Gratitude and Grace

Aurifil has had the pleasure of a long-standing partnership with beloved designer Pat Sloan, one of our very first collection designers. Pat’s creative vision and passion for quilting have been a perfect match for Aurifil’s commitment to quality, and her innovative fabric collections continue to inspire and delight quilters around the world. We are thrilled each time Pat releases a new collection, as it brings fresh inspiration to our threads and to the quilting community. Our collaborations with Pat remain a highlight for us at Aurifil, and we look forward to each new chapter of creativity that we share together.

Today, we celebrate Pat’s latest fabric range with Benartex, Gratitude and Grace. “Begin each day with a grateful heart” is a motto that Pat Sloan tries to live by. From family time, to the first flower of spring, there are so many ways to be grateful. There are also times we need to give ourselves some grace. It might not be easy at times. When it’s not, she finds helping others is a way to be centered and bring things into perspective. These are the inspirations behind Gratitude and Grace.

You’ll find the warm yellows of sunlight, the lovely green of hope that starts each new day, and a range of blues of the sky from dawn to night. These colors combined in classic patterns like paisleys, plaids, small florals and geometric motifs create a full line of beautiful prints that allow you to follow your heart’s gratitude and grace wherever they lead you.

Pat was kind enough to provide Aurifil’s Creative Director, Erin Sampson, with a few samples and let her run wild with project ideas. We’re so grateful for her generosity and for inviting us to play along with her in this exciting launch!

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Erin: As mentioned, Pat Sloan was among the first of our collection designers and has been collaborating with Aurifil for well over a decade. She is also one of the first designers I connected with in my role here at Aurifil nearly 9 years ago. She has always been kind, generous with her time and expertise, and remarkably helpful and supportive for someone who was relatively new to the textile industry. Over the years, we’ve worked together on a multitude of collections and I relish each new opportunity to celebrate Pat and all of the amazing work that she does.

I’ll admit, before this project, it had been a VERY long time since my sewing machine had seen the light of day. I actually had to dust it off, change a needle, wind new bobbins, rethread, and clean my sewing workspace. It felt a little cathartic, if I’m being honest. It’s rare that I get to actually sew these days as most of my time is spent behind the scenes, working on the business side of Aurifil. With that in mind, it feels incredibly fitting to have broken my sewing dry spell with this particular collection — I worked through my project with all the gratitude and had to give myself a hefty dose of grace in getting it done.

Pat kindly provided me with a handful of prints from Gratitude and Grace and I’m in love. These fabrics are colorful and bold with a beautiful drape. This is my first time working with her Benartex fabrics and the quality is truly top-notch. In looking at the prints, I initially thought I might make a mini quilt or a little zippy tote. I’m still what most would call a beginner and I didn’t want to overextend myself. Still, I couldn’t quite find the inspiration until I remembered an Artisan project from earlier this year by Vickeidy Plybon of @sewspicious. It was our upcycling challenge and Vickeidy had created this fabulous stuffed whale using old denim. I had fallen in love with that whale when I first saw it in the challenge post and saved the pattern (by Lacey Draper of FourSixtyTwo on Etsy) for future use. With the bold and saturated blues & greens in Gratitude and Grace, the whale felt like a perfect fit.

I pulled two prints to use for the top & bottom of the whale — Peaceful Garden Blue & Sunshine Blue. I love the contrast of the floral with the geometric. I followed Lacey’s pattern to a ‘T’ — the instructions are incredibly straight forward and images make it easy to check yourself. I used Aurifil 50wt for the contruction — 2615 for piecing, 3770 for working with Sunshine, and 1246 for working with Peaceful Garden. While it’s possible that I could have found closer matches, I wanted to keep it simple and work with threads from my stash! I did also work in a bit of Aurifil’s new 100% cotton 8wt thread in 2311 from the Evolve collection. It was perfect to handstitch the whale’s eyes!

All in all, I’m super excited about how this guy finished up. He’s adorable and the whole pattern comes together so easily — it’s pretty much designed to make a novice look good! I also love that he is a large scale showcase of Pat’s prints. My son has already claimed this one, so I’m plotting another one so that my daughter doesn’t feel left out!

If you’re interested in working on your own project with Pat’s Gratitude and Grace fabrics + Aurifil thread, you’re in luck! Benartex is generously giving away a layer cake and we are adding in 1 small + 1 large curated set by Pat Sloan! To enter, simply click on the link below. Giveaway will be open through Sunday, November 10th at 11:59pm Central. We’ll email the winner next week!

Huge thanks, again, to Pat & the fine folks at Benartex for inviting Aurifil to play along with this launch. We are grateful for the partnership, always! Be sure to check out all of the other stops on the tour — there are giveaways every day!

November 4th – By Annie & Meadow Mist Designs
November 5th – Aurifil & Snuggle Bug Stitching
November 6th – Pam Kitty Morning & Fat Quarter Shop
November 7th – Ivory Spring & Pat Sloan