Going Gangbusters for Art Gallery Fabrics

You've gotta love a really great, creative idea.  And it's even better when there are some really great people behind it.  That's why I was so excited to be invited to be a founding member of Art Gallery Fabrics' new "Fat Quarter Gang."

The idea of the Fat Quarter Gang is pretty simple: the oh so lovely Pat Bravo rounded up a group of bloggers and designers to form a little sewing group of sorts -- a sewing group that would combine their fresh, new sewing ideas with all of the gorgeous new fabrics coming out of Art Gallery HQ.  Then, once a week, a member of the group would share a new pattern or project idea on the Art Gallery Fabrics blog.

And so, from the streets of Miami, the Fat Quarter Gang was born.

But Pat, Anais, and the creative troupe at Art Gallery took their idea to the next level by totally embracing -- in a fun, lighthearted way, of course -- the "gang" part of the Fat Quarter Gang.  So each of us, as sweet and gentle as we may appear to be on our blogs -- embraced our inner sewing bada$$ and took some (completely embarrassing) member photos.

Here's mine:

Admittedly, it's one of the lamest.  Despite hailing from the mean streets of Brooklyn NYC, gangster doesn't come too easily to me.  But you MUST check out the other bloggers' photos -- some of them are PRICELESS.  You can find them all here.

I'm a bit late to the game in posting this, since the free project ideas kicked off on Monday, June 4th.  Here's what's been posted so far:

• Body Pillow by Rachel of P.S. I Quilt

• Ruffled Pouch Tutorial by Lee of Freshly Pieced

• Patchwork Bunting by Jeni of In Color Order

And finally, here are a few more fun facts about the gang:

• Every project that gets posted will have a giveaway for the EXACT fabrics used in the project over at the members blog (rules to that giveaway will be posted in each project). We will also randomly select lucky people to win patterns and such through the Fat Quarter Gang Flickr group. Feel free to post your projects as you make them... you never know when we are in the giving mood (and that's often.)
• Have a blog and think you can hang with the gang?  There are 4 guest spots open for blogging "newbies." After all 12 bloggers have posted their tutorials, the gang will have a spot open for a guest blogger (that could be you!) to post their project tutorial. This pattern will repeat itself for 1 year so you have 4 spots available.
• Also, if you have a blog, you can follow the gang by grabbing a "FQG button" located on the right side of the Art Gallery Fabrics blog!

Think you got what it takes? Submit your project ideas along with a link to your blog to anais.cowley@artgalleryfabrics.com. Who knows, you might end up with your own gang name and pic too.

Stay tuned for my first Fat Quarter Gang free project idea in July.