Sharon Holland - Art Gallery Fabrics Designer

Meet Sharon Holland, surface pattern designer for Art Gallery Fabrics! Her passion for fabric and
creating, as well as her numerous talents, has earned her many titles over the years and include
small-business owner, artist, photographer, quilt designer, and author. Look for her book
Utility-Style Quilts for Everyday Living for a beginner-friendly guide to patchwork. Find
easy-to-follow instructions, beautiful photos, fully illustrated step-by-step essential techniques and
information to stitch 12 different quilt projects from beginning to end.

Sharon came to Art Gallery Fabrics though an interesting path. She first got a taste for the industry
after designing four collections for Paintbrush Studio, after which her work began appearing in
numerous quilting magazines featuring both her quilts and fabric. This ultimately brought about a
career in the magazine industry working as an assistant editor, graphic designer, and photographer
for Sew It...Today! and Quilt-It...Today! But her heart was in the design process--especially textile
design--and she longed to pick up the threads of surface pattern design once more. After two and a
half years as an assistant editor, it was time to find her artist’s voice again. Sharon set to work
drawing and creating a group of prints–something she personally would like to sew with--and began
licensing her designs to Art Gallery Fabrics. In many ways it brings her life’s work full-circle--infusing
her design aesthetic and sewing background with the creative artistry behind Pat Bravo’s credo to
bring beautiful prints on quality fabric to life.

Sharon currently has eight collections with AGF. Her latest, called Spirited (released November 2019)
is a collection with an attitude as big and bold as the Midwest prairie. She was inspired by the last
blooms of summer and the majesty of nature to create a boho, free-flowing collection with wildflowers,
horses, vintage calicos, and tribal-inspired geometrics in warm, earthy colors. View the
Spirited Look Book for a glimpse into Sharon’s vision for this collection. 

     

To see more of Sharon’s work, look at her AGF Everlasting collection (May 2019) and the beautiful
Everlasting Look Book. Everlasting celebrates love, marriage, and family in an eternally classic
color story that brings together heart red, creamy ivory and of course…something blue.

Follow more of Sharon’s fabric designs, quilting and sewing projects, sew alongs, and tutorials on
her blog at www.sharonhollanddesigns.com where there’s always a fun project in the works, free
patterns, and creative inspiration.

For a daily dose of Sharon Holland, join the following on Instagram @sharonhollanddesigns
where art and textiles seamlessly mix in beautiful photos and friendly community. 

I hope you enjoyed this little feauture piece about Sharon. Next week Thursday I will do a feature post on another Art Gallery Designer. Next week Thursday is also our Art Gallery Feel The Difference Presentation, if you have not signed up please do so soon, this promises to be a fun and informative event, with a door prize, giveaways and a 20% discount off Art Gallery Fabrics during the event for all those that attend. You can sign up for either the 2pm or 7pm time slot here, both presentations will be the same, so choose the one that suits your schedule the best. 

Have a great weekend, Kayla. 

What we are making

It is time again to share some of the projects all of us at the shop are currently working on. We often get asked who makes our samples and if we do the sewing at the shop or at our home. In answer to that, nearly all the employees make quilts for the shop, and we all work on them at home on our own time. When the fabric is gone, it is up to the maker what they do with the project they made. Some of us give them away as gifts, sell them, or donate them to various organizations.

So here we go with our current works in progress:

Esther is using the Hearts at Home Pattern by Chelsi Stratton, the Creative Grids Log Cabin Ruler and Just Red Fabric by Zen Chic to make these adorable Blocks. She is also teaching a class on the Log Cabin Rulers in a couple weeks if you would like to learn how to make them too. You can sign up for that here.
Esther is also working on a fun quilt using Llama Love by Deb Strain, and her Lori Holt Vintage Housewife blocks are coming along nicely!






Tammy is working on some super cute runners right now. She is using a couple Accuquilt GO Dies to make the cutting super quick and easy, and all the fabrics are from the Summer Sweet Collection by Sherri & Chelsi.


Laura is finishing her Loveliness Quilt using Sugarcreek by Corey Yoder, she hopes to have it completed by Saturday so we can put it on display. We have kits in the shop for the quilt if you want to make one too!





Carrie picked out a new project on Thursday using a Digital Panel and some Hoffman Batiks for coordinates. The pattern she chose for it is called Rail Run by Mountain Peek Creations, I am pretty excited to see this one finished.


Jenn is working on a Sew Kind of Wonderful Quilt using LuLu Lane by Corey Yoder. This one will also be available as a class when she is finished, so be sure to watch for more details on that.




I am about halfway finished the blocks for a new sample using the Botanica Fabric Collection by Crystal Manning and a pattern called Shortcake by Cluck Cluck Sew. Hopefully I can get the quilt top done soon and get it on the Longarm this week or next.

I also cut out a Llama Love quilt this afternoon. This is the boxed kit that came in from Moda, and I fell in love with it the minute I seen it.
What are you working on right now? Are you starting something new or working on finishing up some older projects?

This afternoon we had a cup of tea at my Dads parents who are in their late 70s and tomorrow my Grandpa on my Moms side is celebrating his 88th Birthday so I am planning to take my boys over to his  place to celebrate with him and my Grandma. I am so thankful to have both sets of my grandparents alive, well and living close by, it is such a blessing to be able to spend time with them, and I often take it for granted.
Have a good week, and be sure to check out the classes tab on our website for the classes taking place this month.
Kayla

March Spotlight: Art Gallery Fabrics

March is only a few days, and I have some serious spring fever right now! I changed out a bunch of the greenery in my house yesterday for blooms, am working on a spring table runner, and am eagerly looking forward to the day I can pack away all the Winter Gear for a few months.

At the shop there is a large amount of fresh new fabric that give off some springtime vibes!

 In our shop we love to work with full fabric collections, and this is also how our shop is setup, everything is displayed as a designer collection of fabric, even our blender fabrics our organized like this. We do this for a couple reasons. 

1. The designers go through a lot of work putting the collections together as well as marketing it on social media

2. It takes a lot of work out of the fabric pulling process, all the pieces in that collection were designed to work together and will look fantastic in a project

To get to know the various fabric companies and the designers better we will be doing a special focus on a few different fabric companies and their designers. For the month of March we will focus on Art Gallery Fabrics.

Art Gallery Fabrics is a company that started up in 2004 with a goal to bring a chic and modern perspective into the quilting world. The quality of these fabrics is consistently excellent making them beautiful to work with. Art Gallery has beautiful collections that range from quirky, bright and fun to soft and sweet, to earthy  natural prints and colors. Their collection of basics go from solids, to near solids to some with a large print, and they blend wonderfully with the collections. 

We have William, our fabric rep for Art Gallery, coming in to the shop on March 12 to do 2 presentations on the fabric. One presentation will be in the afternoon, the other in the evening, and both of them will be the same, so just attend whichever one works best for your schedule. At the presentations there will some giveaways and a door prize. Everyone that attends the presentation will be given 20% off their Art Gallery purchases on the day of the event.
You can sign up for the presentation here

There will be some more fun little flash events happening through out the month, so be sure to stop in the store to check those out, and feel the difference in the Art Gallery Cottons.

On the blog here, I hope to do a couple designer spotlights throughout the month of March to share with you a little history on some of the talented designers that work for Art Gallery as well as where they get their inspiration from.


Have you worked with Art Gallery Fabrics before?
Kayla

Follow Your Heart: Santa Fe

Happy Monday, our family is safely home from a vacation in Florida. We had a jam packed 10 days spent with half of my family water skiing, checking out Legoland, going to Oilers/Lightning hockey game, attending church where my cousin is pastor, go karting, shopping, and spending all free time by the lake and pool. It was so refreshing to relax with my family and not worry about homework, schedules, bedtimes, or work. And now we all feel recharged and ready to get back to our normal routines.
Do you love the recharged feeling you get after spending time away on a vacation?
This week we are making the Santa Fe Block for our Follow Your Heart Quilt Along. Even though this block is meant to inspire the southwest, it totally gives off a Nordic vibe to me! In fact I may even make a mini for myself in cool blues and greens to display on my computer desk next winter. I love having a little seasonal block in our family's computer area to bring some color and joy.
Anyways this block is simple enough to construct and utilizes strip piecing to make the initial units, and than follows a log cabin type construction to complete each unit. When pressing those strip units be careful not to stretch or distort the units, and press in the direction indicated by the arrows on each photo. This block has no borders, so once it is all sewn together trim it to the correct size and set aside until we are ready to assemble the top. We only have 4 more blocks to make, so we are getting close to the final construction, yay!
Have a great week everyone!

Follow Your Heart: San Francisco

Happy Monday, anyone else ready to kick off a new week with some fresh goals?
This week we are working on the block: San Francisco for the quilt along. This block is a sweet little pixel heart block, and would be super cute as a mini for Valentine's Day, if you think so too, make two, one for your quilt and one for your home décor!
The block itself is very straightforward, and with strip piecing goes together nice and quick. I did not change a single thing in this block, just followed the instructions start to finish, which can be found on page 23.
You will want to be sure that you have an accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance on this block, to test yours again follow the tutorial on page 7.
 I also decided to take a photo of my blocks in the correct layout as shown on page 39 to get a feel for how it was going to look at the end, and if I need to use more of a certain color and less of another. So far I am quite pleased with how it is looking.
How are your blocks coming along?
Have a great week.
There will be no blog posts until February 24, which also happens to be the next Follow Your Heart Day.
Kayla

SABC Retreat

On Tuesday Carrie and I spent the afternoon packing up Esther's vehicle with totes full of Fat Quarter Bundles, Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs, Kits, notions of all sorts, some GO Products and Creative Grids Rulers. That evening I spent some time putting together blocks in various stages of completion to show how certain rulers worked. All of this was to attend a retreat the next day to set up a little shop and do a demonstration on rulers. 

Wednesday morning we grabbed a couple last minute things, a latte from the Chrysalis Café and hit the road at about 9, shortly before 10 we arrived at our destination, the Southern Alberta Bible Camp. T
here we were warmly greeted by the group of ladies who had gathered to sew together for the week with no interruptions. 

Carrie and I unloaded the car and quickly set up all our goods on a few tables. This was when we noticed we were missing a very important tote... the one with all the rulers had been left at the shop, along with a special order from one of the ladies that was at the retreat!

I jumped into the demo anyways and told the ladies they would have to some visit me at the shop where we did in fact have some.

The first ruler I showed was the Strippy Star, this ruler makes amazing floating star blocks quickly and easily. The quilt shown here is one I made using the ruler, and it shows off the various sizes of stars the rulers can make, it is also one of my all time favourite quilts.

I also showed the Log Cabin Rulers, these are trim tools, and so only the first squ
are has to be exact after that you trim each round to get nice equal "logs" all the way through the block without being overly fussy. I made this mini heart quilt by using the 4" ruler and making 4 blocks, laying out my pinks to get the heart shape in the center. There are rulers in the 4", 6", 8" and 12" finished sizes to choose from as well as the 4", 6", and 8" in Curvy Log cabin as well. 

I also did a little demonstration on the Cats Cradle Ruler, which makes the block shown here, quick and easy, 3 rectangles, 2 squares and a few seams gets you two quick blocks in a variety of sizes.

Carrie and I also did a quick show and tell of our latest quilts, which we had kits available for. 

Than the ladies were free to shop, which they did enthusiastically! When everyone was shopped out we packed up our things (a significant amount less than we started with).

We stayed for lunch with the retreat gals, and than headed home. 

Thank you again to the gals for inviting us out, we are excited for next years event already. We absolutely love coming our to retreats, guild meetings and shows to share about rulers, new products, or teach a new technique. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, here we will be celebrating my sons 5th Birthday. 

Kayla

20 Years of KT

Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles has been with Moda for 20 years. In that time she has designed over 60 collections of fabric and countless patterns to accompany those fabrics. Lynne also has a special technique she uses when making quilts called layering, she shared this technique with us when she came to our shop a couple years ago for some workshops and a trunkshow.

To celebrate her 20 years, Lynne has designed a new block of the month that contains 20 blocks, one for each of her years with Moda. The pattern is called 20 Years of KT. We are offering this pattern and all the needed fabrics as a block of the month program.
For the past week all the staff at Chicken Feed Quilts has been busy putting these kits together.
-Tammy spent an afternoon cutting strips of fabric, which Taylor than cut into 10" layer cake squares (504 of them to be exact) on our Accuquilt Go Machine.
 -The next day Jenn started cutting Fat Quarters, we needed a total of 480 to make the 12 kits. She finished that up on Thursday.
-Carrie's job was to choose fabrics for the backgrounds and borders, and cut them accordingly.
-Carrie, Shay and Taylor have all been working on folding and sorting the fabrics into what is required for each month and packing them up accordingly.
-I had the easy job, I went to Lethbridge to pick up some clear totes to store each kit.
If you haven't been in the shop over the past week, I will tell you that there was a mountain of Kansas Troubles Fabric on the main cutting table as well as the secondary table. I did not get a picture but I really should have, though I don't think anyone would appreciate it if I asked them to recreate the image for me.
Sometimes kits come together quickly and easily, other times there is a lot of effort from multiple people involved to get the fabrics all cut, folded, packaged and priced.

Now for the information that you need to know for this Block of the Month Program.
It is a 12 month program and starts this month, though you could sign up later if the kit is still available.
The kit for each month will be ready to pick up on the first Friday of every month.
There will be an option to buy the full kit all at once, though this option will not be available until March.
The program is free to sign up for, and will be $45 per month. When you sign up we will ask for a credit card number, and your card will be charged automatically on the first of each month. There are some months when you will receive well over $45 worth of fabric, and others where it will be less, but an equal sum for each of the 12 months is the easiest for everyone.
I believe there are also a couple of bonus patterns included throughout the year as well.
The finished quilt finishes at 118" square. If you are thinking that is just way to big for you, you could always make it without the borders, and use that fabric for a different project or for the backing of your quilt.
Lynne also has a blog, and she has posted some more information on this project, a little comment about why she has included a specific block in the pattern as well as any pattern corrections that she has made. For example she has posted a blurb about block 2 which is made with nine patches, she talks about her love for that block, posted a picture of her block and a little tutorial on how to make it. You can check it out here.
There are limited kits available and once they are gone they are gone, so if you are interested sign up soon.
Have a great week. In our house we seem to slowly be getting over the assorted flus, colds, viruses and what nots. And when I say slowly I mean slowly, I think the school secretary and I should have each other on speed dial for the amount of times we have called each other either about a child staying home or needing to be picked up from classes.
Have you been suffering from the winter bugs this year or have they left your family alone?
Kayla