Five & Dime Goes to Market

My Five & Dime fabric made it's debut at Quilt Market last weekend. I wasn't able to attend, but the dear people at Riley Blake/Penny Rose were kind enough to let me have a corner of the main booth for a small display. I spent several weeks sewing up as many things as I could before everything had to be mailed off. It was so much fun to finally get to play with my own fabric!

I love the Girl Friday Sewing Case from my book which you see at the top of the post. It has so much room inside for tools and projects on the go!

This Trinket Case was the perfect chance for fussy cutting. I spotted that gum ball machine charm at Hobby Lobby and just couldn't resist!

I had to make a Deluxe Pincushion (also from my book) with all my tiniest fussy cut pieces.

These baby shoes make my heart melt. The pattern is from Zakka Handmades by Amy Morinaka.

This Boardwalk Mini Tote is from the Fast Fabric Gifts booklet I did for Issue 41 of Love Patchwork & Quilting last year. It makes such a fun reusable gift bag.

I can never get enough patchwork pillows. This cover features a large courthouse steps block.

It's so great to see a spectrum of all the colors and prints in one place on this pillow cover, and I love the way they look against the gray background. These diamonds can be pieced so quickly, making for a great fast finish.

My last project was a quick half apron in my Packaging print, complete with a bow and pom-pom trim.

Thanks to Cindy Cloward, I was able to get a glimpse of my display on Instagram. The biggest project in my display was my new Storefronts Quilt, which will be a free pattern on my blog. Would you believe that I was in such a rush to get it bound and mailed off to St. Louis that I completely forgot to take a finished photo? But I'll have a photo (and a pattern) for you coming soon...promise!

Quilt Market Sewing (Spring 2016)

I did more Quilt Market sample sewing this spring than ever before, and it was quite the stitching marathon here for a few months. It's always such an honor to sew for friends of mine who are debuting their work at Market. Here's a whirlwind tour of what came out of my sewing room and traveled off to Utah for the show...

The Planetary Mini Medallion Quilt above was made using Felice Regina's Luna Sol collection for Windham. This is Felice's first fabric collection, and I'm so thrilled for her! The colors in this line are so gorgeous, and I love those little bunnies. There will be a tutorial for this mini quilt in the fall when the fabric starts hitting stores.

Amy Sinibaldi asked me to make a mini quilt for her Playground booth for Art Gallery Fabrics. This collection is so sweet, and I love the color range. Since I was working with tiny pieces of fabric, I decided to sew hexagons on a background of Adobe Clay denim. It was such a fun project!

Sharon Holland and I worked together for weeks to coordinate ideas for the projects I would make for her Tapestry booth for Art Gallery Fabrics. This collection is somehow rustic and modern at the same time, and it feels like a soft breath of summer every time I look at these prints. I made a number of items from this fabric starting with the Spectrum Clutch, a free tutorial here on my blog.

I love this large tote bag, so perfect for a day at the beach. And yes, those are a few of my Pixie Baskets with it!

Leather made such a great accent for these prints. I used it with almost every project. This little tote bag even has a leather label on the front sporting the initials FM -- for Fabric Mutt, of course. I'm so delighted that AGF is making linen and denim now. They pair beautifully with colorful prints like this one.

This clutch was so simple to make but looks far more intricate thanks to that embroidery print. Aren't those printed stitches lovely?

Almost all of these projects are just developed as I go, and I really enjoy the chance to experiment with new ideas. This was a combination tote bag and backpack made with Sharon's canvas, and I love the way it turned out. My daughters all wanted to use it immediately!

I sewed a bunch of little things for Maureen Cracknell's Nightfall booth for Art Gallery Fabrics. Maureen's collections are always so whimsical, and it's fun to try to match that in the projects I make for her. My favorite project of those above was definitely the little owl that I made using the Sleepy-Time Friend pattern from my book. I also sewed a pillow cover, Deluxe Pincushion (also from my book), Pocket Mending Book, and Stationery Kit.

I've been sewing samples for my friends at Birch Fabrics for years now. I made a log cabin pillow and a Girl Friday Sewing Case (from my book) using their new Swan Lake collection.

My biggest challenge, though, was making Tiffy Turtle, a giant floor pillow. There will be a tutorial for a slightly smaller version coming out this summer. Tiffy was definitely the hardest sample to relinquish when I was done. We all fell in love with her!

I also made a giant Pixie Basket and two potholders using the Birch Farm Fresh collection. These prints are so happy and bright!

You never realize how much you've sewn until you're finished, I guess. As I'm looking at these pictures now, I'm a little amazed at how much I was able to get done these past few months. It's been a lot of fun as always, but now I think I'm ready to move on to some slow summer sewing...

Fleet & Flourish Projects

I was so happy to make a few Quilt Market samples for my friend Maureen this month, using her new Fleet & Flourish collection for Art Gallery Fabrics. You can see pictures of her stunningly beautiful booth in this wonderful post she wrote about her experience at Market last weekend. Maureen is one of the most talented people I know, and I'm so thrilled to see her thriving in this new career as a fabric designer!

My assignment was to make bags and clutches for her booth. Maureen sent me a mailing envelope stuffed full of Fleet & Flourish strike-off pieces as well as a good number of AGF basic prints and solids. It was really fun to just be creative and make things up as I went along.

Since she was going for a romantic, bohemian vibe, I added lace and leather details wherever possible. I haven't really sewn with lace accents before, but it was a fun challenge. Leather always pairs well with patchwork. I use leather straps as zipper pulls on all my pouches now, and I actually cut one longer purse strap into two pieces for the handles on this mini tote bag. 

My favorite project is probably the laptop bag I made using her canvas Roadside Guides print. I definitely need to make another one of these some time. This was my first time working with AGF canvas, and I was really impressed. This is the some of the softest canvas I've ever seen. 

This tablet case was inspired by a clutch I had seen on Pinterest. I liked the mosaic effect of sewing pieces together with thin sashing and then tilting it all a bit to one side. 

And yes, I couldn't resist adding a Deluxe Pincushion to the stack of projects. I just love fussy cutting the tiniest scraps for these pincushions. It's such fun!

You can check out the entire line of Fleet & Flourish at the AGF website here. I have no doubt that you'll enjoy sewing with it as much as I did!