Sample Sewing for the Shop

The hint of changing seasons always reminds me that it is time to make other changes, too. I've been sewing away on some new samples for the shop. The first two went up last week with many more to follow.

This pattern is a good one for a fast project to show off a beautiful fabric. It's a good size for a baby quilt, too. One lesson I learned on this one is to wait until after the border is pieced to cut the center square. My center square was smaller than my border so I added a skinny border to make it the right size. This was one of those happy mistakes since this quilt would be really bland without the splash of color the skinny border brings. I'll also bind this one with the darker color. I just love how the pink, brown, and gold work together in this quilt.

This table runner is one of my favorite go to patterns when I want to show off new fabric in the shop. It's fast and its classy. The pattern is Mirror Image by Pieced Tree Patterns. We've probably used this one four or five times in the shop. This time it is showing off fabric from Nancy Halvorsen's newest fabric collection, Bittersweet.


I just finished this one this morning. It is an Atkinson Designs pattern called Happy Holidays. The pattern has instructions for three sizes so it can be a table topper or Christmas tree skirt. This is the smallest size. I was going for a subtle holiday look. The trick to success for this project is accurate 1/4" seams. Those 60 degree triangles become uncooperative in a hurry if your seam allowance is too big or too small.


I made these placemats over the weekend. They work best on a round table. This was a fun project. Rather than choose just one fabric layout for all four placemats, I used each fabric in a different place each time. This was a good study on how the same fabric and the same pattern can yield some very different results.

There are three more projects waiting for me on the sewing table. I'm excited to get the shop all freshened up for fall!