A Sun Kissed Debut!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of sharing the studio display that I created with my upcoming collection with Art Gallery Fabrics, Sun Kissed, due in store this December! When I began work on this collection in January of this year there was plenty of snow and rain and ice and cold yet to come for us in Northern PA. Happy colors and thoughts of our annual family beach vacation were on my mind and I found myself sketching the magic and wonder of the Summer Season!



"A warm breeze making the palm trees dance. Sun Kissed is glowing skin after a cool swim, a puppy’s joyful bandana, colorful pool tiles, that floral dress that will always remind us of a lovely and bright Summertime, forever engraved in vibrant tones of ocean blue, cherry red and citrus yellow."



While I was at home, sharing my studio display and celebrating the debut of this next collection, my Art Gallery Fabrics family was in Houston at Quilt Market taking pre-orders of Sun Kissed.

There are a total of 25 pieces in Sun Kissed. A 20-piece quilting cotton collection, 3 knits, 1 rayon and 1 canvas, and I have been working on some very fun sewing to create my display that will be included in my upcoming LookBook which I'll be sharing in the coming weeks!



I would have loved the opportunity to attend Quilt Market in Houston. I truly enjoy the whole production of putting a display together at the event, especially getting the opportunity to speak with shop owners and industry professionals one on one about the inspiration behind each collection. Although I wasn't able to attend, creating a studio display to share the collection's story as the designer, and to present my fabrics as samples is very important to me.

With creating the perfect space to capture and nurture a child's artistic whims as my inspiration, I got to work making my list of samples, and I love how this display came together! Included is a Sparkler inspired quilt because this collection celebrates the best of Summertime. Colorful baby doll bedding, rainbow pillows and garland because I adore these happy colors. Journals and bags galore perfect for travel & adventuring! It was such a joy to sew with this fun collection and to create this display!



When it came time to make Sun Kissed fabric samples I've never left so many pieces of fabric intact to let the beauty of each print show. From drawstring & tote bags to half a dozen zipper pouch bags to water bottle & lunch bags in quilting cotton, canvas and rayon, I stitched up loads of bags with this collection!



This cosmetic style bag is a favorite of mine and is made in Sun Kissed Summerdress Dreams Ray, a happy yellow floral bursting with color!



This colorful sewing setup has me wanting to sit down and fire up Haila's sweet, little Janome to make more Sun Kissed things!

How about you, what will you make with this collection?



I hope you love Sun Kissed as much as I have loved creating it and creating with it!

xo Maureen

Home from Quilt Market : :

I'm home from Quilt Market where I exhibited my Flower Child fabrics, my next collection with Art Gallery Fabrics due to ship in April 2018!





Fall International Quilt Market is a credentialed trade only event, not open to the general public that takes place in Houston, TX each Fall. It's always a blast and this year's show was no exception! As an Art Gallery Fabrics designer, I have a wall display within their larger booth space. It's so much fun to have this time to spend with my AGF family & fellow designers. I really enjoy the process of creating a special presentation for each new line that I design. Each collection inspires a new plan and Flower Child was all about whimsical floral details!



This show I remembered to snap a few before photos of my nearly bare aqua walls to share. I'd be full of it if I didn't admit that I felt some serious nerves when I first looked through the lens at my empty wall space. Even with my fingers crossed that all would come together the way I had been prepping and planning for, more than anything it feels exciting and is just so much fun to put it all together!





I'm a lucky girl to have so much help from sewing friends, who take the time to sew and create such amazing pieces for me to include in my display - from my Flower Child sign to incredible quilts, beautiful garments to stunning bags! Because this collection doesn't come out until April, throughout the Quilt Market show and in today's post, I can only share the overview pics I took for now, but come closer to the official release I plan to do a dedicated post using detailed pics that were taken by myself and each of the makers, I can't wait!



My good friend and fellow AGF sister, Sharon Holland, helped me during most of Friday's setup to assemble the seven giant crepe paper flowers that I made for my display. These beautiful, colorful flowers absolutely made my booth! I will be making more of these to decorate my new studio soon!















So what do you think of Flower Child? Fun, right?! I hope you love this collection as much as I do!

For today, I just had to share my Quilt Market adventure with you all in photos! Although I do wish I could gush about each print and each sample, that will have to wait a few more months until we're closer to when this new line is available. I have a couple dozen beautiful Love Story rolls that arrived just before I left for Houston waiting for me! I hope you're ready to join me for lots of Love Story sewing!! Love Story should be shipping very soon and I can't wait to share and see what's made with these fabrics!!

I'll be back soon to share my first Love Story projects!! xx Maureen

Soulful is here!

I'm so excited to announce that Soulful is finally shipping to shops and you'll soon be able to see this brand new collection in person at your favorite LQS! It's also beginning to pop up in online shops, you can find the growing list on my SHOP My Fabrics page. Pretty please let me know if you discover any shops carrying Soulful so I can add them to the list!



Last month I traveled to St. Louis to show Soulful at International Quilt Market. I mostly shared that adventure on my Instagram but today I'm excited to share a little bit more here on the blog to celebrate it's official release!

I began planning my Soulful Quilt Market "booth" as soon as it was finalized with AGF. The first thing I purchased for my display was this beautiful embroidered canopy from Free People. This is the first collection I've created that includes so many gray tones and the sheer gray net would provide the perfect accessory to surround with colorful Soulful projects! From there I simply got busy making strike off samples, with the help of SO many talented friends, and gathering up things scattered about our home to include in the booth. Since Soulful at it's core is about surrounding oneself with things loved and treasured, the meaningful things collected by just living, it was easy for me to tell it's story with my own belongings at Quilt Market. For me that's what Quilt Market is all about, telling the collection's story is the reason I love going so much second only to getting to visit with so many wonderful friends. Merchandising has been a passion of mine since I was a young teenager, working my first retail job at a local clothing store who's owner trusted me to do window displays at a very young age. Looking back I realize now what a blessing that opportunity was for me, not knowing that twenty years later I'd be using those cultivated skills to present my own fabrics as an exhibitor at Quilt Market twice a year.



The color palette of Soulful is filled with soft, dreamy colors infused with a little magic in the form of purples and fuchsia and teal. After releasing my fifth collection I've realized that I have a bit of a whimsical flair that carries through each of my collections. It's not anything deliberate but, I think it comes from my love of fairytales and interest in discovering the true magic of everyday life. Plus, I love to add a little sparkle!



In addition to a focal floral, Floral Universe and Crystal Awakening the gemstones print, I'm excited to include a mandala print in Soulful. There's something about a circle that has always lured me in. Looking around our home, it’s hard to find a piece of purchased or thrifted décor that’s angled and rigid in nature. Most of the things we collect seem to be spherical, round, flowing, plus drawing mandalas is something I've done for as long as I can remember. Since mandala in Sanskrit means "Magical Circle" it was the perfect symbol to pair with these other meaningful main prints to represent inclusion, wholeness, unity. I'm so excited to have these prints to sew with!



I'll be sharing many more Soulful images, project inspiration, and behind the scenes sewing here and on my social media accounts in the weeks ahead. Be sure to follow along to see what I'm stitching up, and please remember to share your own Soulful makes with the collection hashtag #SoulfulFabrics!

You can see the full quilting cotton collection, plus which prints are available in knit and rayon NOW at:

http://liveartgalleryfabrics.com/soulful-fabric-collection/

I can't wait to show you the LookBook a little later this month and I really can't wait to see all of what you'll create from these fabrics! I'm so excited to share Soulful with all of you.  I hope you love these prints as much as I do!!

♡ Maureen

Introducing, Soulful!

Monday was the BIG reveal day for my Spring 2017 collection, SOULFUL! Did you see? I'm so excited to finally be able to share it with all of you!

Art Gallery Fabrics first gave a fun sneak peek on both their Instagram and Facebook pages, in the form of a beautiful Wonky Pinwheel quilt block made using my Soulful strike offs, along with a collage including a few prints from the new collection!





Like all things, there's a story attached to this collection ~ Soulful is inspired by family mementos, pieces of nature, handmade goods, vintage finds, and all the beauty that comes from surrounding ourselves with the things we love most. This collection celebrates the gentle spirit of makers, dreamers, and soul seekers. I hope you love it just as much as I loved creating it!



I'm so excited to sew with these colors - the florals, mandalas, crystals, and lacey-inspired prints! My intention was to create a collection that captured the sweet, softer, romantic boho style that I love so much and I'm really happy with how Soulful turned out!

You can view the complete collection at AGF ~ HERE
Retailers can find the wholesale information for ordering ~ HERE

Start looking for Soulful in your favorite shops next month!  And make sure to hashtag your photos on Instagram #SoulfulFabrics! :)

I'm going to be busy sewing with Souldful these next few weeks, preparing for Spring Quilt Market in St. Louis. I can't wait to share more with you all soon!

♡ Maureen

Home from Market : :

I'm back from Salt Lake City! It was such a wonderful trip. I had big plans to blog & Instagram & post on Facebook while at the show, but it became such a beautiful whirlwind of catching up with old friends and making new, that each day I came up short. Just imagine being surrounded by that much creativity, by so many who share such similar goals as your own, who are both so full of passion and are so very generous to share their dreams with others. Market is overflowing with inspiration everywhere, and it's best to soak it in. So that's just what I did. Then yesterday, after a long day of traveling home I did something I never do, I went back to sleep after I saw the kiddos off to school. I woke up at eleven! I opened my eyes with a renewed perspective and a feeling of rejuvenation. While this was only my forth Quilt Market -- the first being a four-hour flurry, followed by three where I presented my fabrics, and although with each one it has felt new and very different in both good and disappointing ways, here's the thing about going to Market and getting away -- you end up returning home with exactly what you need to keep going & growing: Inspiration.



My booth design turned out exactly as I dreamt it would, but not without a few little mishaps along the way. I've learned by now that's to be expected and it's best to just stay focused, adjust when needed, and to keep working your vision. In the end, it told the Nightfall story I was hoping to convey and that felt truly magical!











Just for today, I thought I'd start by sharing these photos that I took at the very end of set-up Thursday night. If you'd like to see and hear a little bit more about my booth design and Nightfall projects, you can view the video Art Gallery Fabrics shared live from the show on their Facebook page right HERE! You can also checkout the collection hashtag #NightfallFabrics on Instagram. I’m so grateful for this amazing opportunity. It was so good to get away but it's so great to be home! I'll be back soon with more to share!

XO Maureen

Herringbone in Nightfall : :

Most of the Nightfall fabric samples my friends and I have made for Quilt Market combine prints from both colorways, Moonrise & Moonset, with a substantial amount of solids and denim added in to each project since the size of strike off pieces are limiting. I love the addition of all the denim! But when a second set of strike off samples arrived the other day, I finally had enough to make a few things with no need to add in any blenders at all! At this point, it was only the shortage of sewing time that narrowed my options. So, I decided to stick with my favorite, fast, and faithful herringbone quilt-as-you-go! I separated colorways to make one big pillow in Moonrise and a second big pillow in Moonset, and I love the result!

To make each 20" square bound pillow, I started with two batting rectangles measuring 10½ " x 20½" and 2¼" long strips of each Nightfall print, beginning with Moonrise!



Then with Moonset!



I teach how to make these blocks into both pillows and quilts in my Craftsy class, Quick Quilt As You Go!  They are so much fun to make, I always want to keep going until I have enough to make a quilt. I didn't have the time with these, but now I can see what a pretty Diamond Strings Quilt these would be and have made it my plan for when I return from Salt Lake City!



Each pillow is backed in my Mystical Woods Canvas, is bound using the same Essentials II gold stripe I used to finish my Owl QAYG quilt, and showcases a Nightfall colorway, minus the owls!





Once these two large pillows were finished up, I decided to whip up a quick, scrappy, mini 12" pillow!



And with that, is the last of my Nightfall Quilt Market prep sewing & posts before the big show! I've really enjoyed sharing so much of what I've been making with all of you who take the time to stop by & who so sweetly encourage me to keep dreaming big, I can't believe where all this has taken me! I started packing over the weekend and leave tomorrow afternoon. This trip is another first for me, since I'm flying solo this time around. I'm quite nervous, but am so excited at the same time! If you're attending the show, be sure to stop by the Art Gallery Fabrics booth to visit. Otherwise, I'll be back as soon as I can to share how it all comes together!

XO Maureen

Hello Pillows : :

This past October my Fleet & Flourish Fall Quilt Market sewing came to an unexpectedly abrupt halt when my son Jacob ended up in the ICU with Colitis just a week and a half before I had to leave for the show. What I was able to make up to the point of him getting sick had to be enough, and it was. Thankfully he recovered quickly, I was able to leave for my trip without worry, and it all came together as I hoped it would without anyone seemingly noticing there was a whole list of things missing that weren't able to be made. When I finished setting up my booth it was just the absence of a few more pillows that had me a little disappointed. And so... this time around my Quilt Market pillow making is verging on excessive! I figure I can always edit some out if it's too much in the end, right? I mentioned last week that I had made three new pillows with a star theme and today I thought I'd share two more of those before blogging about the three I made this week, Ha!



This first pillow is a simple Sawtooth Star block with a tiny Nightfall patchwork center and border.
My patchwork squares finish at just 2" and I was able to use so many of the tiny scraps I had leftover from my larger projects. Love that!



I finished the back of this pillow with AGF's Solid Textured heavy weight and Smooth Solid denims, a framed piece of my Moon Stories in Spark bunny & moon print, with narrow strips of Nightfall scraps.



I used my very favorite denim, Cool Foliage, for the binding! I love this vintage gray-blue with my Nightfall fabrics!



This next pillow is made using the same quilt as you go method I teach in my Craftsy Class, Quick Quilt As You Go, to make my Criss Cross Diamond Quilt project. For the pillow I simply switched up the size of each block, used different piecing, and strip width. I can't wait to make a Nightfall quilt using this QAYG pattern!



I designed this one to feature my dragonflies print, Nox Iridescence in Aglow, adding a single, pretty, fussy cut dragonfly to each corner!



I finished this one using up the last of my Nightfall scraps and more denim!



I'll be back soon with a few more things to share, but first... Tomorrow I have a Bohemian Garden Aurifil Thread Box Giveaway planned, so be sure to stop back!  ♡ Maureen