If you follow me on Instagram, then you have probably seen a few dozen photos showcasing this awesome fabric line in the past six months. I had the pleasure of working with Samarra and Lecien Fabrics to create a few samples for their Fall 2016 look book and Quilt Market booth. I was also given extra yardage, and decided to make a dress and some other little odds and ends. What better time to share all these goodies than a blog hop, right?

The Projects:

The first piece I whipped up was a 60″ version of my Spinning Icosahedron Quilt. Samarra really wanted to see her fabrics mixed with this pattern, and after a lot of convincing, I agreed. I’m glad I did too, because I am absolutely in love with this quilt. The colors were easy to mix and match, and they stand out beautifully against the white background (which is Lecien’s solid white cotton btw).

In normal Jessee fashion, I had to go that next step with my design. So of course I also made an actual 3D Icosahedron that matches the flattened quilt version. I even made a video of the 3D piece spinning in front of the quilt, but due to my lack of video editing skills, I have no idea how to share it!! There is a lower quality version on Instagram that will give you an idea of what im talking about.

I used a few techniques to assemble this piece, but I will not be showing a tutorial due to the finished piece (not the technique) being very similar to a project on Sew Mama Sew. I will post a tutorial at some point this year showing the technique with a different shape. Keep an eye out!

Of course I didn’t stop with just those two projects! I also made the calculator quilt from Samarra’s book Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble (you may remember me making this quilt from her book last year) It is a quick sew with huge impact! It’s also a huge quilt in size and perfect for a kids bed, which is where this one now lives.

The photo above only shows the quilt top, since I never got a good shot of it all quilted up. You can kind of see the wood grain and wavy design I did in the photos further down. The size did make it a little difficult to photograph once quilted. I also used plush batting, so it is HEAVY!

For my final project today, I wanted to show that Geogram is also great for non quilting related things. I decided to go neutral and make a Geranium Dress with the dark grey fabric and just a little pop of color.

Since the prints are non directional for the most part, it was easy to get as much out of the yardage as possible. That is always a plus when making kids clothes that you know they’ll grow out of in a year.

I still have enough fabric leftover to make myself something nice! I’m thinking maybe a bag? A family of pouches? Some awesome pillows? I don’t know yet, but I’ll try and share it here when I do.

Quilt Market Booth:

I wanted to also take this time to show off what the booth looked like at Quilt Market this past fall. I was unable to attend, but Samarra and few others sent me some awesome photos of the quilts hanging up and the 3D piece hanging out with her other creations (I’ve heard that those animal portraits may be hand sewing patterns soon! How neat are they?)

Blog Hop Schedule:

Thank you for stopping by and checking out all the projects I made using the Geogram Fabric! I am just one of many stops along this blog tour, and I think you should go and check out everyone else’s posts too. There is a load of inspiration going on here…

Random Photos:

I thinking I’m going to run with this idea and see exactly what I can make when I mix my jewelry with my quilting. The sky is the limit.

For now I’ve added a whole bunch of pieces using the scans to my Society6 shop…

I am slowly ordering swatches from Spoonflower and currently a few colorways are available as yardage with more coming super soon…

Also any designs available in my Spoonflower shop can also be used on Sprout Patterns. How cool is this dress? I want it so bad…

Seriously, there is so much more I can do here! Other shapes, more casting techniques, different colors, etc. I am so excited by this project and will probably be sharing more about it soon!

Betz has reached out and asked a couple designers to add their personality to a few of her patterns. In exchange for doing this blog post, I received a fully printed panel of my own designs printed on Eco Canvas through Sprout Patterns.

The design process on Sprout is really cool. You can choose from any design available on Spoonflower.com and add them to different sections of whatever item you want to make. I chose the Field Study Tote by Betz White and added my own fabric designs. I messed around with this thing for close to an hour to get the exact look I wanted. There were so many possibilities.

In the end this is what I loved the most! Isn’t the digital mockup neat? You can see exactly what your finished piece will look like.

The fabric takes anywhere from 1-2 weeks to come in, which isn’t bad for a custom product. I was so excited to cut in to mine I forgot to take a photo of my panel!

Once your fabric comes in, you need to go back in to your Sprout Pattern account and retrieve the instructions. They can be found in the Orders section under Your Account.

Another awesome feature is you get to keep the original pattern. Which means you could make a second, third, or fourth bag out of fabric you already have on hand too. You basically bought the pattern as part of the initial cost. I love that they included this.

The bag went together fairly easy. I did struggle a little with adhering the stabilizer to the Eco Canvas (which is like a backpack material. kind of shiny). I think this was my fault, since I didn’t wash the panel first. Spoonflower recommends you do! Don’t be me, wash your fabric.

I also learned a new skill with those handles. How neat are they all folded up like that?

The strap normally has a slider on it, so you can adjust it, but mine is on back order so I just temporarily tacked the fabric up as if there was a slider. Haha, I have the worst luck! I plan on adding it later once they come in. If you make this bag, it will look way nicer with a slider.

I’m very happy with how this bag turned out, and I like the options to use it as a tote bag OR a messenger bag. The material also feels very durable and I imagine it will hold up for awhile.

I will always be amazed by these new options to make customized items. It will never get old. I’m already dreaming up a Moneta Dress with fabric similar to the bag. I just need to feel more comfortable with my serger first.

If you’d like to mess around with clothing or accessory patterns on Sprout yourself, then just head over to their site. I also recommend going to Spoonflower and favorite whatever designs catch your eye. Having favorites will make them easier to find on Sprout.

Now go and make yourself some one of a kind pieces!!

Lately I have been working with Michael Miller fabrics on a few quilts to show off some upcoming lines, nothing else that I can share other than the Equestrian Quilt Last week. I have also had the pleasure of working with one of their basics, Painter’s Canvas. It’s basically a solid with some texture and it goes great with my simpler quilt designs.

There are 27 colors with coordinating texture, and then 8 with gold texture. I have been working with all of the bright colors, and have included them in three quilts so far. All three are patterns that will be released within the next four months, so keep an eye out for them.

I loved playing with the lines and turning them in different directions to get different looks. It really brought all of my designs to life and made them way less flat. So if you’re feeling the same way about one of your designs, I totally suggest this line!

So I am now working on a second, much smaller project using all of these beauties…

These marbled designs are my absolute favorite and I plan on getting a few yards of each when they officially come out! I’m thinking dresses, kids skirts, quilt backing, quilt binding and so much more! It’s just too perfect!

The line officially comes out May 2016, so keep an out at your favorite shops local or online!

I’m taking it slow this spring and I am only working on one project, and it just happens to be for the company I’ve been working with the longest, Andover Fabrics.

It will be a super tall and skinny banner featuring all of the Lizzy House line shown above and using an upcoming pattern of mine. I won’t be showing TOO  much of the progress over the next few weeks because I don’t want to give that much of the pattern away.

Instead let’s just drool over just how gorgeous the Whisper Palette by Lizzy House really is…

Look at all those pretty grays and low volumes!! I can not wait to cut in to these soon!!

Here is just a small sampling of what I’ve been working on lately, and what I’ve been posting on InstaGram. I am itching to finish most of these projects and I can’t wait to share them with you all here!

Today I am super excited to share a project from the newly released book Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble by my friend Samarra Khaja. When she contacted me asking if I would like to review the book, my response was “I’m not great at reviewing things. I don’t hate enough. So how about I make something?” She went for it, and here we are!

To make this post even more awesome, there is a giveaway involved! You just have to read on a little more for all of the details.

The Book:

Samarra is one of those ladies who sees the fun in everything around her, and her sense of humor is great. When you flip through Sew Adorkable, you can see just how much of herself she poured in to this book. Every project has just the right level of cute, funny and nerdy and most can be made for kids or adults. All of my favorite things.

There is a nice mix of small and large projects, so no matter your time constraint, you can finish something! You can see above the super cute Toothy, the Tooth Fairy pillows and the Typewriter Tissue Box Cover, that are perfect one day projects.

Then there are projects like the Candy Dots Quilt and the fabric Prehistoric Portrait Painting

Plus there are clothing projects for both kids and adults, more home decor and even more quilts. Then to top it off, Samarra talks about her life as a textile designer and shows a peek at her process. I love a good back story!

If you would like to see more inside peeks at Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble, and hear Samarra talk, then check out this cute video CT Publishing put together to promote the book.

The Project I Made:

It took a little while to pick out the perfect first project to try from this book. I was torn between the Calculator Quilt, The Odd Socks Quilt and the 8-Bits Bird Quilt. With help from my husband, I settled on the Odd Socks Quilt.

I’m not going to give away the secrets to making this quilt, but I will say the instructions are well written and not scary at all! You need to buy the book to get all the juicy details.

I used a nice mix of white on white fabrics for the socks, scrap fabric for all the details and Hoffman Fabrics new ME+YOU batiks line for the background and the binding.

The overall finished piece is 38″ square and I long arm quilted it using two layers of cotton batting to give the piece even more texture and dimension.

I absolutely love the finished piece and have already hung it up in my home, right outside the laundry room. I am also already planning on trying out one of those other projects I wanted to make. Maybe the 8-Bit Birds quilt first? I wonder if I have any family members who would like it as a gift? (I’m in holiday sewing mode these days)

The Giveaway:

Here’s that giveaway I was talking about earlier. Samarra and C&T Publishing are giveaway away a free copy of Sew Adorkable to one of my awesome readers! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment below telling me your favorite nerdy thing. It could be a TV show/movie, book/graphic novel, video game, board game, event or anything else I’m forgetting. Let it all out!!

Now the technical details: One book per winner. Open internationally, however if winner lives outside of the US, they will receive a promo code to purchase the ebook version free of charge. US winner will receive a hard copy. Entries are open until midnight, October 26th. Please make sure your email address is correct when commenting, otherwise I won’t be able to contact you! Winner will be chosen at random, using random.org.

The Rest of the Tour:

I am just the fifth stop on the Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble blog tour. I highly recommend checking out all of the other super talented and interesting bloggers and companies involved. I’ve already seen some amazing projects, and from the looks of this list, I bet all the future posts will be just as awesome.

The above line I’ve named Lucy’s Sketchbook. Lucy is the name of my daughters favorite doll, so I went with it. I made five color stories and tried to make them all consistent. Something new for me. This line is very “me” and I’ve already started a huge project using it that I just can’t wait to share.

I also had a few stray designs printed up as well. The little cream and gray birds and the GO FRUIT! pennant fabric are leftovers from the Just Two Words project. The Cats Love Yarn fabric was just some doodles I did one day when I really should have been drawing something else!! I think I need to make some more color options for that one!

All of these can be found in my Spoonflower.com shop!

The one I was most excited about was my In Plain Sight line that I talked about last week. I tested out a few different scales & color ways to see which ones I liked best. Turns out I like having options, which means I added the small AND large sized bugs and teacups fabric to my Spoonflower shop.

I had swatches made of the entire Purple & Blue color way, because it really is my favorite color combo these days.

I also dabbled a little in colors I don’t normally gravitate too. I’m pretty happy with how they came out, so they were also added to the shop and I’ll probably have the rest of the collection available in these colors by the end of the month.

Oh and for fun I added a few of the above designs I’ve been messing around with in Illustrator too. They aren’t part of a collection, I was just curious what they would look like as fabric!

These swatches were really what I needed this week to get the creative juices flowing and start working on the next collection. I am really enjoying this all again!!!