About 16 months ago I decided I was going to try and create my own quilt for which I would write a pattern. I cannot quite remember what prompted me to do that. It probably had something to do with my youngest hitting school that year leaving me with more time on my hands. I had also realised that I didn't want to return to my career as a lawyer (from which I had had a substantial break), and was battling multiple auto immune diseases which at that time were making me unwell for significant periods.
I had had ideas for what I wanted to make in my head for some time and the actual designing wasn't too much of a problem. I loved the quilt top I created. Hand quilted it and loved the result and set about writing up instructions and hand drawing diagrams. A lovely friend who is a graphic designer, and is a great support to me, decided to invest her time in this project and we set about making the #chickenstitchquilt pattern that is now (finally!!) available in my online shop.
Then life hit us both hard. So many unexpected things happened in both our lives. I got really unwell and also had to revamp my parenting game as teenagers taught me a lesson or three thousand. My friend had different big things happen in her life and we kept slowly slowly working on our project.
We finally got the pattern to a standard where I thought someone else could make it and online friends and followers volunteered their time to test the pattern. And they did the best job! Suggestions to improve the quilt instructions were made and lots of problems fixed. The testers' versions were unique and beautiful and I felt amazed that my idea was out there in the creative world. Despite everybody being super supportive of the process I started to feel like a giant fraud. Why did I think I could write a pattern, allow a friend to spend significant amounts of time making it into a beautiful pattern booklet, get online friends and followers to test it, and then think that someone might buy it and make their own version at the end?
Still no idea why I thought I could do this but I am incredibly thankful that some people have decided they want to give this quilt a go. Thank you thank you thank you.
2 comments
I would like to buy ITSALOTQUILT PATTERN
Please
Never doubt yourself. I have been designing quilts for a few years and i know that actually writing the pattern is the pits!! I’ve found that quitters LOVE helping with new patterns. I too felt at first that i was imposing on friends but soon realised that we were all having fun. For me i feel that all aspects of this quilting game are fun…