Sunday, April 2, 2017

Call the Midwife, Quilter Style

Fans of the PBS series Call the Midwife will recognize these scenes and faces:




In the TV show, a group of plucky midwives (have you noticed how many heroines in British dramas are plucky??), some nuns and some lay nurses, minister to the women of East London in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a time of great upheaval and change both in medicine and in society as a whole. It's awesome TV and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Maybe my enjoyment of the series explains why I woke up this morning thinking, "You know, I'm kind of like a midwife, quilter style."

Most of my time these days is spent assisting other quilt designers with their projects. I've been having a ton of fun helping other quilters and companies with pattern writing, technical editing, sample sewing, and more. New collaborations with C&T Publishing, Pokey Bolton, and Kate Spain, LLC are keeping me busy right now, and I love every minute of it.

But, like a midwife, once the baby comes, it's...not mine. I'm thrilled for the designers whose work is born (Gerri Robinson, I'm looking at you and your new book, Casual Classic Quilts!), but I want and need to create, too. After all, even midwives get to have babies of their own at some point!

So this is my renewed commitment to myself to make time every day to create. When I do, I am so much happier! I have a quilt pattern for Timeless Treasures coming soon to their "free projects" page (watch for it here). It's called Born to Fly and it features their Fly Away fabric collection. I had the best time designing it and writing the pattern, and even spent hours teaching myself to create diagrams in Word. It's projects like this that remind me why I'm working in the quilting field to start with. I love to design and make quilts - duh!

Born to Fly sneak peek


If you need a quilting midwife, please contact me. There's nothing I'd like better than to help you birth your next project. And I'll also be dedicating some time to my own babies. And showing off their pictures here!

Monday, February 27, 2017

Time Flies

Wow, has it really been over 3 months since my last confession blog? A lot has happened in that time, but the bottom line is I'm still working on getting my quilt business off the ground. I've done freelance writing and editing work for lots of great people and companies in the last 3 months, including some projects that make me really proud. Check out:

I also covered a maternity leave for the online editor for Fons & Porter and McCall's Quilting brands from the beginning of November to the middle of February. So...I've been keeping busy, and I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to work with all these amazingly talented people. And there are more collaborations in the pipeline - very exciting!

On the home front, I've been working on the 2 twin size Log Cabin quilts for my guest room, and hand quilting a wall hanging for a friend. I've also been doing something a little different when I need to make a test block or two for any project I'm patterning or editing. This year, whenever that need arises, I'm using fabrics from a single Moda fat quarter pack (Madame Rouge by French General). I figure at the end of 2017, I'll have enough blocks for a unique sampler quilt, and only have to work out how to assemble them into something pleasing. Can't wait to see how that all comes together...

Watch for more blog posts in the near future. I'm going to be quilting up a storm!