Devoted Quilter is 13 today! 🎉🎉🎉 I know I say it every year when this day rolls around, but it's still true, so I have to say it again - I can't believe how much has happened over the past 13 years because I started blogging!
To celebrate the anniversary, I'm having my annual Anniversary Pattern Sale, so head to my shop to save 25% off PDF patterns and printables. No coupon codes needed, the discount is already applied. Happy pattern shopping!
As today was getting closer, I was thinking about all the things I've learned since hitting publish on that first post back in 2013. There are plenty of tech skills I've picked up, beginning with my husband needing to teach me how to get pictures from our camera to the computer for those first posts. He then had to show me again a few days later when I forgot what to do 😅 Aside from all the tech stuff, there are a lot of lessons I've learned from 13 years of quilt blogging and quilt pattern design (which would never have happened without the blog). Here are those lessons, with a few quilts made over the years for added eye-candy.
The online quilting community is amazing
There are so many examples of this, but the most personal one for me happened in 2017 when the senior's home across the road from our house burned down. I asked for quilt blocks so I could make quilts for the 21 seniors who had lost their home and the online quilting community responded in a BIG way. To make the 21 quilts, I needed 882 blocks. I ended up with over 3,000 blocks, plus donations of backing, batting, and binding! With the help of local quilters, that turned into quilts for the 21 seniors, the 10 employees who had lost their jobs when the home burned down, and all the first responders who responded the night of the fire. I also sent 21 quilt tops to Houston after Hurricane Harvey.
It was amazing to be on the receiving end of the generosity of so many quilters, and to be able to pass that on to people who needed a little extra love and care. It's also amazing to see how quickly quilters step up every single time there's a need.
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| A stack of over 300 blocks that all arrived on the same day! |
The things I think will be hard are probably not as hard as I imagine.
I can't even tell you how many times I have put off some task (even things I really wanted to do) because it was going to be hard to figure out, only to finally do it and discover it wasn't really that hard after all. Getting my patterns in printed form so I could sell them to quilt shops is a prime example. I wanted to do that for a couple of years before I reached out to another designer to ask her some questions about the logistics. Her answers sent me down the path that was surprisingly easy to follow.
This lesson has repeated often enough that I made myself a mini quilt as a reminder to just do the hard things!
You don't need special training to design quilts.
I quilted for a long time before I started designing my own patterns. During that time, I had this feeling that quilt designers had some special skill or training I didn't have. I didn't know what that was, exactly, but I was sure I didn't have it. Then I came across Craftsy in 2012 and from there found my way to quilt blogs, and started to realize that quilt designers were just regular people like me. The only special skills they had were the willingness to try, coupled with the willingness to learn the stuff they didn't already know. Realizing that I could do that, too, was life changing!
What would you love to do, but you're holding back because you think you don't have the right qualifications? Are those qualifications real? A willingness to try + a willingness to learn can get a person pretty far with a lot of things.
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| Inner Beauty quilt |
Technology isn't scary and it makes incredible things possible.
I used to be so nervous about trying anything new on the computer! Learning a new program, going into the backend of my blog, editing pictures... It all made me worry I'd mess it up so badly it couldn't be fixed. While I'm still not the most tech-savvy person out there, I have learned how to tackle a lot of tech stuff over the years, and most of it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be (see the lesson about hard things, above!).
It helps that my husband is pretty tech-savvy, so he's my first stop when I can't figure something out with the help of Google. And when he can't figure it out, either, I turn to my brother, who is leaps and bounds ahead of either of us. Surprisingly, though, I'm able to handle most tech stuff on my own.
As for what it makes possible?
- My Stash Artists members are scattered all over North America, and we meet monthly to chat and sew together over Zoom.
- I give lectures and teach workshops for guilds in Canada and the US, all without leaving my sewing room. Want me to 'visit' your guild? Send this link to your program chair!
- I've sold PDF patterns to people all over the world.
- My on-demand course teaches quilters how to paper piece with freezer paper, so they'll never again have to remove bits of paper from their blocks.
- I currently work as a virtual assistant to 2 other pattern designers, neither of whom I've actually met in real life.
- I have quilty friends who share their makes every time I check Instagram.
You don't need to meet someone in person to become friends.
Thanks to technology, I have so many quilty friends I've never been in the same room with. In the case of many of them, we've never even been in the same country!
I've been able to meet a few of them over the years, and have plans to meet more this year (I'm so excited about every one of those plans!). But even if we only ever talk and share our love of quilting through a screen, I'm so grateful for the friends I've made in this online quilting community.
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| Stripe Shuffle quilt |
You don't have to have it all figured out when you start.
Right from the first day I started blogging, I've been figuring things out as I go along. That's been true for designing and writing patterns, for running my shop, and for teaching workshops. As long as we know the next thing we need to do, we can gradually find our way along the path, especially if we're willing to ask for help from people who are a little farther along that path than we are. Thankfully, the people in the quilting industry are generally very generous with their knowledge.
Running a quilt pattern business involves a lot of computer time.
I mean, A LOT of computer time. I had no idea how much time I would spend with this computer. I work on a laptop, which means I'm often sitting in the living room typing a blog post (as I am right now) or a newsletter, but I could also be creating appliqué templates in EQ8, or standing at the kitchen counter answering emails while waiting for the water to boil for pasta. While I do get to spend a lot of time making quilts, I spend even more time doing a multitude of things on the computer.
Creativity doesn't run out when you use it.
When I was first considering starting the Stash Artists membership in 2023, there was a little worry in the back of my mind that maybe I'd run out of ideas for stash-friendly patterns. Well, not only has that not happened, but I have so many ideas and plans for quilts (and whole series of quilts!) that I don't have time to get to them all 😊 And yet I still find myself designing more things that weren't even on the list! Yes, I actually have a list on my phone of quilts I want to get to eventually.
All of that to say, creativity doesn't run out when you use it - it grows!
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| Thread Love quilt |
You'll never know if you don't ask. And if you ask, they might just say yes!
This is one of my favourite lessons!
The first time I submitted a quilt design to a magazine (Make Modern, for the record), I didn't really expect them to accept it. I had this dream, though, so I submitted it even though I expected a no. But I got a yes and the Flower Box cushion was published in May 2015.
The first time I reached out to a company to ask them to sponsor a prize for something for the blog, I thought my blog might be too small to be worth it for them, but they said yes.
Over the years I've reached out to a lot of people and companies for a lot of different things. Sometimes the answer has been no and sometimes I didn't get a response at all, but quite often the answer has been yes. That doesn't mean I don't sometimes hesitate to send that email, but I try to remind myself that I'll never know if I don't ask and that they can't say yes if I don't ask.
I had no idea any of these lessons would come from me decision to hit publish on that first blog post! I'm so glad I took that leap and joined the online quilting community! I'm looking forward to all the things I'll learn as I keep blogging, making quilts, and writing patterns.
Thank you for being here for the journey. I wouldn't still be here 13 years later without you!