In Garden Dreamer Canvas : :

Since my last blog post I have been sewing nonstop with Garden Dreamer! Bags and pouches and pillows and even a completely finished quilt, all in just two days! Today I'm taking a little break to quickly share the last remaining member of my Garden Dreamer family -- the canvas!

With each new collection comes one new canvas and this canvas, named Moment in Time Dim, is my favorite one yet!



My roll arrived a few days before the quilting cottons and over the busy holiday Haila, my niece Ceci, and I found just enough time for us to stitch up new Easy Tote bags featuring this new canvas. The girls each made a slightly smaller version, paired with a Nightfall Moon Stories quilting cotton, and had such a blast sewing together!





I chose to wait to finish my bag once the rest of Garden Dreamer arrived, and paired the medium weight canvas bag exterior & pocket with my quilting cotton print Climbing Posies in Blush for the lining, and used a heavy weight, solid textured colored denim in Scarlet Brick that I had on hand for the handles.







Once again we followed the wonderful bag tutorial on the Purl Bee Blog for their Easy, Easier, and Easiest Totes, opting for the "Easy" one that includes French seams, a tote bag lining fabric, a handy pocket, and roomy boxed out bottom. I prefer to finish my bags with a boxed bottom, but mostly chose this Easy version so I could combine two pretty Garden Dreamer fabrics into one bag!



I am loving sewing with this new collection and I hope you'll love it, too! I'm excited to share that both of my sponsors Circa 15, Lady Belle Fabrics & Llama Fabrics are already carrying the entire collection and I'll have lots of Garden Dreamer inspiration to share with you all next week!

xo Maureen

p.s. I'm having a Flash Sample Sale in my Etsy Shop! Use coupon code: FLASH20 for an additional 20% off on Easy Totes, handmade stockings, pillows, scrap bundles, and even a few quilts!! https://www.etsy.com/shop/maureencracknell

AGF Stash -- Observer : :

There's nothing that sparks my creativity more than a fresh bundle of fabric! When April Rhodes' new Observer collection first arrived earlier this month, I wasted no time turning those beauties into a new quilt top! Using big 18" squares of each Observer print and the "Eight At a Time" method for making eight half square triangles at once, I quickly had more than enough HSTs needed to create the quilt top I had sketched out, with plenty of 8" trimmed & ready-to-sew units leftover.





From that first half yard bundle of Observer, all that remained was a pile of narrow strip scraps and a whole lotta HSTs. While I was trying to figure out a way to combine the leftover HSTs with these scraps, a commenter either here or on my Instagram mentioned what an amazing Diamond Weave Quilt this collection would make. Yes!! That idea was such a great one that my mind has been stuck there ever since! But, I'd need MORE Observer...

More for Diamond Weave quilt making.



More for backing my first Observer quilt.



More for Observer quilt bindings.



And, even a little Observer canvas for pillow backings and an upholstery project I'm hoping to tackle soon.



I think these Observer fabrics will keep me busy for a little while, and I hope you're inspired by these amazing fabrics that are so inspiring me!

My kiddos head back to school this Thursday, so I'm not looking to find much sewing time until then. It's been a wonderful, fun, & busy Summer, but I have to say -- I'm really looking forward to the return of a routine schedule! Who's with me?

XO Maureen