A Quilt Possible! Pattern Update
This post has to be super-fast since I’m running terribly late for my 925er. Last week, when I was so thrilled about getting two pages written for my pattern, I couldn’t help but show somebody. I showed it to a non-quilting, non-sewing friend of mine – even though she doesn’t sew she’s always got a willing ear as I prattle on about my sewing adventures. Well… what she had to say was hard to hear. One of her first words were, “How am I supposed to read this?” Now before you rush to my defense about how non-quilters shouldn’t be expected to be able to read patterns, she was absolutely right. Pattern designers make assumptions about what people should and should not know. We think that if we number the pages, that should be sufficient, and if we throw in a couple of diagrams, that’s good enough. Well… not for me. I have a lot riding on this first pattern. It’s the showcase for my design sensibility, my writing ability, and sets an expectation for people who buy my line of patterns. If I don’t do a great job, I’ll sink my business before it even gets off the ground. She had a LOT of great suggestions (yes, just from those two pages and even from her not being a sewist), and it resulted in a nearly complete rewrite & redrawing of the pattern. Trust me, the improvements were necessary, and although it was discouraging to need to start over, I ended up being able to crank out nearly 8 pages over the weekend, plus 19 illustrations. Can you tell that this pattern is nearly saturated with pictures? It’s probably what I love most about it, and I hope my future customers will appreciate it too. Anyway, in other news, I have located about 4 offset printers – 3 local and one online – who can print my pattern for me. I would really prefer to deal with a local company, but it’s nice that I have a cost basis from the online company to compare quotes. I really want to get the pattern finished so I can print a mock-up to take to the printer & have a good discussion. I also realized why people don’t tend to tackle pattern-writing exclusively for die cutters. It’s because it’s a lot of work! There are nuances in die cutting that just aren’t there for rotary cutting. For example – in a rotary cut pattern, I can just say “Subcut 24 HST from 2-1/2″ strips cut WOF.” Well, for a die cutter, I need to tell you which die to use, and how wide to cut the fabric to generate those HSTs, and sometimes even how to lay it out on the die, especially when there are multiple dies which do the same thing but have different repeats. So right now my pattern is 7 pages and I haven’t even written block assembly instructions yet! Oops! I’ve prattled on so long and now I’m REALLY late! Happy quilting!
A Financial Incentive for the GO! Giveaway
I have been truly, truly amazed at the response to my Give a Little, Win a GO! Giveaway. I don’t know if you’ve been following along, but if you haven’t you need to know that in just one month, entrants have managed to produce 290 items to be donated to local chapters of Project Linus, Quilts for Kids, and ConKerr Cancer. In the past month, I have actually been “too busy” to finish projects for charity, although I did manage to get a larger quilt done on my quilting frame that will eventually go to Project Linus. I have so many irons in the fire right now that it’s hard to tell when I’ll be able to get back to it. However, I have been so inspired by the people who continue to make projects and post them either to my Flickr group or to the AccuQuilt Facebook page that I feel like I have to do SOMETHING. So… even though I’m not quilting for charity, I’ve decided that sometimes these charities need other help too, and giving cash to them can help with mailing expenses and buying batting for quilts or Ziploc bags for pillowcases. My own contribution will represent all the great things that have been done so far, and also serve as an incentive for the things yet to come. On the one month anniversary of my contest, I decided to give each of the three charities $25, to mark the 274 wonderful donations that had been made so far. From that point forward, I pledged to award $1 for each item donated to that organization, worth up to $150 for EACH organization. On top of that, I work for a very generous company, who supports the causes that their employees support, and so I can get a 1:1 match for every $1 I give. That means that whatever is earned will be doubled! So if you add everything up, the total donation is worth over $1,000, and to show how serious I am, I have created an account to escrow my funds to be donated. All that’s needed is for people to make things & donate them to charity, and designate their points to go to one of the contestants in my giveaway. Every time a donation comes in, I will mark another $1 secured. So far 16 donations have come in since I made that pledge, so with the guaranteed $75 included, that’s $91 that will be divided among the various charities. ($31 to PL, and $35 to CKC and $25 to QFK.) Let’s see how many donations we can get in the final two weeks of this contest & insure the organizations get their funds too! Happy quilting!
A Long, Slow Slog Through the Most Amazing Adventure Ever!
Some people jump out of airplanes for their sense of adventure. As for me, I think writing & publishing my own line of patterns is what I call adventurous. I haven’t been writing much these days (well, not on the blog anyway) but I wanted to give an update on where I’m at. I’ve also been having some general pains in my back & shoulder area, which keeps me away from the studio (or at least I can’t spend hours at a time in there, I can only tolerate sewing for about 10 minutes at a time) and off the computer for long stretches. Even so, I managed to get the design created for the first pattern, plus the sample quilt top! It’s quite a beauty if I do say so myself. And I’ll have to make another one, but first I have to write the instructions. Next, the cover design is DONE DONE. Finally! I had to get some permissions on a few graphics that I don’t own, and being an independent designer myself, I know how I’d feel if someone just swiped one of my designs and went whole hog. Luckily, the two companies involved were good natured about it, and one of them said I was free to use it, alter it, reproduce it, and do pretty much what I want with it, as long as I understand that I do not have exclusive license to it. My graphic artist is an AMAZING talent, and he’s come up with some really nice things, and even created a banner for me to use when I go to Quilt Market. As IF! The pattern itself is another thing entirely. I’m pretty sure that this pattern will take me much longer to write than future ones, because I have to design all the elements and the layout as I go. It’s hard to know how you want something to look if you don’t have content. Well, all my content is handwritten across 8 pages (I write big & don’t follow the lines) and it’s not really what you’d call a pattern, but is more like a guideline. I’m also doing my own illustrations. It’s probably fine for right now, but since I don’t really know how to illustrate, they are probably pretty crude by comparison. I think they really help though, or so my pattern testers tell me, so I’ll keep plugging away. The really awesome thing is that based on my work this evening, I have TWO FULL PAGES written! I’m not going to jinx myself by saying it will be smooth sailing from here, but as they say – the hard part is in the starting. Now I am super exhausted, and my back is starting to complain, so I’m going to call it a night! Happy quilting!
Behind the Scenes: Eco-Friendly? for Project Quilting
The most recent challenge for Project Quilting is over, and I just barely made it in on time. This weekend was pretty busy with the garage sale, and trying to sew in between, plus all the work I’m doing for the pattern venture. It gets to be a lot! Ditching the garage sale this morning seems to have been the right call; it rained today anyway, and getting up early and just stitching for 4 hours did the trick. It’s a wonder I don’t do hand-stitching very often – it takes forever! Anyway, I thought I’d give you an idea of what went into my project this week. It started with a bunch of black & white fabric, plus one accent color. The challenge this week said that the project must not be rectangular, and could be 3D, which sparked an idea for me. At first, my accent was going to be red, but then I seem to always pick red for my accent color. So I decided to go with green and play off of the idea of “green” building practices that Chicago is known for. I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to do a soft-sculpture of downtown Chicago, but “quickly” for me was still 2 days into the project. I started with a piece of fabric that I cut 15″ wide x 22″ long. I fused it to a Peltex interfacing (which is pretty stiff) backed that with muslin, and decided to use some leftover black & white ribbon from my “Road Trip” quilt to make little roads. I used Google Maps to get a closer view of the city so I knew where the roads were in relation to the river – I didn’t realize that the real close views show you outlines of the buildings, which was exactly what I needed for this project. Score! I free-handed the lines with a chalk pencil. I had to label the streets with stickies so I didn’t get lost. Shoot, even in my own studio I get lost in downtown Chicago! (for those following along in my pattern venture, you can see a corner of the 1st pattern quilt in the upper left!) The river had to be quilted in first. At first, I was going to make it blue, but then I asked a clarifying question to the PQ judge, and it turns out even the thread & all embellishments had to be limited to our chosen color. It worked out, because the Chicago River is pretty polluted anyway, and what started as just a recreation of a city ended up being a political statement. I used 3 different types of thread for the river and an eyelash yarn to make it stand out, then I went to town thread painting. I stopped when I got tired. Next it was time for the roads. I made the short roads first, then added the east/west roads, then north/south. Wouldn’t you know it… I ran out of road ribbon! I am praying at this point that I can manage to find another spool. In the mean time, I tried my hand at stitching up the buildings. This one I made on my sewing machine, then stuffed it with polyfil, then handstitched the opening to close it. That took forever (problematic since by this time, it’s Thursday) and I couldn’t control the shape very well. As I thought about the eventual tiny buildings I would need, making buildings this way was also impractical. So I decided I needed to basically upholster the buildings. This required a trip to the fabric store, which I needed to visit anyway for the ribbon. Ok – ribbon problem solved – but before I can do any more building construction (tee hee) I needed to finish the roads. No quilting can be done once you’ve attached buildings! On the back you can see the river has waves in it – but the front pictures don’t tell the story as well. I also couched some yarn around the outside edge to finish it off. To make the buildings, I picked up some high-density upholstery foam from the fabric store. It just happened to be green (phew) so I thought it would work well for my purposes. I raided my kitchen for a serrated knife with an offset blade (I seem to be doing that a lot lately, and more & more kitchen utensils are finding their way into my studio!) to help me cut the foam into reasonably recognizable building shapes, using the map of Chicago as a guide. I particularly liked the Trump Hotel (it’s a 5-sided building) and the House of Blues. HOB was pretty challenging to execute in foam (had the foam been any thinner I would have tried running it through my die cutter) so I chose to stack buttons instead. Here’s a view of the city before upholstery began: Before I could upholster them, I had to label each building, with its position, and the direction it faced. Each building was hand cut, and sized to fit the spot it was in, and also contrast in size & height with the buildings surrounding it. So I couldn’t just dump them in a bag and start upholstering them.Here they are, all labeled and playing happily in their little basket! I grabbed an assortment of black, white, and green fabric scraps, and headed to my living room for a couple of days of meticulous handwork. The first couple of buildings were turning out so much better than the first one did. A lot of the future buildings took some fussy turning and fitting – most of my scraps were about 3.5″ wide, so some of the larger buildings needed creativity & compromise to use so that I didn’t have to cut from new yardage. You can see in the photo some of the buttons I auditioned, plus the labeled spaces for the buildings. Unfortunately, I was frantically stitching to finish and didn’t get any additional in progress shots, but here are the finished pictures. The buildings are skewered to the quilt through the road, using pins that match the color of the building, and the whole thing sits on a movable pedestal that allows me to change the shape & height of the sculpture. Here’s an aerial view of the whole thing, but I really like the side views best. Happy quilting!
The Next Stephen Spielberg I Am Not…
Gosh. I’ve had my digital camera for about 7 years now. About 3 months ago, I discovered that it can record video. Ever since, the video I’ve been recording has been exclusively for the AccuQuilt die cutters. My first video was HIL.A.RI.OUS. I made all kinds of goofs, I chopped the top part of my head in the frame, you couldn’t see what I was doing, it was grainy, but I was so proud of myself because I figured out how to get the video recorded, off loaded from my camera, and uploaded to YouTube. I’m a one-take wonder! As I continue making videos, I get marginally better, but I am limited by a couple of factors. One, my camera is doing the best that it can, and I am only one person. Also, my memory card only can keep about 15 minutes of video, but my battery will give out long before that happens. I have no earthly idea how to edit video, and the one time I tried, I got all mixed up with codecs and conversion rates and downloading all kinds of software that doesn’t work for me. Yes it’s true that I work in a technology field, but I don’t know everything about everything, and video is something that has been a complete mystery to me. Most recently, I decided to dig-in a little bit and figure out how to edit video so that I can at least improve my videos somewhat. I discovered that my computer has video editing software out of the box – Windows Movie Maker. That’s great, you think to yourself. Except… my camera (as most cameras do) records video in QuickTime format. QuickTime is made by Apple. Windows is made by Microsoft. Never the twain shall meet. So I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to (freely) get my videos out of Apple format and into Windows so that I can edit them. The results were pretty atrocious – at one point, the video was running at 3 times the speed of the audio. It would have been HIL.A.RI.OUS if I weren’t actually trying to get something productive done. In the end, I discovered that the Pro version of QuickTime enables you to convert video into a format that Windows will read, so I upgraded to the Pro version (it’s about $30 – which is a good trade in my book.) So I load it up, convert the video, and it looks terrible. But at least the audio and video are synched. Then I had a thought… I wonder if QTP has video editing capabilities? You might think that’s a silly thought to have, but the whole time I’ve been trying to figure out how to convert the video first, then edit it. It’s the terrible side effect that singular focus has on creativity, and why I don’t do it very often – you can’t see the forest for the trees! In any event, now I am contentedly playing in QTP learning how to edit my videos to give them more polish. In the meantime, there’s one promise I can make right now: My next computer will be a Mac. Happy quilting!
Update on Quilt Possible! – My New Pattern Venture
Progress is slow, but steady. I’ve been working on several ideas, some of which I can share here, but others of which will have to wait. Overall, I’ve been feeling a burst of creativity, but I’m annoyed that I can’t seem to focus on one thing at a time. Everything needs doing all at once! The actual patterns themselves, the samples and their photos, the graphics, the website, the store, and all the little minute details around each of those things. I have been able to make a little bit of progress though, mainly in these areas: I hired a graphic artist. This was a really important step for me, because now I can stop messing with the cover design and focus on making patterns. Already, he’s made some really great suggestions and changes, and he’s FAST! He also undervalues his work, so I actually had to talk him up from the price he quoted me. You might think I’m nuts to have done that, because he’s still in school & learning so he won’t always be this cheap. However, I can’t stand artists & their work being undervalued, and for artists to be afraid to charge a fair price for the skills they bring to the table. I’m pretty confident though that if you knew the original price, and then looked at everything he’s churning out, you would have done the same thing. I found a solution to my bar code conundrum. If you didn’t know, getting “official” bar codes is extremely expensive. Almost prohibitively so for someone just getting started, and especially after plunking down a ton of money for the trademark registration. But I was able to catch Daniela over at Cozy Quilt Designs, and she was so gracious to let me ask her a question about it. I noticed that her patterns do not carry a standard UPC or EAN. She told me that almost all distributors are willing to accommodate the “little guys” because we’re independent. So we can use 3 of 9 (or Code 39) type bar codes, which you can generate yourself for free, and that would be enough for now. That little tidbit saved me thousands! I now have 10 pattern testers. Each of them has a different skill level and different quilting tools (for example, rotary vs. die cutting), so I will have a nice pool of people to choose from for testing patterns. Not everyone will be invited to test every pattern (for example, if I develop an exclusive Studio pattern, I can’t invite the GO testers) but I have enough variety to get at least 3 testers per pattern. Awesome! I clarified a copyright issue on all of my published content. Copyright is an extremely important issue, especially for those of us who write and publish on the internet. A while back, I signed a contract (which I thought I read pretty well) but upon re-reading it, it sounded like I had transferred full ownership of my copyright to someone else. I contacted them to clarify, and it turns out I only signed away for a non-exclusive right to republish. Which is fine. What it means for me is that I’m free to reconfigure & repackage content that I’ve published, which means that quiltpossible.com doesn’t have to start completely from scratch. I came up with an AMAZING idea. This idea will really distinguish my patterns from others on the market, and if I pull it off, I think I’ll really be able to carve a niche for myself. I don’t see anyone else doing what I am thinking of, so cross your fingers please. I can’t tell you about it yet; I need to get a couple of patterns out there to really test the idea! I showed it to one person and she thinks I’m on the right track too. Ok, so I have to put the pattern business on the back burner for a few hours; I have a garage sale to prepare for. Tell me why though why I agreed to it? I hate garage sales, but the junk has piled up too much around here and I really need to declutter my space. Happy quilting!
This is a BIG Bus to Turn Around… Or What I Did Today for My Pattern Business
I don’t think I realized just how WIDE I’d grown LoveBug Studios, until it was time to establish QuiltPossible! a little better in the world. Right now, as LoveBug Studios, I am managing several sites, stores, domains, and accounts. Just to name a few: LoveBugStudios on Etsy (my main store) StashedCache on Etsy (my destash shop) UnPetitMot on Etsy (my mini quilt experiment) LoveBugStudios on Artfire (the account that comes with my writing credit for HMN) LoveBugStudios on CafePress (my merchandise shop) LoveBugStudios.com (my main website) LoveBugStudios.blogspot.com (my blog host) QuiltPossible.etsy.com (my new home for test marketing patterns) QuiltPossible.com (the future home of pattern & book sales + tutorials) Twitter 2 Facebook Accounts This is just a sampling of all the sites that I have to actively maintain, not to mention that I am an author on 5 blogs, I also write for HandmadeNews.org, I’m the Program Coordinator for my local guild, Swap Coordinator for my Etsy Team, and I make stuff to stock local retail stores. And OH! I also work full time. As I move forward, I’m going to need to take a hard look at everything that I am doing, and eliminate some of the things in order to free up time to focus on QP. At some point, I need to realize that I can’t do it all. No wonder I don’t have kids, there’s no room for them in my schedule. In any event, over the last couple of days, I’ve been taking steps to further establish Quilt Possible! in the world. I ordered some bags to try out for packaging patterns and kits. I spent more on these bags than I will in the future, but to do it right for my pattern testers, I need them to be able to see what the pattern would look like on a retail shelf. I officially registered my trademark with the USPTO. This is a very expensive proposition, and I sincerely hope they don’t reject my application, because I had to register in two categories. I’ve been using the name Quilt Possible! for a while, and have sold a couple of items related to QP (a quilt that was based on one of my patterns, and a kit off my website when I had them up last year.) The words in my trademark are common, but when you put them together in that way, and apply them to products they take on a bigger meaning. Cross your fingers please – fees are not refundable if they don’t agree with me, and I would have to try again if they reject my application. I also have to register LoveBug Studios (gasp!) – I’ll likely have better luck with it because next year I can file as an uncontested trade name since I’ll have been using it for 5 years without someone coming after me. I drafted my first pattern cover. That was fun, but it was a lot of work. I will really need a graphic artist to help me though, because my curves are pretty rough and they need to be reproduced at a higher resolution. I picked my logo and pattern fonts. This is a lot harder than you think it might be! Fonts have to be legible, unique, and convey the right “feeling” for the pattern & the maker. Instead of using “default” fonts that are part of every word processing software package, I’ve chosen to separately license a couple of fonts that really appealed to me. I also got a little help from my Facebook friends, who voted on a few choices. I picked a host for quiltpossible.com. I registered this domain over a year ago, as I knew eventually I would take this step. I’ve decided to use WordPress for most of the layout. I’ve never used it before, so we’ll see how I manage learning a new tool! Right now it looks more like a blog, but eventually it will host extended content for patterns, tutorials, videos, and my pattern shop. I signed up 4 pattern testers. These folks will help me test my patterns and give me valuable feedback on my patterns before I release them for sale. I will still need to sign up pattern testers who have AccuQuilt Studio and GO die cutters. To make room for Quilt Possible!, I am considering taking the following steps to free up more time: Cut back writing for HandmadeNews.org. I love writing for this e-newspaper, but to be completely honest, publishing with them is a bear. It’s a start-up that they eventually pulled all the tech resources off of to go do something else, and as a result, there are a lot of bugs and tics and annoyances that I’ve just been putting up with for over a year. It’s painful publishing tutorials there, so I will probably limit my articles in the current series to finish out the commitment of 12 blocks, and then future articles will just be tips or techniques. Shut down my ArtFire store. Although this is a free site to me, the challenge of managing across different platforms is too much, and to be honest I have completely neglected this as a selling avenue. I’ve made 2 sales, and those were miracles considering how little I promote and pay attention to it. Shut down Un Petit Mot. I loved the idea of this, so maybe I will relaunch it at some point in the future, but it’s just taking time now I don’t have. I’ll let the current listings expire and then remove my account. Hire a webmaster. Although I am fully capable of managing my own sites, there are some changes that I want to have implemented and it will just be faster if someone else does it for me. Stop spending so much time on Facebook. That place is addicting! I’m sure there are other areas where I can cut back, but I think these are some good steps for now. In the meantime, I just got a wicked idea for a new pattern! Happy quilting!
My LoveBug Epiphany…
I had a series of realizations and epiphanies today, if it’s possible to have more than one in the space of about 10 minutes. I have to warn you now… this is a LONG post. I should absolutely be doing something else right now, but instead I am doing this because I have to get it off my chest. So you all know that a couple of days ago I was in San Diego & got inspired to publish my own patterns? Well, if you don’t, here’s the post. I’ve owned my business for about 4 years now, and every year I go through some sort of transformation, trying to come to the right formula for my business to help it grow and thrive. The first year was all about building word-of-mouth buzz and taking in custom work from co-workers & friends of friends. That worked pretty well, but then about 8 months into my new business, I had to relocate to a new state. Thus, year two was spent re-establishing my business, rebuilding my website, and trying to create a better on-line presence so my business wouldn’t be as devastated the next time I had to move. Year three, I decided to start doing shows, and introduced a new line of handbags to create a different price point and reach more customers. I started doing all sorts of things – cards, accessories, bags, pillows, jewelry – you name it, I probably made it. I even took some odd jobs making drapery. That’s fun, but there is a reason custom drapes are so expensive… they are taxing even for my perfectionist tendencies!! In year four (this one), I decided to pull back on the shows, concentrate on building my retail business, and try to reach a different audience. My business still seems to be very unfocused though, and it has taken me a while to really digest that there are just some fundamental things about my business that do not suit my personality at all, and the more I try to fight it, the more unhappy I become. Let me try to explain. 1. I am an implementer, not a sustainer. This is important. I’ve known this for a long time, and it is precisely why I am not in a teaching field, or directly in manufacturing, or why I didn’t go on tour with my rock band. I like doing things where I can make up a process (or learn a song), try it out for a few days or weeks, and then move on to something else. I couldn’t be a kindergarten teacher… maybe I could for about a week or a month, but year after year I would tire of repeating ABCs and finger-painting and wiping noses. I need to constantly be doing something different. 2. I hate repetitive tasks and routine. It’s why I have no fewer than 20-30 projects going at once, and why it takes me so long to finish stuff. I made 10 of the same handbag one day, and it nearly killed me. I did it because I HAD TO, to fill an order, not because I wanted to. If I’m going to make that many of the same thing, I really need to be in the mood, and that’s fairly rare. It’s probably why I don’t have children or eat regular meals. And why I always balk at the chore schedule I made up for myself. Sometimes, I really would rather change the sheets on Wednesday instead of Sunday. 3. I like to tinker & experiment & play. A lot of times, when I go into my Studio to work on something specific (those blasted 10 handbags!) I end up working on something entirely different. It’s why I released 20 new handbag designs in the space of about 6 weeks, I just couldn’t stop making up new ones. It’s gotten to be so many now, that most of them still haven’t made it out of the prototype stage. I have a really awesome bag that people ask me about all the time, but I only have the prototype. I’ve designed so many new bags since, I haven’t gotten around to making another to sell. The tinkering works OK for prototyping, but when people order a bag from me, they expect it to look exactly like the picture, not that I moved a strap from one side to another, or that I thought 4 pockets looked better the second time I made it than the 6 it had before. 4. I am super-committed to handmade. I have actually had a couple of offers to mass-produce one of my quilt designs and a couple of my handbags, but I have respectfully declined. I find the idea somewhat distasteful (unless it can be done in a socially- and environmentally-responsible way), but I’ve always said it’s because I’m not “mentally ready” to be that big. That’s BS because I couldn’t think of something better. I think the real reason all along is that I just really, really believe my things should be handmade and fairly-produced. Of course, this presents a problem for growth because since I hate repetitive tasks, it is unlikely that I will be able to significantly grow my business making handbags & quilts one at a time. 5. I’m a hopeless know-it-all. This isn’t at all contradictory to me not wanting to be a teacher. It’s just that, when I know something, or learn it, I can’t help but want to share it with the world. However, in the interest of protecting my business, I can’t give away the store by telling everyone my techniques and instructions for making a particular item, because then that would put them in competition with me. This creates a lot of angst for me, especially when someone asks me how I did something, and I can’t tell them for fear they will take my idea (when in reality, most people are too lazy to steal ideas & become filthy rich from them.) It’s why I write for HandmadeNews.org – it relieves some of the pressure to come up with project ideas that I can release to the world & not put my business at risk. What all of this adds up to is that I am probably in the wrong business. One of my BHAGs (big, hairy audacious goals) is to become a household name. Of course, I didn’t know how I’d do that at the time I declared this goal, and since the rock star thing didn’t work out, this seemed to be the next best thing. But unless I become the Quilter to the Stars, I’m not going to grow fast enough doing everything by myself, the way that I want to do it, and meet my goals unless I do something different. And so my series of epiphanies today led me to this conclusion – that becoming a pattern designer is the next logical outgrowth of where to take my business & grow into the powerhouse I want LoveBug Studios to become. This is so perfect for me in many ways. First, my tinkering and experimenting is for me to test concepts for specific things, whether they be for handbags or quilts or whatever. So I’m free to just make whatever I want! Second, my prototype making becomes not a repetitive, endless task for producing things to sell, but rather a means to an end in perfecting a pattern. These prototypes, instead of becoming experiments to be discarded, can become my “designer’s sample sale” where people can truly get a one-of-a-kind item that may be a little different from the finished pattern. I can sell these right along side my own patterns because I would not be looking necessarily to sell them as a line of business in itself, but just as a way to clear the shelves. The bonus is that if I wanted to make a particular item again, I could… but only if I really wanted to. The pattern-making would give me the opportunity to share my techniques with the world, and since I would be removing myself from the direct line of commerce, I would no longer have a fear of cannibalizing my business. It would be OK for other people to know how to make something, because I wouldn’t intend to be competing with them for sales. It would also allow me to get the copycat stuff out into the open, so that people don’t have to sneak-copy me, they can simply follow my patterns, give credit where it is due, and I would be able to authorize people to make items to sell on a limited basis. This keeps to my handmade commitment! Even though I wouldn’t personally be making everything, I know that whoever does make it would be making it themselves on a limited basis (and anyone else would be in violation of my copyright) so there’s less risk of mass-production of my designs. At least by a single person anyway, universe-willing that my patterns become runaway hits! Of course I recognize that pattern development has its own set of repetitive tasks, but those are the kind that I’m willing to outsource to others – printing, folding, stuffing, and sealing! This is probably going to lead to a host of many, many changes for me and my business. I will continue to write for HandmadeNews.org for the next little while, as I do have a commitment there to fulfill, but at some point I will need to go on hiatus there while I focus on pattern development in lieu of tutorials. I will also need to consolidate my various on-line stores into something a bit more manageable. There are probably other commitments I will need to re-evaluate in order to free up enough time to move in this direction. And every day, I need to do something, however small, to advance my pattern-making. Today, that was to inquire with a publisher/distributor of patterns to clear up a few questions before I submit a proposal to them for carrying my line (a hilarious statement since the current line consists of exactly zero patterns.) And I’ve been narrowing down the options for my first pattern. A handbag would be easiest, since I have copious notes on those, but I also have a couple of quilts in the running as well. More to come, I am sure! Happy quilting!
Publishing My Own Quilt Patterns – Should I Do It?
I was in San Diego recently, and had the opportunity to visit Cozy Quilts in El Cajon. This store is so amazing, made even more so by the fact that the owner, Daniela Stout, writes and publishes her own books and patterns. I walked in, and there’s an entire wall just covered with her patterns – there must be nearly 100! As I looked through her patterns, it started to dawn on me… I’ve been my own worst enemy when it comes to putting my creations out there into the world. I’ve been thinking, “My designs are too simple. Nobody would pay money for a pattern to make a quilt out of charm squares.” Or I’ve thought, “Nobody would buy patterns from me when there are so many free patterns out there.” Now, don’t get me wrong. Daniela is amazingly inventive, and she has some patterns that will knock your socks off. But she also has some patterns that a lot of more experienced quilters would just look at and say, “Bah! I can make that myself! I don’t need a pattern!” Quilts like, Chinese Coin, and Charm Squares, and Strip Quilts. At the end of the day though, that’s not really the point, is it? It’s not the fact that the pattern is a familiar Chinese Coins pattern, but that it’s a Chinese Coins pattern by Daniela. It’s her aesthetic. Her writing style. Her brand. She has done something to make this pattern appeal to people, and she’s got patterns that resonate with quilters across the spectrum – from really simple to more complex. I typically don’t buy quilt patterns, because I have so many of my own ideas floating around that it’s impossible to fit anyone else’s ideas in, but I did buy two of hers. I even bought the fabric at her store to make one of them. And it’s not a super complicated pattern, I just really liked the picture of the quilt on the front! I got really inspired by visiting Daniela’s shop yesterday. So much so that I’m seriously considering publishing my own patterns under my QuiltPossible! imprint. I’d done this on a limited basis before, but it was almost invisible, and shocking when I actually sold some. You guys know I’ve been writing about QuiltPossible! forever (well, over a year anyway over on HandmadeNews.org) and sometimes I’ll put my creations in my Etsy store. I actually had put a couple of kits on my website last year and ended up selling one. Not exactly the fastest route to fame and fortune. It’s a really scary thought to go the more public, visible route, but I’m running out of excuses, and I’m feeling really encouraged by feedback that I’m getting from people as I start to interact more with the wider quilting community. Maybe it’s true that not many people will pay money for my patterns… but I’ll never know if I don’t try. What do you think of this? Should I go for it? Happy quilting!
Wood, Lift Us Up Where We Belong…
For many years, I have been a proud owner of a Viking Mega Quilter sitting on an Inspira frame. And for all the years I have owned it, I have never actually quilted anything while it was sitting on the frame. You might think this was a complete waste of money, to have something like this that is so pricey, only to let it gather cobwebs and languish in the basement. I have thought about selling it on many occasions; after all, I’m not really planning to be the go-to quilter for prize-winning quilts, I just wanted something that could help me finish projects faster and give me a better experience than sitting at my sewing table fighting with a large quilt. If I’m not sewing on it, it makes sense to give it to someone who could make better use of it, right? But I really think it could be great if I could get it to work for me. So I’ve kept it. After I assembled it, I tried working at it standing up, but it seemed a little awkward to use and my knee kept hitting the batting rail. I swear my knee is a radar for finding hard objects! The pantograph shelf made me bend over to use it, which obscured my view of the quilt, so I took it off. I did load a quilt into it once that I was practicing on, but I had a really scary experience on it. You see, I threaded the machine incorrectly, and the speed dial somehow got turned all the way up to “10″. So when I turned the machine on to start stitching, the needle just went completely nuts. I freaked out, and by the time I remembered how to shut it off, the bobbin thread (filled with 50 wt) was mostly turned into a giant nested knot underneath the quilt. I literally had to cut a hole in the quilt to release the machine, take the frame partially apart to get at it, and spent the better part of an hour cleaning it out and calming down. After that, I didn’t touch it, and haven’t touched it since, except to vacuum the spiders that had taken up residence in the frame. Fast forward to recently: I met a woman through ConKerr Cancer, who is a long arm quilter, and I asked her to take a look at my machine & give me some tips. (She’s going to give me lessons in exchange for some website & logo work for her, so it’s a pretty good trade.) She took one look at the machine, cocked her head to the side and said, “This machine is way too low for you.” I just looked at her dumbfounded. Why? Because… my cutting table is actually a free-standing kitchen line, so I could have it at the right height for me cutting. Because… the table on which my AccuQuilt Studio machine sits is on bed lifts so it can be at the right height. Because… every other table where I sew & craft was especially selected for being ergonomically correct for my height & appropriate posture. But never once – ever – did it occur to me that my quilting frame was not the right height. I just installed it and ignored the awkward sewing posture and left it at that. So… she gave me some tips on figuring out the right height for me by using “the belly bar.” That is, the height of the take-up roller for the quilt backing, should be sitting at belly level. My belly bar was sitting at just about mid-thigh. That’s a pretty good distance to make up! So I immediately went about brainstorming how to fix the situation, and as usual when I get into these conundrums, I go to Lowe’s. With picture in hand, I stopped by the hardware department. He sent me to Raul in lumber. Raul had a great idea, took me to the back of the store with the scrap lumber, took some measurements from me, and selected 4 very sturdy 2×12 pressure treated boards to cut my platforms. Then he gave me a 50% discount since it was scrap lumber, and proceeded to cut everything to the correct size at no charge. See why I love Lowe’s? I loaded it into the Love Bug and took it home! Once I got home, it was a little bit of a challenge to figure out how to lift the frame by myself. I didn’t want to wait to con ask friends to help me. I wanted it done now! So I took off all the rails, removed the machine, and basically took the frame halfway apart to reduce the weight. Also in preparation for this, I cut up a plastic runner to put on the floor underneath the wood – since it’s pressure-treated, I didn’t want that leeching into the carpet. Now, you’re probably wondering how I got to this point: This is mostly lifted on four pieces of lumber, but still isn’t tall enough. Picture me on all fours underneath the machine. I positioned myself between the legs, with the support rail on my shoulder blades. The machine carriage was on the opposite end, and I just lifted the frame, balanced on my shoulders, and stacked the wood. I did one layer at a time! After I got to the fourth layer, I stopped to put the machine & shelf on, and checked the height. It wasn’t quite right, so I disassembled again and added another layer. I put the rails and machine on this time, the height seems really perfect, but there’s a problem. The guide handles would have my arms in an awkward position, so I needed to move them to a different position. I tried switching them to the underside of the handlebars, but since one is actually wired, I couldn’t pull it out. So I needed to come up with a solution. I took the handle to a lint roller, wrapped it in batting and muslin to make it more comfortable, and attached it to the existing wired handle with cable ties. Voila! It’s actually a near-perfect size match to the other handle, and saved me a trip to the hardware store. At this height, my arms are bent at a 90 degree angle, my head is only slightly angled downward at the pantograph shelf, my knees no longer hit the batting roller, and I can stand up to my full height. One last modification that I made: in order to prevent any mishaps with the speed again, I took a silver Sharpie and marked the zero position. Then, with a black Sharpie, I marked the point on the speed dial at which the needle starts to stitch. Now I feel a lot more ready to tackle a quilt! My only problem now is locating the video which has the instructions for how to load a quilt into the frame. Oh dear… Happy quilting!
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