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!

Last week I spent almost my entire week, and weekend wandering around the International Quilt Market! It’s an industry professional only trade show that is all about sewing. It’s where fabric, thread, batting, pattern, and other companies show off the newest and greatest products.

I go to help find jobs since I am technically freelance, but while I’m there I also do a lot of shopping. The night before the trade show flood opens they have this event called Sample Spree where you can buy bundles of fabric that isn’t out yet, so you can make a sample piece to help promote the fabric when it does come out. This is mainly meant for shop owners, but people like me use it when designing new patterns where there is time in between photographing the pattern and the actual pattern coming out. This way your pattern can be released the same time as the new fabric and it will be super relevant and make people want to replicate it. Does that make sense?

Well this event gets super crazy and there is a lot of running, pushing, shoving and more. It’s really hard to explain the craziness without seeing it in person. I went in with a list and only scored maybe 1/3rd of it.

Luckily for me a friend grabbed this bundle for me…

It’s the brand new line from Rifle Paper Co. named Les Fleurs and is part of a collaboration with Cotton + Steel fabrics.

It’s a little busier than I would normally go for, but I have a pattern being released soon that would look great in these fabrics.

The bundle I ended up with had numerous substrates in it (different types of fabrics) so I photographed them all separately for the most part, to show them off better.

The first substrate is 100% quilting cotton. I’d say half the bundle was quilting cotton actually. As you can see from the photos (which doesn’t do this stuff justice) the colors are super vibrant and rich. It’s like something out of a Wes Anderson movie.

Everything above this sentence is quilting cotton.

Next up is their Lawn fabric, which is slightly thinner than quilting cotton and can be used nicely for quilts and clothing. The blue flower print in the above photo is actually Rayon, I got confused while photographing them!

These are the other Rayon prints. The drape of this fabric is beautiful and so flowy. If I was more girly, I’d probably make some dresses out of it.

The rest of the bundle of their thick Linen/Cotton Canvas. I’m not 100% how I’m going to use these pieces, but I can say they really are gorgeous! Even though the designs are printed on an unbleached fabric, the colors are still really pretty. There is also a huge panel that is just illustrations of different city maps. I LOVE it.

This fabric isn’t quite out yet, but I bet you’ll start seeing sample pieces popping up everywhere soon enough. I myself have several projects planned out.

All the substrates of Les Fleurs are scheduled to be in shops July 2016! That’s only a month or so away, and a lot of shops already have pre-order listings set up!!

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!

About two months ago I was contacted by the lovely people over at Andover Fabrics with an idea they had for a rainbow wall of mini quilts at QuiltCon this year. They would send me the fabric in a specific colorway and I would send them a mini quilt to hang in their booth during the event. I have been very sick, and haven’t had the energy to finish anything large, but I figured I could hand sew most of the mini so I said “yes!”

They sent me the gorgeous bundle of blue and white fabric shown above, which arrived right at the beginning of the blizzard we had. The majority of the fat quarters were either by Lizzy House or Alison Glass. The rest was from various other lines with Andover (I really should look in to them because they were all beautiful).

I decided to hand sew this mini using the technique called English Paper Piecing. I’ve talked about it loads on here before, but usually I just sew hexagons. I’ve been branching out in to other shapes lately and I’m just dying to show you all where it’s taken me. This piece of course being the first one. It took me about a week and a half to baste and piece, and then one day to matchstick quilt.

As you can see if this photo, I tried something new and did matchstick quilting (super close quilting) in various directions to kind of break up the design a bit. I also quilted to middle in a grid pattern to separate it from the rest of the design.

The finished piece ended up being 18″ across, and I am over the moon happy with how this piece turned out! I really can’t wait to mess with this idea a bit more. Would anyone be interested in a pattern? I number all the pieces and have a legend already to go, since that’s the way I work.

Added Bonus: Here’s a shot of my mini surrounded by all of the other pieces made for their booth!! (photo by @giucy_giuce on IG . One of the faces behind this project btw) How gorgeous are they?!? I feel so honored to be included in this group full of peers and friends. I really wish i could of been there to see it all in person, byt that just wasn’t in the cards this year. Next year however I WILL be there,no matter what!

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!

For me this was a no brainer, because you know, cooked crabs are orange! Im a Maryland girl born and raised, so crabs are a staple meal. They train you to pick crabs young here! Well, at least I was taught young. They are one of my favorite meals and I have loads of crab artwork and toys laying around the house.

I started by designing a basic repeat pattern for the umbrella itself. I started with the above sketch and went from there.

After I finished the umbrella, I felt like I should keep going. So of course I designed an entire line of crab fabric. I made sure to include some crab crackers and a mallet on some, then some Old Bay on others. Oh and I didn’t forget the uncooked blue crab in murky Chesapeake water! I made it all. Ha. I think this might be my new fabric line, I have plans to make an entire quilt using it!!!

You can find all of these prints in my Spoonflower shop, and maybe soon I’ll have some premade zipper pouches too, because “why not?”

Anyway, back to the Just Two Words Project…

I am still loving this and its been both challenging and fun each week. You should go check out Heidi’s post from this set, I love the direction she went.

I brought this frustration up to my friend Heidi not too long ago. She has been spending time watching the CreativeBug Fabric Design course and wanted to test out her new knowledge. She had the brilliant idea of giving ourselves weekly (or biweekly) design challenges that had a specific theme and end project. For the theme we would each choose a word and combine them. We also wouldn’t share anything we had drawn until the next week or so, that way the finished project was a complete surprise and we didn’t influence one another. The second I heard this idea I said “YES!” and possibly some curse words.

Last week was our first week and the theme was Bugs & Teacups and the finished piece was to be a repeat pattern. At first I was super excited and went straight to my sketchbook. I drew pages of bugs, started scanning them in and digitizing them. I won’t lie, I got super frustrated with the teacups and put off drawing them for as long as I could. I just wanted to draw bugs. I may have sent text’s stating just how much I hated Teacups…

We started this challenge on Monday, and I didn’t get to the teacups until Saturday night. I’m glad I waited though because I’m really happy with how they ended up. I placed a bug on each cup, except for one, which had a bug crawling out of it. Kind of like it was hiding among the bug illustrations. This concept is where I came up with the name for the line, In Plain Sight.

I’m not 100% sure what I will do with this collection. It was made for fun and to add to my portfolio. I DID order some spoonflower swatches just to see, but I can’t guarantee that I will sell fabric. I’m still trying to decide. the best part though? I can change my mind whenever I like!

I absolutely loved this challenge, and I loved seeing what Heidi came up with too. We both have very different styles and view things in different ways. She has this magic ability to make everything super cute, and I like to go the geometric route. This weeks challenge has already been chosen, and I’m really looking forward to Monday to share my idea and see what Heidi came up. Mondays wont be as bad now, huh?

My favorite product is the Silhouette brand Sewable Fabric Interfacing. I use it in every fabric project I make for their blog, plus a load of personal projects for myself. It’s a great time saver that adds a special personal touch to your sewing projects. I use it to personalize quilted pieces or cut super intricate designs. It’s also great for kids clothes and any type of sewn gift.

I chose a personalized stocking as the project to showcase the Sewable Interfacing because it’s been on my to do list for YEARS! I started three, one for each of us, but was only able to finish the one shown due to my sewing machine malfunctioning. I’m hoping to share the other two, that my family helped design, later in the month.

I wanted to show each of our very different personalities in a quilted sock form. Mine shows my love for shapes, polka dots, fabric with writing on it and the color gray. The Honeycomb Background design file would have taken forever to cut by hand, but with my Silhouette CAMEO it only took a few minutes.

I also love how it looks super complicated, but was super easy to put together!

I used the Stocking design file and enlarged it as big I could to fit on the 12″x24″ cutting mat. I cut just the basic stocking shape out of card stock. I then opened the Honeycomb Background file and tilted it slightly so the edge near the toe made it look like a sock with those different colored toe tips. I clicked on “Release Compound Path” so all of the honeycomb lines were separated. I deleted a few hexagons here and there so some would be solid. I used some awesome rainbow speckled denim and I wanted to showcase it here and there.

Once I was happy with the file, I grouped it back together. I prepped and cut it as a I usually do (my full tutorial on the Silhouette blog can be found here) and ironed it onto my already cut out stocking. I also cut out a basic stocking piece for the back. I then spray basted both pieces to separate cotton batting and quilted them up like I would any quilt. I cut the lining out of the cute black and gray polka dotted fabric and sewed all of them together, just like you would a zipper pouch!

After everything was sewn and turned inside out, I folded down the top cuff and added my name using the Lovely Day Font (found in the Silhouette Design Store) and some solid gray fabric to finish it off.

It took me about two hours total to finish this one stocking. Not Bad, right?!!

Now onto the GIVEAWAY!

On Silhouette’s behalf, I will be giving away one pack of Silhouette Brand Sewable Interfacing and one Fabric Blade. To enter you NEED to follow Silhouette America and myself on Instagram. To earn additional entries you can follow me on Bloglovin and/or leave a comment letting me know what kind of projects you’d like to see on here in 2015!

Rules, Guidelines & Disclaimers:

This giveaway is being hosted by me, Jessee M / Art School Dropout, as part of the Silhouette Design Team Blog Hop. There will be only one winner chosen by Rafflecopter. This giveaway is open to US/Canada Residents, 18 & older.  Void where prohibited. This giveaway is not associated with Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Prizes will be fulfilled by Silhouette America. Winner cannot have won another Silhouette America giveaway in the past 90 days. Winners should expect their prize to arrive within 4-6 weeks. Only one entry per reader, period. Only the first comment posted will be counted. Giveaway starts at midnight December 1st, 2014 and will end at 11:59PM (EST) December 5th, 2014. Whew, I think that’s it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck to everyone who enters. Please head on over to Guiseppa Gubler’s blog to find out what she’s giving away. Then from there hop on over to the next one and the next. If all works out you should finish up right back here where you started. If you’d like to start at the begging then go check out the Blog Hop Giveaway post on the Silhouette America Blog.

Updated:

Here’s a list of ALL of the Silhouette Design Team Blog Hop Posts in case you think you may have missed one!…