Welcome to this week's TGIFF party! Today I have a different finish to share, one that involved time at my computer rather than my sewing machine, but it is quilt related.
In November 2018, I released Love Birds and Churn as my first printed patterns. At the time, I really liked how the covers looked, but over the past year or two, I've been wanting to redesign them. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure how I wanted them to look. I also knew I wanted to update my logo first, so I could add the logo to the cover, but I wasn't sure how I wanted that to look either. That meant that for a long time, nothing got done.
Then last month I finally updated my logo, so it was time to tackle the pattern covers! For reference, here's how my patterns look now.
And here's how they'll look going forward. I love that it looks more sleek and modern than my existing covers do.
I create my patterns in Microsoft Publisher, and one day last week I noticed there's a place to click to open up a menu of "page parts." When I clicked on it, I found all kinds of already created things that could be added to a document, including the header I ended up using for the pattern title. I had to tweak it a little, removing some parts I didn't need, but I love the blocks of colour, which I can change to match each cover quilt. Finding that menu of 'page parts' gave me exactly the starting point I needed to get moving.
I'm working now on getting my three most recent patterns ready to send to the printer (Illusion, Merry Mini, and Hot and Cold). Those three quilts feature very different colour palettes, so I'm looking forward to seeing them all printed together. Case in point, here's how the redesigned cover looks for Hot and Cold. I love how they're the same, but different.
Once these three are sent to the printer, I need to work on updating the existing pattern covers, too. This kind of feels like an "If you give a mouse a cookie" moment...If you update your logo, it'll be time to update your pattern covers. And if you update your pattern covers, you'll need to print new covers for your existing patterns. With 30 patterns already available in print, it'll take a little while to get them all switched over.
In the meantime, I'm celebrating having the cover redesign finalized. What finish are you celebrating this week? Link it up below, then visit some of the other links to celebrate their finishes, too.
Love the new look! and kind of fun to find new things to play with. Great job!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on finalizing the updated cover designs. I think the update looks great!
ReplyDeleteThe new covers look great Leanne, and I hear you on discovering new things!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute new logo!!! The pattern covers look clean and sleek, too!!!
ReplyDeleteYour new pattern covers and logo look great!!! I've been thinking about doing something different with my patterns ... but I need a "Round To It."!!! LOL!
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, I completely understand how much work it is to design and redesign a pattern cover. Though I am now a die-hard Apple/Macbook user, when I had and used Microsoft Publisher, I found it more conducive to pattern-writing. It's wonderful to take advantage of the templates offered. I especially liked making Microsoft Publisher quilt labels because there were so many border options, and capabilities of customizing them. Sadly, Macbook doesn't have a specific "publishing" feature, so pattern-writing is done either in Pages (similar to Word) or Numbers (similar to Excel). Not good options. So, I'm happy for you to have had a good play at updating your design. Very nice!
ReplyDelete