Sewing

Riverbend Inspiration

Today I’m sharing the backstory and inspiration of my newest fabric collection, Riverbend.

Riverbend Inspiration

August is just about here! That also means my newest fabric collection, Riverbend, starts shipping to stores! Be sure to ask your local quilt shop if they’ve ordered it! The collection is made up of my hand-drawn designs and is overprinted on Essex, Essex Yarn Dyed, and Essex Homespun! It’s 18 prints available in yardage! I hope you find them inspiring! NEW with this collection is a coordinating collection of my designs overprinted on Robert Kaufman’s own Big Sur canvas, it has a total of 8 designs. Yes, canvas!!!

Riverbend Inspiration

It was pretty thrilling to be able to sew projects for this collection. Pulling together different fabric combinations between the two collections was so fun! I love that there are so many options! I’m so excited to show you all the projects I’ve made using the collections.

I sewed up all the samples myself late last year and photographed them in January in a very cool modern cabin in Northern Minnesota. It was so fun to try a new location and work with all that inspiration!

Design Inspiration

Inspiration for Riverbend came about while living at my sister-in-law’s house while our own house was finishing up being built. We spent a few months at her house and it really ended up being such a memorable time. We were able to be together and be a really close knit part of each other’s lives.

One of the best parts of living at her home was the amazing location, right on the La Crosse River. They have such a large riverfront property and that fall we really enjoyed being outdoors. It was so unlike living in town. Going down to the river in the mornings and afternoons with our dog, Frida was the best! They have quite a few little trails to walk through and lots of wildflowers of course! So Riverbend was the perfect name for this collection – a collection of nature witnessed on one of the many bends of the La Crosse River!

I’ll be sharing all of my projects (bags, quilts, garments and more!) using Riverbend over the next few weeks! For now you can find Riverbend starting to arrive at your local quilt shop.

I hope you’ll enjoy using Riverbend in your next project! Thank you so much for being along on this journey.

Sewing

Irish Chain Quilt in Linen

Hope you all are having a great summer so far (and winter for those in the Southern Hemisphere!). I finished up a personal project that I’ve been working on for a few months. It’s exciting to finally have it complete – and Irish Chain quilt in linen!

Irish Chain Quilt in Linen

We moved about a year and a half ago and I of course have decorating that still needs to be done. I think in our last house, where we lived for 15 years, I finished decorating just before they took photos to list the house for sale. This time around I am determined to make progress a little more quickly!

Irish Chain Quilt in Linen
Irish Chain Quilt in Linen

I have a large blank wall on the back side of our mudroom area that needed something so it wasn’t so boring. I waffled back and forth on a few ideas, but didn’t commit until earlier this Spring. I made a wall quilt you guys! It’s the perfect project and I’m so happy with how it came together! I don’t make too many quilts, but always love them.

So the wall that it’s on is a little hallway of sorts and it opens up to a larger area coming from the laundry room. And of course the acoustics in there can be loud! The quilt I hope to soften a little of that noise – plus I love the way it looks.

Pattern Information

I chose an Irish Chain quilt after seeing some inspiration pictures. I wanted a very traditional quilt design – so the Irish Chain was perfect. I had purchased Celtic Crossing 2.0 by Lo & Behold earlier for another project. It ended up being the perfect starting point for me. It made things so easy just to follow her pattern. I flipped the colors to be the more traditional layout (with the chains being darker) and omitted the border pieces.

The fabrics I used were Kona Natural and Essex Yarn Dyed (which is a cotton/linen blend) in Flax. Two of my all-time favorites! I had Olive Juice Quilts (my local quilt shop) do the quilting. I love how it turned out.

Wall Hanger

Lastly, I purchased a custom textile wall hanger (from Well Made Chicago on Etsy). It is such a great design and was easy to install. I’m hoping to make another quilt so I can swap it out when I feel like it – maybe something with dark colors just for a change.

Project Details:

I have some more pictures I took of the quilt on my bed, too just for fun.

Irish Chain Quilt in Linen
Sewing

Olive Twill Haralson

Okay! This olive twill Haralson just had to be shared. I drug my feet big time in getting final photos of the last few Haralson bags I’ve made. Spring always brings busy schedules and then of course I had to go and catch a cold. Anyway, I’m glad to be able to share here.

Olive Twill Haralson

It’s just been so much fun seeing what everyone else is making. I love seeing your individual spin on the pattern! There’s be so many fun ones sewn up, I couldn’t pick a favorite if I tried.

Be sure to check out the full video sew-along on my blog/youtube.

Olive Twill Haralson

Sew with cotton twill!

Cotton twill makes for a great substrate for the Haralson exterior fabric.

  • a great weight for this project!
  • typically comes in a lot of beautiful colors
  • very beginner friendly to sew with
  • relatively easy to find, inexpensive
  • fusible interfacing adheres well!
  • most of the time twill comes in a wider width off the bolt – so more fabric per yard!
  • twill comes in prints, too, not just solids – great to have options! See you at Six fabrics has some really fun prints! I’ve ordered some from Style Maker Fabrics and Bolt Fabrics
Olive Twill Haralson

This sample is one that I made while filming the Haralson sew-along. I think it might end up going to my Mom. She loves green! We’ll see if it passes the test. 😉

The Loxx fastener is pretty cool. If you have time to watch the video, you can see how easy it is to install.

I’m very excited that the Haralson has so many great options for hardware closures. It makes it fun and adds a different look depending on which type you use! Plus it really comes in handy when you might already have one of the hardware types in your sewing stash!

I’m having fun adding more colors of webbing to my shop, too, so check in if you haven’t in a while. I have about 10 colors per size and plan to keep adding more. It’s a fun and quick option for straps!

Project Details: