Tools, Books, Retreats, Guilds, and more!
The sewing industry is huge. But the more I look into making the plunge, I wonder just how expansive this industry is and how many new budding designers it will be able to handle. That in itself is a terrifying thought on how to "make it." I tend to fear that the market is or will be over-saturated with fabric designers, pattern designers, bloggers, etc. It makes me wonder what will differentiate myself from anything that is already out there. But enough about these fears, and let's look at all the different things this industry offers newbies like myself!
Tools - There are tools for absolutely anything and everything! One of tools that I used this week was the Marti Michell "Perfect Patchwork Corner Trimmer." It helped cut the corners off the for the triangle pieces to help all the edges line up.
Image from Marti Michell site
When I made Frivols 1 - Kindred, I has such an issue figuring out how the triangles aligned with the squares in the pattern. My blocks definitely came out wonky, and I couldn't figure out how to get things aligned.
When I worked on this month's Modern Heritage BOM, I used the tool on all the triangle pieces and it made aligning the pieces such a breeze.
Books - There are so many books about quilting and sewing out there. I was listening to Modern Sewciety's episode that talked to Cheryl Arkison about her book "You Inspire Me to Quilt." I ended up purchasing the book and plan on reading about other peoples' design processes. I own quite a few quilting books that are on my list to read. I think I may end up putting books on my weekly goal to read and review. "You Inspire Me to Quilt" will be this week's book to read!
Image from Amazon
Retreats/Guilds - I want to go to more retreats and meet other quilty people. I cannot wait until QuiltCon in Savannah next February, and I want to find other retreats for me to attend! My day job vacation days are getting used for retreats. I am attending Sewing Expo in Minneapolis in a month, but I am only able to attend on Thursday because I will be traveling to China for work for a little over a week in November. I can't wait to learn from and see all the different vendors at the show. These retreats and events end up leading me to really want to find a guild. I am not the best at going to a retreat/events cold and not knowing anyone. There is a Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild, but I haven't attended a meeting yet. It doesn’t seem to be a part of the Modern Quilt Guild (I'm an individual member!) that is worldwide, but I'm not sure. I plan on attending this month's meeting on Thursday to check it out!
I ended up joining the online Craft Industry Alliance but have yet to have time to really explore their site and resources. I am trying to get integrated with the industry and meet the players. I am coming up with so much information and not nearly enough time to really look through and learn everything!
I feel like this blog post is just highlighting how this process is very overwhelming. I don't really mean for it to come off this way because Pattern #101 did get emailed out to the pattern testers this week. The first sample is out at the longarm to get quilted and I'm starting to work on the second sample. I am making great progress, but there is still so much for me to do and learn. I know that allowing myself to not understand everything and to not be perfect will ultimately help with alleviating the pressure bestowed upon myself. My most limited resource is and will always be time.
Here's the update on the Cozy Christmas quilt that I worked on this past week. I finished Block 9 and am keeping up with the quilt along!
The first 3 rows are complete and only 3 more blocks left! I love this quilt and it's so darling for the holidays.
10/18-10/25 Weekly Goal:
Available time for quilting:
Wednesday and Friday night, Saturday afternoon aka Craft Day, and all day Sunday! (I love non-travel weeks)
Projects I want to work on:
Cozy Christmas
Powered by Quilting Patterns
Goals for the Projects:
Cozy Christmas: Complete Block 10
Powered by Quilting Patterns: Finish citrus sample of Pattern #101. Send pattern to pattern testers.
Read: You Inspire Me to Quilt by Cheryl Arkison
You know – I think similarly regarding quilt shop oversaturation. YET. You are YOU and I and ME. What we bring to the table whether it’s through blogging or designing or selling fabric ( I do all three and hope to add other things like fabric designing to that list at some point too!) – what we give is part of the uniqueness that we each possess. Most importantly, we learn as we go and that’s important to share too 🙂 PS – I like your idea of reviewing books. There are some great ones out there!
The uniqueness is something I need to remind myself. Thanks so much for the encouragement! <3