise.

But for now I share with you our most prized pic and leave you so we can complete our uber fun projects and your re-caps.

Now back to video editing and picture re-touching (market was a tiring one and some pics show our wear & tear)... Stay tuned for our next post :)

Love ya guys,

AGF team!

And now the end has some... the final block for the AGF Consumer site Web Hunt..

So now all 10 blocks are out and it's the race to the finish....

First 3 people to email [email protected] the list of all 10 blocks and their corresponding pages will be the winners.. (see Facebook event for more details)

Good luck and godspeed...

 May's Sewing room of the month goes to...

Well it's done - I finally finished my sewing room - a project two years in the making! This is what I started with:

and these were the walls:

Organized and usable, right? But I wanted something more.

While working within the constraints of my space (a basement room with one small window) not to mention a budget, after two years I saved $2,000.00 (many shoes were sacrificed in the pursuit of my sewing room) and finally, I was able to begin....

I began by stripping it down this:

Everything was moved out, the carpet was pulled up, and I was ready to start. After laying paint, laying laminate flooring (purchased at Habitat for Humanity's Re-Store!) it became...

Well come on in and let me show you around! The bookshelf contains my quilting books and art books, and the stacked dressers on either side contain:

All my scraps arranged by colour. :) At the back of my room is the Great Wall of Thread with rulers/stencils:

Underneath the wall of thread are more dressers with more scraps, and to the left you can see a peek of what the wall on the left has been put to use for:

Folded yardage. The stuff I use most in the bins turned on their sides (to protect from dust and light) And if you follow along that wall, you'll see:

The frames I use for stretching my fabric on before I paint it, and a little corner:

That has baskets containing my bits and bobs, paints, beads and even more thread!

Underneath my L-shaped tables are baskets containing my dyeing things...

And here's my design wall and Judy.

Thanks so much for coming to visit me - I do hope you'll drop by again!

 -----

Thank you sooo much Kit for sharing your space. You are one resourceful lady! I can clearly see that you have given your space a lot of thought and love. Truly inspirational.

Ladies (& gents) if you have a sewing space that you would just love everyone to see drop us a line. Send an email (with pics or link to blog post) about your sewing room...

Share with us the lovely space that inspires and where all the magic happens:

May your thread be strong and your machine speedy :)

<3, Anais