South Paw Quilt

South Paw Quilt

It’s pattern release day and there’s a new quilt pattern in my SHOP called South Paw! I love writing a blog post for a new quilt pattern because it’s one continuous stream of pretty pictures and inspiration that pulls together the weeks of hard work and love that’s gone into making the quilt and pattern—all for you to see and enjoy.

The South Paw pattern name was some word play fun to celebrate all the lefties out there and is what I lovingly refer to as a block baby that would come from joining a Log Cabin and Bear Claw block. The South reference is to the Southwest-vibe of the quilt design and Paw is a nod to the Bear Claw block—South Paw.

This is a fast and easy block to make and a great quilt for beginners as well. The pattern is fat quarter-friendly and plenty of opportunities to use and show off your pretty prints. You’ll find the material list for this over-sized throw quilt in the Shop description image carousel.

For the cover quilt sample I used Art Gallery Fabrics and mixed prints from my upcoming Lilliput, Spirited, and the AGF Decostitch blender collections and used AGF Pure Solids in White Linen for the background. I’m loving the cool spring tones of these color of denim, carrot, pale pink, and violet.

Get the Kit

You won’t have to search around sourcing the fabric I used in my quilt because our friend Brooke Becker of Lady Belle Fabric is kitting this quilt! You can pre-order a kit and as soon as the Lilliput collection starts shipping the beginning of April, you’ll be one of the first ones making a South Paw quilt just like the one I’ve made. Pre-order your kit HERE.

As soon as I had designed this quilt my granddaughter claimed this one for herself! So, to make it extra snuggly for her I backed this quilt with Shannon Fabrics Cuddle 3 Extra Wide backing in Woodrose. The color was just perfect and it looks and feels like velvet!

The beautiful longarm quilting on my quilt was done by Brooke Becker at Lady Belle Fabric so not only can you buy your quilting cotton from Brooke but you can have your quilt quilted, too! It’s very subtle but we used a pale pink thread with the Bangkok pattern from her huge selection of quilting designs.

For batting I used my favorite Hobbs Batting Tuscany Silk Blend batting for the most luxurious drape and quality.

Spring is just showing it’s signs here in south-western Ohio and even in just the last few days the trees are starting to bud out a bit. Unfortunately, over the last weekend when I needed to snap pictures of the quilt we still looked in the grips of winter dreariness. Above, shot on Wednesday at home and below, shot on the Saturday before at a nearby park.

I’m fine with the bleak outdoor shots because frankly, this quilt looks good anywhere. It was just nice to take a hike and get outdoors a bit and make my husband hold up the quilt for me, teehee.

The dried grasses in the image below I picked from the park to use as photo props!

Meet the Testers

South Paw quilt by Sharon Holland

For this quilt release I had some extremely talented quilt testers making their own version of this pattern. All the testers used Art Gallery Fabrics but selected their own fabrics and colors based on their vision of this quilt. I’ve had Meet the Tester highlights for several of my most recent quilts of this year and last and always create a collage showcasing the tester and the quilt they made from my pattern but this time we’re mixing things up a bit. For this quilt we all stepped up our game and incorporated a few images each tester curated from Pinterest to create a South Paw Moodboard collage to show off their quilt make and tell a bigger story.

Above is my mood board that includes a photo I took on our last trip to Arizona where we traipsed around Sedona. Oh, how I wish I was there now, photographing this quilt in those surroundings and can just imagine my husband holding up the quilt amongst the cacti!

South Paw quilt by maker Victoria Newmyer

Victoria Newmyer of Midlife Quilter shop used various Art Gallery Fabrics prints that include some of my Kismet collection. I am in love with her color palette of olive green, harvest gold, pink, berry, and black. This will eventually be a kit available at her shop once Kismet prints are back in stock. Be sure to sign up for her newsletters so you don’t miss a thing!

South Paw quilt by maker Tracey Taber-Perry

Tracey Taber-Perry does amazing quilts and you can follow her feed @ttabes80 on Instagram. The spruce and pinks color palette of her quilt is stunning and I love how she photographed this elegant quilt in front of the rustic white barn! In her quilt I now see the quilt block design as spring tulips!

South Paw quilt by maker Megan Eckroth

Megan Eckroth of @cartellastudio on Instagram is a new member to my tester group and this is her second test quilt for me. Megan is amazing and her work is exceptional and creativity is boundless! The South Paw quilt made from Art Gallery Fabrics Serenity prints with the smokey-blue background has captured her inspiration images to a Tee. Follow Megan on Instagram, FB, and her Etsy Shop and see more of what this gifted maker has to share.

South Paw quilt by maker Joyce Ulm

Joyce Ulm is a quilting powerhouse! This exciting South Paw version was made with Art Gallery Fabric Terra Kotta prints and AGF Pure Solids background. I love the bold print backing and how the quilt relates to her inspiration images of shapes and colors. See more of Joyce’s work on Instagram @evamaecustomquilts, Etsy shop, and on her Facebook blog HERE, and does long arm quilting as well!

South Paw quilt by maker Marija Vujcic

The instant Marija Vujcic saw my South Paw quilt pattern it reminded her of her Serbian heritage and particularly Pirot kilim rugs. Marija’s mood board tells the story of her color inspiration, heritage, and color palette for this most amazing quilt. Follow this talented lady on Instagram Marija Vujcic and on her blog at Mara Quilt Designs. Her passion for sewing and life has no bounds and it’s wonderful to have her testing my patterns!

South Paw quilt by maker Mary Gove

Mary Gove amazes me with every quilt she makes. She has an eye for design that translates into quilts you want to use in every room in your house. For her South Paw make she chose to use only Art Gallery Fabrics solids, four plus the background for five total colors that is inspired by her turquoise earrings—stunning! See more of Mary’s work on her Instagram account @thecurlyquilter.

South Paw quilt by maker Amanda Bagin

This is the first quilt Amanda Bagin has tested for me as she just joined our group at the beginning of the year. It was a no-brainer to bring Amanda into our testers fold and you can see yourself from her Instagram feed @quiltsbycritter why I fell instantly in love with her work. Amanda has a clean, fresh style and you can see that in her crisp and graphic South Paw quilt in turquoise and terracotta. Along with AGF Pure Solids she also used prints from the AGF Studio Luna and Laurel collection.

South Paw quilt by maker Jennifer Cannon

Jennifer Cannon is owner of Piper Autumn Designs shop and the face behind this stunning all solids South Paw quilt. Jen used Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids in tropical sherbet colors that she’ll have available as bundles in her shop. The quilt design pops off the Nocturnal blue background—what a fun quilt! Visit Jen’s Etsy shop Piper Autumn Designs and see all her Quilty doings on Instagram at @piperautumndesigns.

South Paw quilt by maker Christine Trotta

Christine Trotta used AGF Smooth Denim Afternoon Sail for the background in her South Paw quilt as a nod to Ina Garten’s signature denim blouse then mixed in feminine AGF florals of spring-fresh colors adds a bit of boho flare to classic chambray. Visit Christines Etsy Shop and Blog as well as her Instagram account @serendipityinlovecreations.

Wasn’t that fun? Now, go grab your pattern from my SHOP and start planning your South Paw quilt today! If you are posting your South Paw quilt make to Instagram, be sure to tag me @sharonhollanddesigns and use the hashtag #SouthPawQuilt so I don’t miss seeing your inspired make!

And, for links to the products I used to make my quilt, see the affiliate Amazon links below.

Happy sewing!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 2

Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 2

Welcome to the second week of the Sweet Home Quilt along hosted by (me) Sharon Holland, Maureen Cracknell, and Jennifer Jones. We’re excited to be working together as hosts to bring you this quilt along and to have this chance to connect with the Sweet Home quilt makers on our Instagram community!

I hope you’ve been following along on all three hosts blogs and Instagram accounts as we’re each making different versions of this quilt and let me tell you I’m loving ALL OF THEM!! See what Maureen Cracknell and Jennifer Jones are stitching up.

If you’re just joining us you’ll probably want to pop over to the Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 1 post to get caught up. Purchase the Sweet Home quilt pattern from my SHOP here.

If you’ve been following along since the start then you should already have your fabrics cut out and are now ready to begin piecing the Log Cabin blocks.

The quilt along will run six weeks and we’ll cover a different aspect of piecing or finishing for that week. Some of you are working ahead and that’s wonderful—it’ll give you more time for the quilting and finishing portion. This quilt along is very relaxed. If you feel like completing the top in a week, go for it! But, if you’re a beginner and want more instruction along the way—we have that too in the form of LIVE and recorded Instagram tutorials over on my IGTV channel on Instagram.

Today we talk about piecing the Log Cabin blocks. I’m using Art Gallery Fabrics Terra Kotta prints mixed with AGF Pure Solids Sandstone for the background and one of my Spirited prints for half of the Log Cabin block roofs. If you’ve purchased this kit from Fat Quarter shop and did NOT get a Pattern Supplement sheet like the one below, contact me via email or on Instagram and let me know—I’ll send you the sheet.

Sweet Home Terra Kotta kit from Fat Quarter Shop

I’ve recorded step by step tutorials for you to access on my @sharonhollanddesigns IGTV channel on Instagram and so far the Sweet Home Quilt series covers fabric selection and Log Cabin block construction.

Since all the tutorial stuff is covered on Instagram, this post is going to be more of a chance to show off pretty photos of my newly made blocks—I literally got them done and photographed just before writing this block post!

I love making Log Cabin Blocks and going round and round the center piece. I suggest making one block through from start to finish to become comfortable with the instructions and then once you have it figured out you can utilize chain piecing or chain stitching to save time on those repetitive sewing steps.

Please note that although some of your Sweet Home house pieces have been cut directionally (like the chimneys, the windows, and portions of the Bungalow base) the rest of your pieces have been cut to best maximize the material and reduce how much material you needed to use. So, that also means that the long sides of your Log Cabin blocks will have the print running side to side and the short piece will have the print running up and down.

You can however control your print direction on squares and the flippy corners on the rooflines/background. Read further down for more information on roof/background direction control.

Chain stitching photo courtesy of Jennifer Jones

In my tutorials I’ve broken down the Log Cabin block into Log Cabin base construction and roof construction. The tutorials stress chain piecing as a time saving technique and once you get into the swing of how a block is constructed it’ll be fun and relaxing way to construct your blocks.

When you get into chain piecing assembly-line mode, make all the bases first according to the pattern, kit, or your coloring sheet guide then move onto assembly-line piecing the roof tops.

If you’re going by the PDF pattern and using two different prints for the Log Cabin roofs the construction for these are the same no matter what fabrics you use. Just be sure to flip out the first corner before adding on the other side. Here I started with the chimney side before adding the simple square side but the results are the same, even if you reversed the order.

I’ve got a tutorial that was created for the Sewcial Bee Sampler that will be very helpful for these flippy corners if you’re looking to control the direction of a print. The tutorial talks a lot about half-square triangle (HST) construction but the principle of auditioning the fabric is the same that I’d use for auditioning a directional print on a flippy corner. I also show and cover this in my Instagram IGTV channel in the Log Cabin part 5 video.

I feel that one of the most important things you can do to improve your patchwork is to press every step of the way. Working with flat fabric keeps your seams crisp and block true to size. This Oliso mini iron is perfect to set up beside your work station for quick pressing.

All ten Log Cabin blocks are stitched and pressed. I’m really loving this Terra Kotta palette and am excited to see how it all looks up on my design wall—I’ve not even had a chance to lay them all out yet!

The three of us hosts have each done some styled flat lay photos of a block with flowers, evergreens, and props all inspired by Nuria Elkins Sweet Home Block picture as seen in this spring. These photos had to be the most fun all images to take—be sure to check what the other hosts photographed!

Next week we’ll be making Bungalow Blocks and I’ll have some new LIVE video to add to my IGTV channel. If you’re on Instagram when I go live, be sure to stop by and say hi!

Don’t forget that this Friday will be a new Friday Giveaway with fabulous prizes from our sponsors. Be following along on Instagram as all the giveaways will be held on that platform and winners will be randomly drawn the following Monday from the #SweetHomeQAL hashtag pool. The quilt along members that post their progress photos to public account on Instagram and use the hashtag #SweetHomeQAL will automatically be entered into every Sweet Home Quilt Along drawing! It’s that easy to enter, so enter often to up your chances!

And, while you’re on Instagram, take a look at the #SweetHomeQAL hashtag on Instagram and see what the other QAL Makers are using in their quilts—it’s an amazing resource not only to see fabrics but to make new friends!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Prairie Flower Quilt

Prairie Flower Quilt

Prairie Flower Quilt by Sharon Holland

There’s a new pattern in my SHOP called Prairie Flower! This 80” x 88” quilt is made with prints from my Art Gallery Fabrics Spirited collection and AGF Pure Solid in Chocolate for the little pinwheels and border strips. What I love about this quilt is it can fit a double (full) size bed if the border strips are at the head and foot of the bed or if rotated 90 degrees and the border strips run the sides of the bed it’ll fit a queen bed—it’s like getting two for one!

This quilt design’s celebrating it’s nine year anniversary with me. It was the companion quilt pattern for my very first fabric line when I first started designing and licensed my prints to Paintbrush Studio in 2010 (the quilt was finished in January 2011). Now, in 2020, I’ve given the quilt a fresh new look and added the pinwheels blocks and border strips in the all new updated pattern.

I almost hate to post the pictures from the first quilt because the quality of my photos were so poor back then—I didn’t know nearly as much as I do now about photography and file size. But, in all fairness, I’ll show you so you can see how far I and my quilts have come in nine years.

Original Prairie Flower quilt in Blue Skies collection by Sharon Holland for Paintbrush Studio

You can just detect the same furniture and furniture placement in my bedroom! Yeah, I really have no time for decorating, lol, only the bedding, lamps, and bench (at foot of the bed) have been replaced.

The original quilt had smaller Prairie Flower blocks that were set next to each other. The new and improved quilt has a little larger blocks to show off the prints better, sashing, and small pinwheel blocks.

Pinwheel blocks by Sharon Holland

I like how this new layout opens up the field of flowers (blocks) and the scale change between the big and little blocks has movement and energy just like a field of wildflowers blowing in the wind.

Prairie Flower blocks in Spirited by Sharon Holland

The incredible quilting on the updated Prairie Flower quilt was done by the talented Brooke Becker of Lady Belle Fabric. Brooke has numerous pantograph designs to choose from and I had about five I was considering until I saw this Abstract Rose design and new immediately it was the one for my quilt. I selected cream thread because it blended beautifully with the Spirited - Bright Star Washed print used for the background.

The batting used in my quilt is my all-time favorite, Hobbs Tuscany Silk blend batting. The excellent drape, warmth, and light-weight property of this batting also has beautiful stitch definition for machine or hand quilting—I love it! For the backing I selected Spirited - Delicate Balance Sienna and am obsessed with how beautiful it is!

To celebrate the homecoming of the Prairie Flower quilt I’m having a PDF pattern giveaway here on the blog and on my Instagram feed @sharonhollanddesigns! See how to enter below…

Giveaway now closed

Congratulations to Cindy G, Linda S. Zlogar, and Rita Dowd!!!!

* Note * This giveaway is open to EVERYONE! If you're a "no reply" or anonymous commenter, please remember to include your email address in your comment--you can't win if I can't get a hold of you!

1. Simply leave a comment here under this post! (First comment entry).

2. My followers get a third entry! If you follow via subscribing to my posts, through Bloglovin (or other service), or on Instagram, just let me know by making a separate comment here to record that entry. (Separate comment counts as second entry). Note: I'm no longer on Facebook.

3. Help spread the word!! I know that many of you already do, so I thought it would be nice to add that as another way to enter! Spread the word about this giveaway on YOUR instagram, facebook, tweet, pin, blog post, etc... (separate comment counts as a third entry). 

That’s THREE possible entries! Enter now through Friday, March 6, 2020. I’ll be drawing names for three winners. The winning comments will be picked at random around 4pm Eastern. I’ll post the name of the winners on this post once they've been notified and responded to my email.

Be sure to visit my Instagram feed @sharonhollanddesigns for a chance for you and a tagged friend to win PDF patterns from my SHOP. Winners can pick a substitute PDF pattern if desired for the blog and IG giveaways.

Happy sewing,

Sharon

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Heart Quilt Sew Along

Heart Quilt Sew Along

I know, I know that just two posts back on January 8th I said that Maureen Cracknell and I had no plans for a sew along, but, turns out that I was wrong about that (insert laugh/cry emoji)!!!!

You know how it is when you see pretty fabrics and the perfect quilt block—you just have to stop everything and make a quilt with it, right?!?!?! That’s what happened with Maureen and I when we both received happy mail from Art Gallery Fabrics with the new Foresta and Ballerina Fusions. Our boxes both arrived on Saturday and by Sunday we were making plans to host a Heart Quilt Sew Along using Allison Harris’s Heart block pattern. It all happened that fast and so will this sew along as we plan to start and finish our quilts and sew along by Valentine’s Day.

Heart Block Zip Pouch by Maureen Cracknell

Prior to this last weekend, Maureen was stitching zip pouches using Allison Harris’s of Cluck Cluck Sew Heart Block tutorial to make heart blocks that she then turned into Mirrored Hearts zippered pouches for her Etsy shop. She loved making the hearts so much she’d told me she’d love to make a quilt from the hearts next.

Like I said, as soon as the new fabrics came in, now we both wanted to make heart quilts!

Photo by Maureen Cracknell

Allison’s Heart Block tutorial has a free download for her heart block with size options and a quilt layout for a 6’’ square block. You’ll also find suggestions for how to customize this block into other projects.

For this sew along we have Allison’s permission to use her block and we’ve selected and designed a quilt using an 8” square block, sashing, and border layout to make a 52’’ x 61’’ throw-size quilt. You’ll find a free download for our quilt layout, coloring sheet, and fabric requirements on the Sew Along page.

We’ve not included piecing instructions in our free download because the Heart Block tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew will cover what you’ll need to know about making the heart blocks and next week I’ll go over putting the quilt top together with sashing and borders right here on this blog.

You may want to design a different layout for your heart blocks or follow Allison’s quilt tutorial from her site—Feel free to be creative! This is a casual sew along and a customizable project. The end goal is to have have fun sewing along with your Quilty virtual friends and have a finished project to gift, admire, or snuggle under by Valentine’s Day!

Assorted Art Gallery Fabrics from Mayfair and Foresta Fusion photo courtesy of Maureen Cracknell

You may have seen our fabric pull posts on Instagram as teasers to this sew along?

Maureen will be making her Heart Quilt from a mash up of Amy Sinabaldi’s MayFair and the new Foresta Fusion collection. Fusions are a group of ten prints from various Art Gallery Fabric designers that have been recolored and curated into the new color story. The two collections pair beautifully and have a romanic look for a heart quilt.

Quilt kits for the quilt Maureen will be stitching are available at Lady Belle Fabric.

The Heart Block is a fast block to piece and this quilt is a great way to show off your favorite prints! If you’re planning to make quilts like Maureen and mine, we’ve gone with a 30-block quilt and pulled 10 fat quarters. Background, backing, and binding requirements are listed in our free PDF download for the quilt layout in the illustration above.

Heart Quilt fabric pull by Sharon Holland

I’ll be making my Heart quilt from a curated mix of fabrics from: Art Gallery Fabrics Ballerina Fusion (a recolored mix of AGF designer prints), my Spirited, Everlasting, Signature, and Maureen’s Enchanted Voyage and Mystical Land collections.

My non-traditional Valentine colors remind me of sugared gum drops and candy. I’m crazy over this color palette and went with my heart when I did my fabric pull.

Due to the short notice of our sew along there’s not a quilt kit or bundle that exactly matches my fabric pull. However, Fabric Stork has created two beautiful bundles of ten Art Gallery Prints that would make a gorgeous heart block quilt that has a similar color story. You’ll still need to get your background fabric, backing, and binding.

AGF Bundle from Fabric Stork

AGF Bundle from Fabric Stork

We’ll be posting our progress on Instagram and encourage you to follow along and share your fabric pull and progress as well. When posting your quilt to Instagram use the sew along hashtag of #agfLOVEquilt and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns @maureencracknell and @cluckclucksew so we can see your progress! If you’re sewing with Art Gallery Fabrics don’t forget to tag them too as they love to see what Makers are making with @artgalleryfabrics !

I’ll be adding progress snippets, videos, and tips videos to my Instagram Stories as I work on my quilt. As you can see, I’m pretty far along and have all my 30 blocks made only after two half-day sewing sessions. I’m excited to see it all come together!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.