This summer, several Tennessee quilt shops curated a selection of fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics for their annual Shop Hop event. Using fabric combinations from this curated collection, I decided to explore the free patterns from Art Gallery to make projects.
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| Ruffle Tote (center) and the Atacama Clutch. |
Inspiration, project ideas, patterns, and tutorials
Art Gallery has several resources for inspirational ideas and instructions to make things with their fabric collections:
- Free quilt pattern downloads
- AGF fabric LookBooks
- the AGF blog
- AGF TV video tutorials on YouTube
- Free sewing patterns—bags/totes, pillows, wall art, hats, home decor items, holiday projects, items for kids and pets, etc.
- sewing tutorials
- and the AGF website to view the fabric collections.
Also check your favorite social media sites to see what other makers are creating with #artgalleryfabrics.
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| Making projects with the Meriwether fabric collection. |
Projects and patterns
Several of the fabrics in this curated selection came from the Meriwether fabric collection, so I checked the Meriwether LookBook for inspiration. Then I poked around the AGF website and discovered additional projects and ideas. Here's what I made...
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| Clockwise from upper left: Blooming Garden pillow, Bunny Bag, Alamo Tote and hand towels. |
I found the Blooming Garden pillow in the LookBook, the Bunny Bag was featured in an e-newsletter and is from the sewing pattern section, the Alamo Tote is a great scrap buster, and the hand towels were inspired by the Check pattern.
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| A hexie pillow with the I See Kittens pattern. |
The I See Kittens pillow pattern inspired the long pillow above and the square pillow below.
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| EPP hexie pillow. |
The Ruffle Tote Bag pattern was perfect to showcase a large motif. A short video accompanies this pattern.
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| Ruffle Tote Bag. |
Take a closer look at The Bunny Bag...
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| The Bunny Bag. |
Patterns: use just the parts you want
Patterns are a jumping off place for your projects! Don't want to make a full quilt? Use one block, or just the center section from a quilt pattern for a smaller project. Use whatever part you please.
The star block from the Wistful quilt pattern made a simple table topper.
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| One block from a pattern can make a table topper. |
The Petal Trails quilt was in the Meriwether LookBook and I used the center section to make a runner.
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| Free-motion quilting on a Petal Trails table runner. |
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| Table runner made with a portion of the Petal Trails pattern. |
A pattern piece from the Petal Trails quilt pattern was used for the flanged pillow (below). Fussy cut the Meriwether rabbit for the center.
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| Flanged pillow inspired by the Petal Trails quilt pattern. |
Smaller scraps? Smaller projects
The Atacama Clutch, from Adina LookBook, was so fun, I made two! Make and add a fluffy pom-pom to the zipper pull for a whimsical accent.
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| Atacama Clutch zipper pouch. |
After completing all the projects, I took remaining scraps and did improv patchwork to make a project bag for myself.
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| Zippered project bag. Improvisationally pieced with fabric scraps. |
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| Detail of hand quilting around the rabbit motif. |
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| Embellished with an appliquéd flower and embroidery stitches. |
A Make Nine finish
I'm counting these 11 projects—a Trunk Show, if you will—for my Make Nine 2022 Wild Card prompt.
It was a wild and fun process using free patterns from Art Gallery Fabrics. I hope this inspires you to investigate and give them a try.
