Please join me in welcoming Elisa Wilson as a guest blogger today as she gives you a glimpse into her life as a pattern designer. Share your favourite beginner’s quilting tip for a chance to win a free pattern and template of your choice.

I have a secret life. Most of my friends and acquaintances don’t know what I do. When I meet someone for the first time, this is how the conversation goes:

Them: "Do you work?"

Me: "Yes, I have a business. I design quilts and produce patterns and acrylic templates for quilters."

Them: Blank stare, long pause. "Oh, you make quilts."

Me: "No, I make patterns and sell them to quilters who make the quilts."

Them: "Who buys them?"

Me: "Well, I sell mostly to quilt shops across the US and to distributors who sell to quilt shops."

Then another person walks up and Them introduces me: "This lady makes quilts."

Me: Sigh. "Yes, I make quilts."

For a pattern designer, life revolves around market (it is a BIG deal for us). International Quilt Market is held twice a year. In the spring it moves around to different locations and in the fall it is always in Houston. At market you will find many different pattern designers, fabric companies, publishers of magazines and quilt books, thread companies, sewing machine manufacturers and much more.

Market is about what is NEW. It is your chance to show everyone your newest creations. Immediately after market is over, you have to start on the new NEW and have it ready in time for the next market.

So what do I really do all day?

After my breakfast and morning workout I am on the computer. Computer work takes up the majority of my day. I am sending emails, posting blogs, marketing, taking online classes, designing, writing patterns and coordinating with graphic designers, printers and shop owners. Some days I even get to sew!

I truly enjoy the design the process. This is how it usually goes:

First, I receive fabric from one of the fabric companies I work with.

Then I sort through the fabric. This time there are about 30 different colors. Immediately I pull out any fabric that does not appeal to me. Fortunately there are only about 6 I do not like in this bunch. The rest definitely speak to me.

Next I divide the fabric into colors. I make piles of colors that seem to be the same (greens in one pile, yellows in another, etc.). Then I re-divide the fabric into lights, mediums, and darks. I re-arrange it many times.

I am handling the fabric, getting familiar with the colors and patterns. I usually let it sit on the dining room table and look at it during the day. Depending upon the deadline it can sit there for a few days or a few weeks.

I begin to get a few ideas and then I go to my EQ (Electric Quilt) and play around with different blocks.

Will this be an easy pattern or something more complicated? How many fabrics do I need to use? Does it have to be a certain size? Will I be producing the pattern or am I writing it for a fabric company? Playing on EQ can take days.

Once I have a few ideas I begin to make test blocks. It is surprising that what looks good on EQ does not always translate to good in fabric. I sew a few test blocks, try a different fabric, arrange the blocks, go back to EQ, re-arrange the blocks.

Then I write down how to make the blocks. Make a few more blocks to see if my instructions really make sense. A lot of back and forth goes on. More questions: Is it a good pattern? Is it different? Does it showcase the fabric? Who will this appeal to? Is it too boring or too challenging?

Every quilt needs a name. My husband is super good at coming up with names. He writes down a bunch of names, just letting his imagination go and writing anything that comes to mind. We can get a good chuckle during the word play on names.

After the quilt top is made I have to quilt and bind it. I love the quilting but dislike the binding. I then send it off to the photographer to get its picture taken for the pattern cover. While the photographer is working, I’m writing the pattern instructions. The pattern is proof read and tested. As soon as I get the quilt photo, the graphic designer and I create the pattern cover. The instructions and cover design are sent to the printer. Everything is printed and assembled into bags.

Whew! That’s a lot of work. I usually have three or four patterns going on in different stages at one time. I work about 40 hours a week and I juggle a lot of hats.

So my secret life is out. Are you surprised? How does it sound to you? Is it what you thought it would be? I would love to hear your comments and questions.

I invite you to join me as I chronicle my life as as a designer and my adventures in the awesome Montana wilderness that is my home at Seams Sew Crazy or on Facebook. Visit my online shop, Elisa’s Backporch Design, to see my patterns, templates and video tutorials.

Give-Away

I am offering a drawing for a free pattern and template of your choice. Anybody who makes a comment is entered.

To enter the give-away: Leave a comment below sharing your favourite beginner’s quilting tip. Give-away ends September 8, 2010. Winner will be chosen randomly.

Please join me in welcoming guest blogger, Teresa, as she shares her Nifty Fifty quilting group and charity. An awesome group that has accomplished so much.

I created the Nifty Fifty state quilt block swaps which also make charity quilts for Breast Cancer Awareness. I live in Virginia and I have been quilting for almost 20 years. I love to hand piece and hand quilt. I do all my appliqué by hand including the 50 state quilt blocks that I have made in the past.

In 1995 my quilting pen pal and I started a centralized 50 state quilt block swap. I represented the state of Virginia and while making my 50 Virginia state quilt blocks (all hand pieced) I thought how easy it would be to make a couple more quilt blocks for charity. So I requested our quilters to make two extra quilt blocks. We decided to use one quilt block for a charity quilt and one for a museum quilt. As a group of women we voted to make our charity quilt for Breast Cancer Research since this disease touches so many women’s lives. The museum quilt would be used to collect signatures of breast cancer survivors and victims.

Our Original Nifty Fifty Quilters meeting in 1998 to sew the Breast Cancer Charity Quilts together

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Please join me in welcoming guest blogger AnneMarie as she shares with us her vision for her new blog: Gen X Quilters (& Y too!).

Hello there! My name is AnneMarie and I am the hard-at-work quilter behind the new blog Gen X Quilters (& Y too!). I’d like to thank Michele for giving me the opportunity to guest blog here at the Quilting Gallery to tell you about myself and the community I hope to create at GXQ.

Let’s begin with a little background.

When I was young, my mom repeatedly asked to teach me to sew. And like any girl growing up in the 80s and 90s, I was desperate to be independent and everything-not-domestic. I was slightly tom-boyish, preferring soccer and sports to dance lessons, but I always enjoyed art.

We crafted up a storm in Girl Scouts, but I absolutely refused to learn to sew and cook. Once, I think my mom convinced me I should make a patchwork blanket for the dog. I remember cutting some squares out with scissors and that’s where it ended. I never even sewed a stitch.

I went off to college and studied mechanical engineering. Being 1 of 2 women in my classes, I was completely submerged in everything male. Gears, beers, and dirty jokes. It was a lot to handle. After working a couple years in the trucking industry (of all places!), I married my husband. I relocated, went to grad school, and finally started to reconnect with the artist in me. For the first time in years, I could explore something crafty and creative without feeling like I needed to hide my femininity (I’d spent a lot of time toughening up so I could work in a man’s world – the auto industry). But now, I was doing something I liked (studying biomechanics), married, and finally figuring out who I was in life. Imagine that! It only took 25 years to figure out who I was!

I tried a variety of crafty hobbies…..cross-stitch…. knitting….. scrap booking….. searching for the one I could become passionate about.

When pregnant with my first son, I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas. Now remember, I’ve never even sewn an inch. It sat in the box a few months (until pregnancy nausea and exhaustion subsided) and then IT began. My obsession, I mean. First, I had to teach myself to sew a straight line. Although I had no idea what I was doing, I refused to be stifled by instructions and a pattern. This is what I came up with.

It’s not quilted (I honestly didn’t even know what quilting meant) or tied, just 3 layers of material sewn with stubborn persistence and love for my unborn son. It’s not the prettiest thing, but he liked it and somehow, through my cloud of confusion due to lack of research, I had somehow taught myself to sew.

Fast forward a bit through baby sleepless nights and adjusting to being a stay-at-home mom….when I resumed my new hobby, I just couldn’t get enough! My excitement at watching the quilts come together and learning new skills grew and grew. It’s been four and a half years since I began and now I enjoy creating my own designs. The need for detail, precise cuts and seam allowances perfectly suits the anal retentive engineer in me.

Enter Gen X Quilters…

I started a blog on a whim (Quilting Chronicles), thinking I may like to work part-time at a quilt shop. I thought the blog would be a good way to show my quilting “resume” when I went to apply for the job. Just a couple weeks later, I attended the National Quilting Association Quilt Show here in Columbus. I was shocked that I could count on one hand the number of quilters under 50. I was just getting my feet wet in the blogging world, but I knew there had to be others out there like me. My friends do not sew. In fact when I mention that I quilt, it sometimes gets raised eyebrows, like “are you an 80 year old grandma?” or possibly even because I live in Ohio, it conjures up the image of Amish women sewing around a frame 100 years ago.

I so wanted to meet someone in my age group that shared a more contemporary view of quilting. After a Google search produced no results, there it was! Gen X Quilters (& Y too!) and a blank screen on Blogger. Now all I had to do was find a friend.

Although GXQ is a blog (which tends to be more a monologue than conversation), I am trying to create a central hub for Gen X and Gen Y Quilters to come and see a more contemporary take on quilting. Be it through my own projects and designs, reading about others background and work on Gen X Quilters’ Follower Fridays, viewing GXQ’s photo stream on Flickr, or just perusing the blog roll.

I hope to:

1. Create a place to find others with interests similar to your own hip, modern, quilty flare!
2. Inspire someone who has never tried quilting or learned to sew.
3. Have fun meeting quilters through sharing stories, admiring work and sparking creativity.

Quilters of all ages, shapes and sizes, please hop on over to Gen X Quilters with a cup of coffee. Read a bit and send me your suggestions. GXQ is in its infancy and can morph into what the readers want. I hope this blog will help connect quilters in Gen X/Y so that we may keep quilting going strong in years to come. Because, like me, I think many women (and men) in our generation never learned to sew. With the ever-evolving Internet and digital media, the passing of knowledge in crafts such as quilting has been revolutionized. We can reach a broader global audience and teach others that the fantastic art of quilting can be as trendy or as traditional as the quilter desires.

Thanks for spending some time with me and happy quilting to you!

AnneMarie

Please join me in welcoming Ellen Anne Eddy as she guest blogs here at the Quilting Gallery. She shares with us a thought-provoking interpretation of art, beauty, interpretation and ourselves.

There’s a world of debate that periodically swirls around the art world. We’re always trying to define what is or isn’t art. Everything before the Renaissance was about creating more and more realism within art. But after that we’ve seen a whirlwind of differing techniques and views, lionized and vilified both.

In a way, it’s all mute. Time separates it out for us. Each year brings it’s own art fashions, just like clothes and home decoration. Images and viewpoints go in and out of vogue just as the hemlines change.

Dancing in the Light

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Please join me in welcoming Sherry A. Byrd as today’s guest blogger. She shares with us her family’s extensive quilting history spanning six generations. Thanks Sherry for being a guest!

My name is Sherry A. Byrd. As a child I was introduced to quilt making via my maternal grandmother, who came from a long lineage of quilt makers that were tied in with the Edward “Ned” Titus Family.

In 1852, a planter by the name of Simeon Lake, his wife, Nancy, and their children migrated to Texas from South Carolina, via Arkansas. They traveled over land in four wagons pulled by 10 oxen. They brought with them five slaves, Edward “Ned” Titus, his wife Chlorie (Dunbar) Titus and their three children. The male slaves helped with the outside work and the females did all the cooking and housework. The household chores consisted of cleaning, washing, ironing, sewing, cooking, and quilt making, etc.

Ned and Chlorie had eleven children. One was named Walter. When Walter matured, he chose for his wife… Miss Patsie Reddick. They became the parents of one daughter, Ellen Anna Titus who was born in 1884.

Patsie was considered to be a good housekeeper, cook and mother. She was talented at quilt making. She had all the skills a man was taught to look for in a woman. She taught all these skills to her daughter, Ellen Anna, at a very early age. Ellen Anna wed at the age of 15 to Willie Anderson Durham. Her mother died in 1925 ???. They had eleven offspring of which four were daughters. Their names were Clara born in 1903, Lillie born in 1904, Gladys born in 1906, and Katie Mae born in 1917.

Ellen Anna followed in the footsteps of her mother and trained her female offspring the same skills she had received when she was maturing. Her youngest daughter, Katie Mae Durham-Tatum, says her mother started the training as early as eight years old. This turned out to be a wise decision on her mother’s part, because Katie Mae’s mom died when she was twelve years old. Katie Mae married at the age of 15 and assisted her father to raise her two younger brothers, Alonzo and Harold. She says she was completely on her own and was forced to make covers for her bed, because she couldn’t afford to buy store bought ones. But the fact that she loved quilt making made the chore enjoyable. She considered knowing how to do so as a blessing.

Patsie Reddick and her daughter, Ellen Anna, established a solid foundational legacy of African American M-provisational quilt making that has survived the rigors of time through five and hopefully six generations.

The Titus family lineage has culminated into the creation of a series of reversible story quilts, which Patsie’s great, great granddaughter, Sherry A. Byrd works on passionately, in her spare time.

I, (Sherry) was born and raised in Fairfield, Texas, which is approximately an hours’ drive south of Dallas, Texas and also approximately an hours’ drive west of Waco, Texas. Fairfield is the county seat of Freestone. The town’s centennial year was 1951… the year I was born.

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The Global Quilt Project will benefit a sanitation and clean water well project in the Central African Republic (CAR), a remote landlocked country in Central Africa, which is ranked one of the poorest regions in the world.

The latrines built from this project will be located in a school and will allow maturing girls an opportunity to stay in school providing them the privacy they need. The daily chore of collecting water for the family use is typically given to girls and the community clean water well built from this project will be located nearby the school allowing time for these girls to both attend school and fulfill their daily chore of collecting water for their families.

Our Global Quit Project began when we saw a photo of the ladies in Berberati, CAR learning how to quilt. My inquire on this photo prompted Lisa Namsen to send our organization 2 quilting blocks she had hand sewn while attending the quilting class in Berberati. These blocks will be featured in the center of our Global Quilt. The quilt will reflect the message that when our efforts stand alone they may seem insignificant but as we join together we can make a difference in the lives of our neighbors around the world.

We are asking quilters from around the world to donate 12 x 12 inch block(s) or 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inch block(s). These blocks will be joined together and our Global Quilt will be auctioned off in conjunction with World Toilet Day on November 19th 2010. All dontated blocks received by September 15th, 2010 will be included in our Global Quilt Project for 2010. Any blocks received after September 15th 2010 will be used in our Global Quilt Project for 2011. Please follow our website for updates on the Global Quilt Project and the sanitation and clean water well project built in CAR.

The World Health Organization estimates that 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, including 1.2 billion people who have no facilities at all and 884 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. In the developing world, 24,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unclean water.

Global Change, Inc. is a US based non profit 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to provide safe clean water and basic sanitation to people living in extreme poverty. Our approach to the water crisis includes 3 aspects; access to clean water, access to basic sanitation and hygiene education. We consider these 3 aspects essential in the alleviation of disease in developing communities while providing a realistic opportunity to end the cycle of poverty within the communities we serve.

GlobalChange.Me would like to send our deepest gratitude to the quilters throughout the world. The common bond that builds relationships between quilters has also touched the lives of so many around the world. Thank you for allowing us to become part of the quilting community and to share with you our passion to bring clean water and basic sanitation to our global neighbors.

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook or read our blog.

Amy Allen
CEO
Global Change, Inc
Web: www.globalchange.me
Email: amy@globalchange.me
Phone: 407-951-2826