As you've probably noticed during our first week with Amy Butler's new Alchemy, we totally love the innovative substrates she's brought into this collection for Rowan Fabrics. There are, of course, beautiful quality quilting cottons, but this time, she also has a wide range of incredible new textures with which to work. Our All-Weather Tote from earlier this week featured a soft cotton laminate, and today, we're working with rayon challis and velveteen. She also has a unique rayon/linen, sateen bliss, linen/cotton and a voile. Each of the different substrates comes in a wide array of colors and patterns, exploding the amount of creativity you can achieve by mixing and matching looks, weights and textures. Our elegant wrap combines the luxurious drape of rayon challis with the soft romance of velveteen. It's perfect for a holiday night on the town where you need a bit of warmth, and you want a bit of drama against that perfect little black dress.

We love sewing by machine! It's fast, it's easy, and when you have great machines like the Janome models in our S4H studios, it's almost effortless. But it doesn't mean you can't whip out the hand needle and thread now and then. A few well-placed hand-stitched accents adds a unique decorative touch. Today's lovely lumbar pillow features rows of simple running stitches in three coordinating colors of embroidery floss. By adding a bit of batting behind the fabric, the finished look has a sweet hand-quilted feel. Against the rich cottons of Amy Butler's Alchemy collection, it's the perfect understated embellishment. Not so much that it distracts from the beautiful fabric, just a small, special element that takes only a few minutes to include.

Wedges are wonderful, especially when you piece them together to create a kaleidoscope of color and design. We envision these eight different panels as a holiday tradition in the making. Why not have each wedge tell a story? Or designate each wedge for a certain family member, placing a special gift within his/her wedge each year. We chose to use eight different fabrics from within the lovely Star Flakes and Glitter collection by Tina Givens for FreeSpirit Fabrics. I have dibs for my wedge on Poinsettia Run in Chocolate... the rest of you can fight over the other seven! 

One square foot of fun! At just 12" x 12", these plump little pillows pack a design wallop twice their size. This project shows you how much fun it is to mix and match colors, patterns and collections to really rock a brand new holiday look. That's what our Re-imagine & Renovate series is all about. We pull out a classic fave tutorial and give it a whole new spin with fresh fabrics, trims and notions. Today, we show you how to light up the season with a holiday punch of three amazing collections from FreeSpirit fabrics: Super Fly from Jennifer Paganelli, Kumari Garden Holiday from Dena Designs and Star Flakes and Glitter from Tina Givens.