An October printmaking adventure with Print•Inktober

Break out the hand carved stamps, ink pads, and sketchbook for the Print•Inktober Challenge!

Collection of hand carved stamps ready for the Print•Inktober Challenge.

What is Print•Inktober?

Print•Inktober is a free, online, daily Challenge, hosted by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer of Balzer Designs  taking place the month of October. The purpose of the Challenge is to get your stamps out of the closet and into use! 

Like many online Challenges, Print•Inktober offers a inspiration prompt for each day of the month. Participants can follow the prompt (or not), post their daily print, and enjoy the creations of other participants. Here is what's in store for this year:

I have a lovely collection of hand carved rubber stamps from doing the The 100 Day Project—100 Days of patterns and textures with hand carved stamps. The Print•Inktober Challenge is a great way to get them out and sprint with them again. 

A warm-up page.

After pulling out my stamps and ink pads yesterday, I did a little warm-up page in preparation of the Day 1 prompt: Circle. 

Day 1 prompt: Circle

It will be fun to get back into printmaking this month. After my daily practice in the 100 Day Project, I expect to incorporate watercolors and slow drawing into the stamped patterns... and filling more pages in the sketchbook!

Using Art Gallery free patterns to make a Trunk Show

This summer, several Tennessee quilt shops curated a selection of fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics for their annual Shop Hop event. Using fabric combinations from this curated collection, I decided to explore the free patterns from Art Gallery to make projects. 

Ruffle Tote (center) and the Atacama Clutch.

Inspiration, project ideas, patterns, and tutorials

Art Gallery has several resources for inspirational ideas and instructions to make things with their fabric collections: 

• Free quilt pattern downloads
• AGF fabric LookBooks
• the AGF blog
• AGF TV video tutorials on YouTube
• Free sewing patterns—bags/totes, pillows, wall art, hats, home decor items, holiday projects, items for kids and pets, etc.
• sewing tutorials
• and the AGF website to view the fabric collections.

Also check your favorite social media sites to see what other makers are creating with #artgalleryfabrics. 

Making projects with the Meriwether fabric collection.

Projects and patterns

Several of the fabrics in this curated selection came from the Meriwether fabric collection, so I checked the Meriwether LookBook for inspiration. Then I poked around the AGF website and discovered additional projects and ideas. Here's what I made... 

Clockwise from upper left: Blooming Garden pillow, Bunny Bag, Alamo Tote and hand towels.

I found the Blooming Garden pillow in the LookBook, the Bunny Bag was featured in an e-newsletter and is from the sewing pattern section, the Alamo Tote is a great scrap buster, and the hand towels were inspired by the Check pattern.

A hexie pillow with the I See Kittens pattern.

The I See Kittens pillow pattern inspired the long pillow above and the square pillow below.

EPP hexie pillow.

The Ruffle Tote Bag pattern was perfect to showcase a large motif. A short video accompanies this pattern.

Ruffle Tote Bag.

Take a closer look at The Bunny Bag...

The Bunny Bag.

Patterns: use just the parts you want

Patterns are a jumping off place for your projects! Don't want to make a full quilt? Use one block, or just the center section from a quilt pattern for a smaller project. Use whatever part you please. 

The star block from the Wistful quilt pattern made a simple table topper. 

One block from a pattern can make a table topper.

The Petal Trails quilt was in the Meriwether LookBook and I used the center section to make a runner.

Free-motion quilting on a Petal Trails table runner.

Table runner made with a portion of the Petal Trails pattern.

A pattern piece from the Petal Trails quilt pattern was used for the flanged pillow (below). Fussy cut the Meriwether rabbit for the center. 

Flanged pillow inspired by the Petal Trails quilt pattern.

Smaller scraps? Smaller projects

The Atacama Clutch, from Adina LookBook, was so fun, I made two! Make and add a fluffy pom-pom to the zipper pull for a whimsical accent. 

Atacama Clutch zipper pouch.

After completing all the projects, I took remaining scraps and did improv patchwork to make a project bag for myself.

Zippered project bag. Improvisationally pieced with fabric scraps.

Hand quilting and hand embroidery embellish this bag. 

Detail of hand quilting around the rabbit motif.

Embellished with an appliquéd flower and embroidery stitches.

A Make Nine finish

I'm counting these 11 projects—a Trunk Show, if you will—for my Make Nine 2022 Wild Card prompt.

It was a wild and fun process using free patterns from Art Gallery Fabrics. I hope this inspires you to investigate and give them a try.

A little improv, a few scraps, and a new kitty quilt

I finished binding this kitty quilt over the weekend. The quilt is made from discontinued fabric samples and a few blocks of improv patchwork.

Completed scrappy kitty quilt.

The top was pieced and free-motion quilted about a month ago—on August 14—and the binding was the last step.

Flannel backing and free-motion quilting.

I like this scrap of a flannel cat print that was pieced into the red flannel backing.

Flannel backing with a whimsical cat print.

Another quilt for the kitties... finished!

Cotton dish cloths: a Slow Stitching, Make Nine finish

Since discovering the Dish Cloth Knit-along issued by Modern Daily Knitting at the end of July, I was enticed to retrieve needles, hooks and cotton yarns to join in and make a few dish cloths.

One crocheted and one knitted dishcloth.

Fun, summer stitching

Using a small amount of a cotton yarn, a dishcloth is a cool, easy, summer knit, that is functional as well as fun to make. During the month of August, I sourced my personal yarn stash for half balls and left-over cottons and knitted and crocheted 6 of them… with another dish cloth WIP on the needles. 

Three handmade dish cloths: two knitted and one crocheted (center).

As I work through odds and ends of cotton yarns, there will no doubt be a few more dish cloths made by year’s end. It's been fun finding and practicing different stitch patterns for making them. The fact that I'm using up leftovers is also an appealing benefit.

A variety of cotton yarns from my stash.

My 7th Make Nine Finish

I’m counting these hand stitching projects as fulfillment of my Make Nine 2022 Slow Stitching prompt. 

Slow Stitching prompt on my Make Nine 2022 planning sheet.

This makes 7 of 9 Make Nine projects completed for 2022. I feel I’m in good shape!

Make Nine 2022 status: August 31, 2022