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June 2016

Pandalicious by Katarina Roccella: A Delicate & Playful Collection

Pandalicious_banner_600px

Hello fabulous makers!

Do you have a favorite animal? Not sure? Well, after this collection release we’re sure you’re going to fall head over heels for PANDAS! Makers of the world, we’re happy to present Pandalicious by Katarina Roccella! This collection is filled with soft pastel shades contrasted by the bold beauty of panda bears.
Pandalicious Prints

I personally love this collection because I feel that it’s an homage to these beautiful endangered creatures. There’s so much to learn about these bears! Did you know that 99% of their diet consists of eating bamboo and they are known to live in the mountain ranges of central China? But what’s even more fascinating about pandas is that when they are born, they are pink and hairless!

Now back to the fabrics! The soft palette of Pandalicious is ideal for any nursery, child’s bedroom, and even great for party accessories. I’m completely obsessed with these cute garlands made by Alisa Kutsel from A Stitch In Between. It shows off a variety of the prints in such a delicate way.

 ArtGalleryFabrics_Pandalicious_Magic-Garden_9

To get you even more inspired, we’ve prepared a wonderful lookbook filled with tons of sewing ideas and project patterns! Flip through it and feast your eyes on tons of garments, quilts, and home décor.

 

Don’t forget to download the FREE “Bambooey” quilt pattern! Its modern design will be great for your quilt collection. (◕‿-)

 ArtGalleryFabrics_Pandalicious_Quilt-Free_1

We’ve also put together a few coordinating blenders from our AGF Elements for you to have fun mixing and matching prints with solids!
Pandalicious Blenders

Now to the best part… Make sure to enter our GIVEAWAY!

Giveaway graphic for pandalicious

*****GIVEAWAY CLOSED*****

CONGRATULATIONS Linda, you've won the fat quarter bundle of Pandalicious fabrics! Check your email.

To Enter:

Browse through the Pandalicious look book and leave a comment below, telling us what you would make with this panda filled fabric collection.

Giveaway ends Thursday, July 7th at 3pm EST. The winner will be chosen using random.org and will be announced on this post. Good luck!

 

Till next time,

Stephanie

via GIPHY

P.S. If you would like to read more about pandas, check out this profile I found on the Smithsonian National Zoo website


All about AGF Canvas

Aloha fantastic makers!

I hope you guys are doing great! Today, I have come to inspire you to create something new! I think new ideas are always the best ideas. Here at the AGF HQ  brainstorming sessions are part of our daily tasks, because we always want to bring you the best projects, ideas, and quality.

There’s one thing that we always keep in mind here at the studio which is “don’t overthink it, just do it." Sometimes we limit ourselves from making new things because we overthink too much before doing what we want to do.  To encourage you to create more,  I'm here to tell you a little bit about our canvas fabric. I hope to inspire you to use AGF canvas fabric for tons of your projects!

Most of the times canvas fabric is used in home décor, modern upholstery, and accessories like handbags, or backpacks. But the AGF canvas fabric is strong enough to make all of those things I mentioned before, but soft enough to make clothes. I will show you some of the projects we made here at the studio so you can see what other things you can do with our canvas fabric! Before working at AGF, when someone mentioned canvas all I thought was “home décor” but when I started working here I realized how versatile this type of fabric is. Especially ours, which is very soft but strong at the same time. Those that have worked with it before know what I’m talking about. You can really "feel the difference".

Here are a few projects made with AGF canvas. This fabric can be used in almost every project you can imagine!

Canvasfabric


Well, don't you think all of these projects look awesome?! I sure do! :)

Here is the list with the name of the prints we used for each project:

 

PS: The bag on the top right corner is a free pattern, click here to download the pattern! Also, you can find more free projects and patterns in our canvas lookbook!

Details about AGF Canvas: 100% cotton, 58-59" wide

 

I hope you all enjoyed this post!

 

Xoxo,

Caro

 


The Art of Mutual Learning: Inspiration from Art

Hey Everyone!

I’m back and ready to tell you more about my sewing journey! About two months ago I embarked on a journey to learn how to sew by making a mini quilt. The idea was initiated by one of our cool product designers, Lauv. You’ve probably been reading her posts about our quilt designs and all of the techniques she has taught me, but you’re probably wondering about my beginner’s point of view. Well, I’m ready to tell you all about it!

 Lauv and Steph

Lauv (left) & Me (right)

Lauv felt that it would be best if I planned my quilt on grid paper so that I could learn the basics of planning a quilt. She told me to assume that every square was one inch so that I could measure everything correctly once I was ready to cut the fabrics. During this time, Lauv kept asking me if I enjoyed geometry because quilting is all about the right measurements. Although, I wasn’t the biggest fan of math in school, I did enjoy sketching my idea because it reminded me of when I had to plan creative projects.

Sketch

Now, let me tell you a little about the inspiration behind my mini quilt. During the time that we started planning out our projects we were also preparing for spring Quilt Market. Since I love to associate everything with art and this year Quilt Market took place in Salt Lake City, UT; I decided to base my design on a famous art piece that’s in Utah, the Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson. I thought it would be fun to appropriate something memorable from the “art world” in a quilty style.

The Spiral Jetty is known as an “earthwork” a.k.a outdoor sculpture, so I decided to choose natural colors for my design. Based on pictures I’ve seen of the sculpture, I knew I wanted to mix various blue fabrics along with our Premium Linen from The Denim Studio for a modern yet earthy feel.

Color Selection

I can’t wait to show you how it will look! I’ll be keeping everyone posted on my quilting progress here on the blog. But before I leave, I have two questions for you…

1.Where do you find inspiration for your quilts? 

2.How do you plan your quilts (software, on paper, etc.)?

 

Thank you for following my quilting journey!

-Stephanie

 






5 free quilt patterns you can sew with half square triangles (HST)  

Hello lovely quilters!

I hope that you know about our library of free quilt patterns we have on AGF website! If not, it’s time for you to check it out and choose your favorite for summer sewing.

Today I would like to feature 5 free quilt patterns that you can sew with Half Square Triangles (HST). Half square triangles are commonly used patchwork components and they are one of the most basic blocks in quilting. Most beginning quilters starts their project with HST and it gives them a great base to create a lot of different quilt blocks.

So… what exactly are half square triangles?

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Image via thesewingloftblog.com

Half square triangle units are squares made up of two equal triangles. Each triangle occupies half of the square's space.

What’s great about HST is that you can create with them so many different quilt blocks!

Take a look at the free quilt patterns below. The possibilities are endless!  You can make a quilt just with HST or incorporate them into quilt blocks with fabric strips, squares, rectangles, and other quilting techniques.

 

Half-square-triangle-quilt-patterns

 

 

  1. Aroma free mini quilt pattern featuring Lavish Collection by Katarina Roccella

All the floral fabric prints in the Lavish collection are simply stunning and they create such a great mosaic on this mini. Make it for your baby or just as a wall decoration to admire the beautiful composition every day!

  1. Cross Sea free quilt pattern featuring Coastline collection by Sharon Holland

Coastline contains such wonderful summer fabric prints. Sailboats, palm trees, seagulls – all of this reminds us of the perfect vacation spent by the sea. This quilt will be perfect for long days on the beach during summertime!

  1. Patched free quilt pattern featuring Maker collection by AGF Studio.

It’s not hard to guess who the Maker collection was designed for? Yes! For us makers! All the prints remind us of the process of creation. We especially love the scissors fabric print – it adds such a modern touch to this quilt.

  1. Rising Ground free quilt pattern featuring Morning Walk by Leah Duncan.

This quilt is a beautiful composition of sunny yellow fabrics with deep lake blue fabric from the Morning Walk collection. It's a beautiful quilt to start a new sewing journey!

  1. Book Ends free quilt pattern featuring Paperie by Amy Sinibaldi.

Paperie is one of my favorite collections and I think it’s the perfect nursery fabric collection. The prints are so delicate and subtle, that you can fall in love with this quilt instantly!

 

 


 

What are some projects you've made with HST? Let us know in comments, and tell us if you've made any of the quilts above.

 

Thanks for being a sewing inspiration!

 

Ola

 





 


8 perfect garments for Summer

Hello Makers!

Summer has officially started and we are getting ready for it! How about you?

This season of the year is very exciting, because you get to wear awesome comfy clothes. Especially those maxi dresses that make you look beautiful and are super comfortable to wear (it's like you're in pajamas)! Since the weather is getting warmer and warmer each day, I curated 8 garment patterns that I think are great to make for this season. The best thing is that they are simple, comfortable, and will make you look stylish all day! One of the things that I love of summer besides going to the beach, is that you can mix and match bright prints!

8 perfect garments for summer blog post

1) Let’s start with the sparkle dress. Can you imagine making this dress with Joie de Vivre fabric? It would look AMAZING! Trust me ;). The coolest thing about this dress is that you can find the FREE PATTERN in our website.

2) This tie blouse is perfect for a day at the beach or even a night out with your friends. It’s comfy and it’s perfect for a summer outfit. I would totally use the Playing Pop fabric collection by the AGF studio!

3) The handkerchief skirt is so stylish! You can make it with any of our fabric collections and I would recommend that you use the Knit fabrics so it has that natural wavy look at the bottom. Also, this one is a FREE PATTERN too! you can find it in our website. 

4) The crescent skirt is perfect for day or night! Imagine going to a brunch or dinner with your friends wearing this skirt. You will catch everyone’s attention! I would definitely use Coastline Fabrics by Sharon Holland for this one! That sail boat print is perfect for the summer.

5) OMG! that strapless romper is perfection! My favorite thing about this romper is that you will look super fashionable and if you use our knit substrate you will feel like you are wearing pajamas! There’s nothing better than feeling comfy and pretty!

6) Well, this layered maxi dress says it all. It’s simply stunning. Perfect for a sunny summer's day! The best thing about maxi dresses is that they are very versatile! You can use them anytime and pretty much everywhere and you will always look beautiful. This dress was made with Skopelos fabrics by Katarina Roccella and I would definitely make it exactly as it is in the picture because I love those colors!

7) If you are looking for something a little bit dressier, this ruffled cocktail dress is perfect for you! I love how the style of this dress is simple enough to wear casually but unique enough to be worn fancy. For example, here we used Boardwalk delight fabrics by Dana Willard and it makes a perfect beach dress but if you try to make it with the petal picking dense  swatch of Lavish fabrics by Katarina Roccella it would definitely become an evening dress that will make you look stunning wherever you go.

8) Last but not least, this waterfall tank made with chalk and paint fabrics by Sew Caroline is a good match for shorts and jeans! It’s simple yet elegant. I can imagine using this tank while running errands during the weekend or even to go to the movies with my friends!

I hope you liked the patterns I chose for you! If you click on the names of each garment it will automatically take you to the website where you can find the pattern!

 

Let the sewing begin,

Caro!


Joie de Vivre by Bari J.: A Joyful and Vibrant Fabric Collection

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Hey there!

Do you love bright colors, bold prints, and believe in the statement “more is more”? Yes? Well, you’re definitely a Curated Maximalist and we’re super excited to show you a collection you’ll love! We’re super happy to announce Bari. J’s newest collection Joie de Vivre!

This bright collection is ideal for summer and it beautifully shows the essence of Bari’s style: vibrant, painterly, and bold! Joie de Vivre means an exuberant enjoyment of life in French, and Bari shows her joy with pretty flowers, delicate birds and butterflies, and cute pugs accompanied by edgy graphic prints.

Joie de vivre swatches

To me there’s something special about this collection. Every time I look at the prints, they remind me of one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie because of the pretty florals and painterly elements that are uniquely stylish. I instantly imagine feminine summer dresses and throw pillows!

ArtGalleryFabrics_JoieDeVivre_Pillow_1

We’ve prepared this stunning project look book for you to feast your eyes on gorgeous quilts, garments, and home décor.  Make sure to click on the links for the patterns to many of the projects.

 

Don’t forget to check out the “Bisou Bisou” free quilt pattern! This quilt will definitely add a pop of color to any room.

ArtGalleryFabrics_Joie-de-Vivre_Quilt-FREE_1

Have a little fun color matching with these coordinating blenders (AGF Elements)!

Joie de Vivre blenders

Most importantly, we think your stash needs some more fabric. So, we’re having a GIVEAWAY!

Giveaway joie de vivre

*****GIVEAWAY CLOSED*****

CONGRATULATIONS Chris, you've won the fat quarter bundle of Joie de Vivre fabrics! Check your email.

Have a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of Joie de Vivre by Bari J.

To Enter:

Browse through the Joie de Vivre look book and leave a comment below, telling us what you would make with this vibrant fabric collection.

Giveaway ends Monday, June 27th at 3pm EST. The winner will be chosen using random.org and will be announced on this post.

 

Happy Sewing!

Stephanie