Road Trip is our 4th collection with Riley Blake Designs and it was inspired by some recent life events. Last summer we sold our home of 28 years, became home-free and put our belongings into storage. We didn't really have a plan but we knew what we didn't want. We didn't want to buy another big house and we didn't want to be saddled with stuff. We were beginning to feel like the stuff we owned was owning us. I'm not suggesting that this is a good idea for everyone, but it was a great opportunity for us at that moment. Once the house sale was complete we packed up and drove to a vacation condo rental. The great thing about vacation rentals is they are fully outfitted, so you don't need much more than a suitcase. It was quite liberating and we could spend time doing things we loved like hiking, cycling and exploring. We also visited our provincial parks with our little vintage trailer and took notice of all the other types of trailers, motor homes and campers. We loved the small gatherings that formed around campfires and the collective of kindred spirits celebrating nature. It was then that I started my little sketches of trailers and characters that would eventually become Road Trip. When I re-draw my sketches digitally, I try to maintain the imperfect character and essence of the original sketch. My aim is to see the hand-drawn quality coming through in the final product. See if you can find the original sketches in the final fabric designs below.
Search
Our Website
ONLINE SHOPS for Kelly Panacci products
Published Articles and Project Instructions
Our Product Partners
- Riley Blake Designs
Come and see our fabric collections for quilters! - Hampton Art
Look for our Clear Stamps, Cling Stamps and Rubber Stamps here
November 01, 2016
October 30, 2016
Taking my blog back
It's been ages!! But I'm back with some exciting news - we have a brand-spanking-new collection from Riley Blake Designs that is being featured this week in Houston at Quilt Market. And it's shipping very soon - in November. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting sneak peeks of the fabrics, what inspired the collection, sewing projects and some of my very talented designer friends will be posting their projects too. And that's not all - we'll have a couple of GIVE-AWAYS in mid-November, so please follow along on social media and here on my blog so you don't miss a thing. Here is the story board that Riley Blake Designs created for the Road Trip Collection. It's bright and fun and oh so campy!
November 21, 2015
Little Flyers Pillowcases
2 of our sewing design team members sent us these photos of their projects. I am so inspired by these simple pillow cases! Do you think a beginner like me could make some too?
Little Flyers Pillowcases hand made by Martha Dickie
Little Flyers Pillow Cases hand made by Shirley Dawson
Check out this tutorial from our friends at Missouri Star Quilt Company. They make it look so easy - and if you do make some pillowcases you can follow their lead and donate to a great cause. I hope you have fun sewing!
June 02, 2015
We have a winner!
Jessica P. you are the winner of a Fat Quarter bundle of our Little Flyers collection. Congratulations! It's not even in the stores yet, so this a preview edition. Please send me an email at: [email protected] with your shipping addy and I'll get this right out to you! Thanks to everyone for participating in the Give Away. I truly appreciate all of your support and sweet comments.
May 30, 2015
Riley Blake Designs 2015 Spring Quilt Market Blog Tour!
GIVEAWAY ALERT! Be sure to read to the end of this post to find out how you can win a Fat Quarter bundle of our new fabric collection: Little Flyers from Riley Blake Designs! And check out the FREE pdf pattern to download for our Little Flyers Hoop Art.
Today is the day! Thanks for stopping by! I'm thrilled to be a featured stop on the Riley Blake Designs Spring Quilt Market Blog Tour. Have you been following along? I have and it's been great seeing my fellow designers' blogs previewing their beautiful new collections and fun projects.
Previous Blog Stop: Samantha Walker
Next Blog Stop: Riley Blake Designs
Little Flyers is our second collection with Riley Blake Designs. It features cute and colorful critters soaring in the air aboard whimsical flying machines. I was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's sketches and Rowland Emett's kinetic sculptures when I was creating this collection but my designs are not nearly as complex (more info and pics about the inspiration are directly under this post).
Jina and Cindy at RBD requested a boy theme collection so I used some of my critters from my stamp designs (Hampton Art) and combined them with new ideas to create Little Flyers. The result is 6 different patterns in 3 cotton colorways. You can see the complete collection at Riley Blake Designs. It will be shipping in June so I hope you'll look for it at your local quilt shop.
I wasn't able to go to Spring Quilt Market earlier this month, but Little Flyers was well represented at the Riley Blake Designs booth. Thank you to Julia for sending me pictures of the booth and projects made by the talented sewists at Riley Blake Designs. I get the biggest kick out of seeing what others make with our designs. Just look at all the fun projects!!
Now let's have a closer look at some of those fun projects!
Wouldn't these pillows look great on top of the quilted bed cover below? Free pattern for the quilt on the Riley Blake Designs website.
Aren't these pajamas the cutest? This pattern is called: the Pajamas Party PJs by Fishsticks Designs
And I love this piece of wall art! I wouldn't have thought about quilting a hot air balloon. This piece inspired my Hoop Art project below.
Even though I'm just a beginner sewist, I wanted to make something with my samples of Little Flyers. I loved the hot air balloon wall art above, so I thought I might be able to do something like it on a much simpler and smaller scale. Hoop art is trending now and I had an embroidery hoop and thread already, so I decided to give it a try. I first came up with the design on my computer (using my fabric designs), then printed the words onto the fabric with my HP laser printer. After a couple of hours of cutting, sewing and hand worked embroidery, it was finished. It's not perfect - I had some puckering issues that I'll fix for next time, but overall not bad. I created a pattern that you can try if you'd like. Click here to download the FREE pdf file: Download Little Flyers Hoop Art
Here’s the complete line-up of talented designers on the blog tour - Go and check them all out - so much amazing inspiration!!
5/30 – Kelly Panacci
If you made it to the bottom of this blog post you deserve a chance at a Give Away. Write a comment below for a chance to win a Fat Quarter bundle of Little Flyers. To triple your chances go to our Facebook page and Instagram where we're having more GIVEAWAYS. The winners will be announced at the end of the Riley Blake Designs Spring 2015 Quilt Market Blog Tour - June 2nd.
You can follow updates on our website and our social media pages: Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. Thanks for visiting our blog!
May 28, 2015
Leonardo da Vinci & Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
What do the famous artist da Vinci and the 60s movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang have in common? They are both part of what inspired my latest fabric collection LITTLE FLYERS from Riley Blake Designs.
Even though Leonardo da Vinci is most famous for his paintings, his sketches of flying machines and other contraptions prove he was an inventor ahead of his time.
Rowland Emett was a British cartoonist and an eccentric who brought his sketches to life in kinetic sculptures. They caught the eye of the producers of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and he was hired to design the movie props and famous flying car. I first saw Rowland Emett's work at an exhibition called "Dream Machines" at the Ontario Science Centre back in the 70s. The Science Centre now has the largest collection of Emett's kinetic sculptures and they are displayed for the Holiday Season every year. The video posted here shows how I first saw these delightful flying whimsies.
Isn't the imagination a wonderful thing?! And isn't it cool that the work of these artists continues to inspire others? I hope you're inspired too!
Here's a little peek at my version of flying machines with some cute critters at the wheel that eventually became LITTLE FLYERS for Riley Blake Designs. The fabric collection ships in June so don't forget to ask for it at your local quilt store. We'll be sharing projects and a tutorial in our next post.
May 12, 2015
Little Flyers fabric samples are here!
I'm so excited that fabric samples arrived and now it's time to sew! I'll be participating in the Riley Blake Designs Spring Quilt Market Blog Tour so I'm planning a cute project for little boys. Here's a sneak peek at the cute fabrics. This is a bundle pack of 1 yard pieces in the BLUE colorway (it comes in yellow and gray too). Stay tuned for more pics introducing Little Flyers - our 2nd fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs.
March 30, 2015
Necessity is the Mother of Invention
It's Spring and finally time for me to dig out my seeds for this year's garden. While sorting and deciding what and when to plant I always have lots of extra seeds to share with friends. In the past I have hastily recycled paper scraps to make small envelopes but this year I got all fancy - Necessity is the mother of invention - I needed some seed packets that would look nice to "gift" to friends, so I researched information on my tomato varieties, wrote the text and fit it into a design with our WKF logo. It was fun to do and I made a few bundles but hand cutting and folding each one is time consuming so this will be a limited edition : )
My seeds are all ready for sharing. Next Step: planting. Happy Gardening to all my Seedy friends!
March 14, 2015
Trend Alert - Customizing your Planner
Have you noticed anyone adding decorative pages, stickers and washi tapes to their day planners lately? It's all part of the latest trend I'm seeing in Paper Crafting - Customizing your Planner AKA organizing your life in a pretty way. I first noticed it on my Instagram feed where I saw photos of pages from time-management binders being transformed into eye-catching and colorful things of beauty. It's like mixing your sketch pad, sticky notes, journal book, to-do list, errand and grocery list all into your personal day planner. Here are some images I saw that made me do a double take.
Check out the example below that I found on Christy Tomlinson's site: Christytomlinson.typepad.com . On her blog, she writes about her new found obsession with planners and you can see how she's experimenting with different brands, sizes and styles.
Personal Planners come in a variety of sizes, colors and styles but if you want to customize and interchange elements you'll want to use a binder style planner with rings. Stationery manufacturers like Filofax and Kikki.K are making beautiful leather organizers that are popular with crafters and recently Webster's Pages launched their own line of Personal Planners at CHA in January.
You can purchase a new planner/binder or maybe use one you already have.You can choose between 2 pages per month or 2 pages per week. You can have several divider pages, tabbed pages, folders, zipped pouches and envelopes. There are so many creative options for customizing your Personal Planner. You can make your own divider pages and specialty elements or purchase some online at Etsy. On Pinterest you'll find links to free Printables too. Who knew organizing could be so much fun?!
January 12, 2015
New Year's Resolutions and Inspiration
12 days into January and if you haven't abandon your resolutions you've beat the odds. This according to statistics which I heard on the news just a couple of days into the new year. If the odds are against us, why even bother with resolutions? Well, I decided to make a short list of goals that were achievable and not too unrealistic - er - so I thought. Here is my list: yes, that's me in the plane.
Here's the status of my New Year's Resolutions: Yoga; no problem to do this 4X a week and I love it! I have no painting started, but I'm a procrastinator and the end of the month isn't here yet, so lots of time. And the weather has been ridiculously cold so I haven't been walk/running each day....yes, the excuses have started, but I'm still optimistic.As for the "sketch everyday": that's going well and I'm using my sketches for a new collection I'm working on. Sometimes I get asked about what inspires me and like most artists INSPIRATION comes from a variey of places all around me. Above is one of my illustrations in progress. I found a cute photo of my sister's dog when he was just a pup on his hind legs trying to see into our pond. I loved the pose and how cute he looked, so that was the "spark" that motivated me to sketch. I didn't want to draw a dog though, so I changed the tail and ears - still not sure what the final critter will be - time will tell as I progress through the scene with other critters and a story.
If I continue with a sketch everyday, you're likely to see more of this story unfolding, so stay tuned.