How’s your summer going? I hope you are all safe and healthy. This year feels so different than past summers for sure. On the positive side, we have enjoyed spending lots of family time without the interruption of having to dash off to activities or soccer games. Days blend together, but I am grateful to have sewing in my life. Today is a great day and one I’ve had marked in my calendar for many months! My next fabric collection, Quarry Trail, with Robert Kaufman Fabrics was just released (that means that shops are now seeing it and are able to order). I’m so honored to have been able to work with Robert Kaufman Fabrics once again.

Quarry Trail fabric collection by Anna Graham for Robert Kaufman Fabrics

Quarry Trail is a collection of 22 prints overprinted on Essex, Essex Yarn Dyed, and Essex Yarn Dyed Homespun (yesssss! eeek!) all printed in the USA. It’s been interesting to see just a glimpse of how the pandemic has affected the whole process. But I’m so thrilled with how the fabric turned out. Here’s the super important part – it’ll be shipping to stores in December! Yep, it IS a few months off, but I think it’ll be worth the wait! If you’re interested in these fabrics, please share this with your local quilt shop and ask if they’ve ordered. That way they can be sure to get some ordered! I hope this small peek of the collection will provide a little bit of inspiration and get you excited about sewing with it.

Annnnnd, I’m so excited to show you the projects I made using it! I’m planning on writing about my inspiration while designing the Quarry Trail prints and sharing some fun pictures, too. In the meantime, here’s a little hint. I’ll be posting about the individual projects when it gets a bit closer to the release date (so maybe sometime starting in October?!) as I know it can be so hard to be inspired to make something yet not have the fabric available. So please hang in there!

Thanks so much for your support and encouragement! This year especially! I’m so excited for Quarry Trail! I feel so honored when I see my fabric designs being used in your projects.

Recently, Liz of Elizabeth Suzann announced that she was closing her business. She does have plans to open back up and offer sewing patterns and kits in the fall, but in the meantime, she had generously offered her patterns for some of her most popular designs to the home sewing community thanks to some crowdsourced funds from the sewing community. Lucky us! Thanks to organizers (@MinimalistMachinist, @mombasics and @thestoryclubpdx for all their work on providing these. They requested that you make a donation (for non-Black and able, to a local or regional Black led organization for the amount you would have paid for access to these patterns. They offered a few suggestions: @glits_inc / @mvmnt4blklives / @thelovelandfoundation. I chose a local chef’s (Adrian Lipscombe) fundraiser, 40 Acres and a Mule. ****Lastly, in anticipation of Liz releasing her sewing patterns, the files are no longer available to the community (read the post here), but I think it will very much be worth the wait when she releases them! Plus, they’ll be accompanied with the full instructions which will be so great! I’ll try and touch base again when I hear more about her timeline for when the patterns might be available. Or sign up for her newsletter. ***

So it took me a little bit of time before I could dive into trying one of the patterns, but the Georgia Tee skipped to the top of my list once I saw other sewists making it. I spent an hour or so putting together the paper pattern and then it seemed like it took hardly any time at all the cut and sew the top itself. The last garment I made was the Archer Buttonup shirt. I had so much fun making it, even though it was more time consuming, it was totally worth the feeling of accomplishment once I finished. But the Georgia is such a lovely simple tee, it was refreshing to sew it up so quickly. I love it’s boxy shape and the fabric that I tried was really fun and easy to sew with. I cannot figure out what fabric this is! It’s been in my stash for a few years at least, but I was thinking it was a silk noil? You can find it at places like Fancy Tiger Crafts, Blackbird Fabrics, and Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics (and probably more! if you know another shop feel free to add it to the comments below). I serged my seam allowances, too, which also helped contribute to the super speedy finish.

I checked a few sources on the patterns as far as seem allowances go,  3/8″ seam allowance was what I went with and it seemed to work great. I also checked on the neckline to see how that was constructed. @trishington on Instagram added her construction info on her caption. Here’s a rundown: I did the neckline similar to how I would do quilt binding. Sewing the short ends together first and then pressing the loop in half wrong sides together, then attaching the loop to the neckline. I actually hadn’t sewn a neckline this way before that I can think of, but it was really slick and sewed on without a hitch.

I lengthened the bodice by 1/2″ and it feels just right. I’ll wear it a bit more before I set to make any further adjustments to a second one, but it feels really nice to wear! I’m so excited to add this to my (very small) closet. I’m pretty sure I might just have to make another! P.s. you can see more versions of the upcoming patterns using the #esmadebyme)

It was my niece’s birthday last week, so I had fun picking out a fun and cute fabric combo for a Buckthorn Tote for her. She loves bags and zippered pouches so I had fun making this tote knowing that she’d be able to use it.

Fabric Funhouse had sent me a remnant of the beautiful Apricot Brandy color of their waxed canvas (it’s a beautiful peachy coral color) and I knew it would be so cute for making my niece’s gift. I found the cutest little happy suns print in my stash, it’s the Sunshine print by Alexia Marcelle Abegg. I couldn’t resist those cute faces!

I do love working with the waxed canvas for bags, it does, admittedly, take a little more patience than other materials. I find that it’s worth a bit of experimentation to see if you like it, too.  I’m really pleased with how this particular waxed canvas works with the Buckthorn Tote (and backpack – read that post here). It was a nice break from work sewing. I’ll be able to share more about at the end of July.

Also, I have a video that I recorded a few weeks back that goes over setting the oval base (applies to the Buckthorn as well as a few of my other patterns). I’ll be sharing that in the next week or two. Do you like watching videos of sewing techniques? I’m still pretty new to knitting, so I use videos a lot, but sometimes just a quick one is all I need instead of a longer format. Do you prefer a quick (less than 4 minute) video or a longer format (10 minutes plus) that goes over in something in great detail?

I hope you all have been safe and staying healthy!

Pattern: Buckthorn Tote
Fabric: Apricot Brandy Waxed Canvas from Fabric Funhouse, lining is Sunshine from Alexia Marcelle Abegg (from her Sunshine collection with Cotton + Steel fabrics) here’s a google search, it’s an older collection so it might be harder to come by

Webbing and zipper available in my shop (you’ll need 2 yards of 1″-wide webbing and one 14″ handbag zipper).