Art Gallery Fabrics - The Creative Blog

Hello makers! 

If you follow our YouTube channel, then you may have recently watched a video on how to make a 9-patch block using the strip piecing technique. If you haven’t seen the video, make sure you go watch it here: 

Easy 9-Patch Block Using Strip Piecing - YouTube 

This video is part one of the project that I will be sharing with you all below: a big fluffy patchwork pillow, which is part of our Patchwork Stories. To read up on our Patchwork Stories and the role it can play in our everyday lives, check out our past blog post here:

AGF Patchwork Stories: 45-Degree Strip Piecing - Art Gallery Fabrics - The Creative Blog (agfblog.com)

This pillow is super easy and simple to make and can use any patchwork you may have such as spare blocks, and it’s fat quarter and half yard friendly. This pillow has a finished size of about 20” x 20”, but the best part is that you can make it whatever size you may want! If you’re interested to see how we made this pillow, make sure to keep reading below. 

Here is what you will need:

• The patchwork block we made in part one
• A 20” x 20” piece of batting
• (2) 20” x 15” pieces of fabric for the pillow backing. I used Ikat Diamond Rustic from ‘Kismet’
• Scissors
• A 20” square pillow form or stuffing

Start with your patchwork block laying flat on your work surface.

Grab a template that is the size of the pillow that you want. I have a piece of foam here that is 20” x 20” but you can use a large square ruler, a piece of cardboard, or anything else square that you have. Position your template at an angle on your block and mark each corner. Your template should fit perfectly so that each corner matches up with a seam. 

You can either trace around your template if the edges are smooth, like a ruler or use a longer ruler to draw a line from mark to mark. 

Take a pair of scissors and cut on your drawn lines. 

Lay your cut block on top of a piece of batting and quilt as you see fit. I personally like my batting a little larger than the piece I’m quilting just in case there is any shifting. In this case, I decided to quilt a line ¼” away from each seam for a little rustic feel. 

Trim away any excess batting and set your pillow front aside. Grab your two backing pieces and fold one long edge on each piece down ½”, then down another ½” and topstitch in place. 

Lay your pillow front right side up. Take your two backing pieces and place one right sides together on top of the pillow front with your folded edge in the middle. Place the other backing piece right sides together with the folded edge also in the middle. The two folded edges will overlap. Stitch around the entire square at 1/4".

Trim your corners, turn right sides out, stuff with your pillow form or stuffing and you have a patchwork pillow!

I had so much fun making this pillow because there wasn’t really any pattern or rhythm to follow, I could just improvise what I thought looked pretty. You can use your leftover scraps for another pillow, or any other project that you feel like making! 

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial and I would love to see what your patchwork pillows look like, so make sure to tag us on social media using the hashtag #AGFPatchworkStories.

Happy sewing!

Karli

Hi makers!

The holidays are coming to an end once again, so it’s time for cleaning, eating leftovers, and deciding on New Year's resolutions. One of my resolutions for this next year is to try and be more eco-friendly and reduce my carbon footprint as much as I can. I was recently shown these super cute pin cushions that use those scraps that almost always get thrown away due to no usage… selvages. Here at AGF, we have so many colorful Pure Solids with selvages that include the name of the color, so what a great idea it would be to make my very own color card out of pin cushions! Sure, an actual color card takes up less space, but this way is so much fun and a great scrap buster, so what’s not to love? 

For this project we are using the selvages of our Pure Solids in Sweet Fig, Hydrangea, Plum Preserve, Bewitched, and Amethyst.

Let’s get started! 

Cut your selvage pieces 5 inches long by 1 ½ inches wide. Cut your backing piece 5 inches by 5 inches. 

Sew your selvage strips together at a ¼ inch seam allowance. 

Press your seams in one direction. 

Place your selvages and the backing right sides together and sew ¼ inch all the way around leaving an opening to turn

Trim your corners and turn your pin cushion right side out, making sure to poke out the corners. 

Stuff your pin cushion with your choice of stuffing. I used polyester fiber fill, but you could use batting scraps, walnut shells, scraps of fabric, or anything else you have. 

Hand sew the opening closed and your pin cushion is ready to be poked! 

If you want to create the other versions, I listed each color I used for the other cushions below. 

Blue: Tranquil Waters, Parisian Blue, Tile Blue, Night Sea, and Nocturnal

Green: Icy Mint, Tender Green, Jade Cream, Emerald, and Peacock

Yellow: Honeydew, Lemon Tart, Empire Yellow, Turmeric, and Raw Gold

Orange/Red: Georgia Peach, Dried Carrot, Mandarin, Burnt Orange, and London Red

Pink: Candied Cherry, Weathered Brick, Dried Roses, Miami Sunset, and Blossomed

Black/White: Caviar, Magnetism, Steel, Ash, and Snow

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! It was a fun one for me to recreate and since I love colors, I had to make one from each color of the rainbow. These would also be so cute with selvages from a collection, or selvages from complementary colors. Please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or tips you’d like to share! 

What else can you sew with your selvages?

As always, please share your pin cushions by tagging us in your photo on social media with the hashtag #artgalleryfabrics! 

Happy Sewing!

-Karli

Ah, I can already smell the cinnamon spice in the air! It’s time to snuggle up in your favorite quilt and grab a hot cup of tea, and enjoy a nice Netflix holiday movie! This is my favorite time of year to sew (who isn’t, right?) to sew several small projects in order to make plenty for myself and my loved ones. I’ve noticed that mug rugs are all over the internet and I can totally see why because it checks all the boxes of what I’m looking forward to sewing! 

If you have never heard of a mug rug before, it’s a quilted mat that combines a coaster and a placemat to hold your drinks and a snack. The perfect 2-in-1 project that I knew I had to make a unique tutorial for all of you to recreate. 

Let’s get started:

I used some nice warm tones for the fall season and used collections like Sharon Holland’s Kismet, our Sparkler Fusion, and Luna & Laurel collection, with a mix of blender fabrics such as our Floral Elements and Pure Solids. 

You will need Fat Eighths for all fabrics.

Four (4) 2’’ squares from fabric A.

Two (2) 2’’ squares from fabric B.

Three (3) 2’’ squares from fabric C.

Three (3) 2’’ squares from fabric D.

Three (3) 2’’ squares from fabric E.

One (1) 7’’ x 8’’ rectangle from fabric F.

One (1) 11 1/2’’ x 8’’ rectangle from fabric F.

One (1) coffee template from fabric G. 

Join fabrics A, B, C, D, and E squares following the diagrams below.

Take one (1) 7’’ x 8’’ rectangle from fabric F and the assembled piece and join them.

Take a batting piece and quilt as desired.

Take the Coffee Template and place it on top of fabric F. Place it about 1’’ from the left side and about 1 ½’’ from the bottom.

Place steam-a-seam on the coffee template and iron it so it sticks on the mug rug.

Topstitch all around to secure it.

To create the smoke on top of the coffee, use the free motion quilting or hand stitch if you prefer.

Take the backing fabric and place it right sides together. 

Sew all four sides leaving about 3’’-4’’ of opening to flip the piece inside out.

Clip your corners, flip your piece inside out, press your piece and close the opening. 

And you are done! Enjoy cutting up some squares, appliqueing, and quilting this sweet project! Let me know if you recreate your own version of this by tagging us on social media using the hashtag #artgalleryfabrics, we would love to see it! Also, in the comments below let me know your go-to holiday movie that you'll be enjoying this mug rug on. 

Until next time, 

Happy sewing! 

-Jannelle 

Hello Makers,

Team flying geese or Half Square Triangles? Both choices can create tons of different quilt designs and sewing projects. Today I am excited to talk about my new series on Youtube, dedicated to the beginner quilter. Learn how to choose fabrics from my Sewing with Color video and once you got your fabrics picked out it's time to learn some basic quilting units. In my next two videos I show you how to create Half Square Triangles (HST) in three different ways and Flying Geese in two different ways. 

I love that in quilting there are multiple ways to create the same thing, you can pick and choose the options that work best with you and your quilting project! Download and print a copy of your HST and Flying cheat sheets from the video and have fun watching my brand new videos below!

Got any tips about creating HST’s or flying geese? Share your knowledge in the comments!

Happy Sewing,

Meli

Hello Sewing Friends,

The way we run our lives have drastically changed in the past several months. I never thought in my lifetime that I would have to worry about whether or not I have a mask in my bag before I leave the house in order to go about my day. If grocery shopping wasn’t already stressful enough now we have to make sure we have our masks, stay 6 feet apart and try not to touch to many things and itch our faces!!!  In the long term all of this is not hard to follow if it means we can get rid of this virus once in for all. Here at AGF we are makers and we love to add our special touch to everything we make. We love quilting so of course the ladies from the production team designed a great pieced mask tutorial for all of us to follow! Download the mask pattern and follow along with me in the video below!

In todays video I make a my own version of the mask using scrap fabrics from my stash! This is a great fat quarter friendly project even though it asks for 25” long strips you can get away with using fat quarters or WOF strips you have in your scrap bin. If you don’t want to make a scrappy mask you can use a solid print or solid fabric to create your mask, its totally up to you and who you are making the mask for.

I made one for myself and of course my sister asked if I could make her one too, I can never say no to her. I love making things for people so I was excited to make her one! She asked for Fall inspired colors so I digged through my scrap bin to find colors that reminded me of Fall! I love pink, especially dark magenta type pinks, I think its such a flattering color to wear! So I pulled an assortment of pink prints and AGF solids for the mask I made for myself. Here we are below being our silly goofy selves!

Here are the fabrics I used:

My Mask- 

PE- 489- Miami Sunset

PE-439- Raspberry Rose

PE-471-Sweet Macadamia

FUS-J-308- Let’s Chalk Joyful

CAP-VC-5007- Tender Grid

My Sisters mask- 

SPT-95228- Dance Steps Maize

PE-457- Dried Carrot

PE-408-White Linen

PE-440- Macchiato

I loved that the production ladies designed this mask using  strips in varying widths and placed the pattern pieces at an angles to create dimension and movement! I am going to have so much fun making more masks for family and friends using this super cute easy tutorial! My Mom has requested one in blues! So this is what us up next on my to sew list! I would love to see how your mask making turns out so make sure to share your masks on social media using #AGFtutorials or email me your project at [email protected]!

Happy Sewing, 

Meli

Hello Makers! 

Who loves making pillows? Are you new to quilting and sewing? Pillow's are a perfect project to tackle as your first project. Even if you are an expert quilter, pillows are a great fast finish that can be quite rewarding. I love making them as gifts as well as making a variety of pillow covers for all the different seasons. Changing out your pillow decor really helps to liven up a space throughout the year! 

Pillows are a great Fat Quarter friendly project, today I am sewing with AGF Studios Terra Kotta Fabrics and some AGF Pure Solids to match. You can choose to make a solid fabric pillow or if you want to get a bit more creative and quilty, feel free to cut strips in different widths and have fun choosing which strips you will sew together to create your pillow top.

When I first started quilting I was such a perfectionist and took forever to finish a project. The more experience I got I realized its not about perfection, though perfection will come with time it’s really about learning as you go and finishing a project from start to finish. You will always find the flaws as the person making it but I promise you, whether  you are gifting your make to a family member or keeping it for yourself, when you look back at the project a year from now… you will be like why did I beat myself up about this, looks pretty darn good!

All the materials you will need are listed below. Have fun following along to the video and I want to see your amazing makes so make sure to use the hashtag #AGFTutorials or email your pictures to [email protected]!

Materials to construct a 16” finished pillow:

Pillow Top Pieces:

One 17” square of fabric

One 19”  square Batting piece

One 20” square of fabric (pillow top backing)

Envelope Backing Pieces:

Two 17”x 22” rectangles

Two 17” x 11” rectangles of batting

Fabrics used:

AGF Studio Terra Kotta Fabrics

AGF Pure Solids

Other Supplies You May Need:

Rotary Cutter

Clear Quilting Ruler

Iron

Quilting and sewing thread

Pins

Did you know we have tons of free sewing patterns to add to your to sew list. Endless amounts of quilts, handbags, home decor and of course PILLOWS! I don’t know about you but I can never get bored of making pillows. Now that you have your first pillow project under your belt and know the basics to construct a pillow with an envelope backing I highly suggest you continue with more pillow projects to get your sewing mojo going. Next time you can try different type of piecing, or try your hand at a different quilting motif. There are so many possibilities! Below I listed a few fun pillow projects you can sew up next. Make sure to check out our free sewing pattern section on liveartgalleryfabrics.com to see more!

Other Pillow projects to try:

Scaped featuring Flowerette by AGF Studio

Any half square triangle fans out there? To make this pillow whip up some 2 1/2" HST's and squares of fabric and piece together this beautiful 16" pillow! Flowerette Fabrics mixed with one of our fabrics from the AGF Denim Studio which adds such a cooling, relaxing texture to this design! 

Spell On You featuring Spooky and Sweet by AGF Studio

With minimal piecing make these festive Halloween pillows using Spooky and Sweet fabric panels! These large graphic designs are great for large scale projects like pillows or even clothing! 

Blooming featuring Trouvaille by AGF Studio

The Blooming pillow may look super complex and intricate but with a simple strip piecing technique and cutting magic you can make this stunning design! AGF Studios Trouvaille fabrics add a pop of colorful florals thats sure to add happiness in whatever space you add this pillow! We also added some AGF Floral Elements to the mix which is the perfect blender to choose to marry well with Trouvaille fabrics! 

Quilla featuring Patcha Capsule by AGF Studio

Here is another simple strip piecing project we created but we used a triangle template to cut out sections of our pieced strips and sewed them back together to create this geometric framed design! AGF Studios Patcha Fabrics has some super cute designs great for sewing for kids and sweet doodle like blender prints that we mixed and matched with our Decostitch blenders! 

Happy Sewing, 

Meli