Quilting Arts: Behind the Scenes : Quilt Patterns

Deadline Extended for Modern Patchwork--Submit Today!

Kristine Lundblad — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:39:00 GMT

Good news, we have extended our submissions deadline for Modern Patchwork to May 31 and we'd love to hear from you!

Modern Patchwork is our semiannual special issue focused on fresh and contemporary projects in the latest fabrics. We are looking for original designs with modern-day appeal. This issue will hit newsstands in November so we urge you to keep that in mind when considering your design and fabric choices. Our spring issue of Modern Patchwork is out now--we are so excited about it!--and a peek at that will give you a taste of what we're after.

Modern Patchwork is packed with projects for today's quilters and sewists. This issue features quilting techniques and patchwork projects of every kind, including home décor, accessories, and wearables. From large bed quilts to patchwork scarves, totes, pillows, and more, we welcome submissions of a wide array from innovative sewists. The contemporary and fresh aesthetic of these projects pays tribute to the modern revival of patchwork, integrating traditional and innovative techniques to create items that are tasteful and unique.

We've recently freshened our guidelines for submitting projects to this special publication--check out the details here. Submit your ideas today!

Kristine

New Deadline for Quilt Scene--Submit Your Project!

Kristine Lundblad — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:06:00 GMT

Good news, we have extended our submissions deadline for International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene to May 20 and we'd love to hear from you!

International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene is our annual issue of fresh ideas for today's quilter, including patterns and projects, galleries of beautiful quilts from the International Quilt Festival in Houston, interviews, tips, and more. We'd love to see your quilted projects and patterns as well as your quilting techniques and tips.

The focus of Quilt Scene is not art quilting, rather, it celebrates the traditional--but with a lively, contemporary spin. We are looking for articles geared toward both the traditional and the intermediate/advanced quilter.

We've recently freshened our guidelines for submitting projects to this special publication and Modern Patchwork Winter 2013--check out the details here. Submit your ideas today!

Kristine

Your Quilt Could Be Here!

Kristine Lundblad — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:38:00 GMT

What's the best way to see your quilt or project in the pages of Modern Patchwork or International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene? Submit your work to us!

Modern Patchwork is packed with projects for today's quilters and sewists. This issue features patchwork projects of every kind, including home décor, accessories, and wearables. From large bed quilts to patchwork scarves, totes, pillows, and more, we welcome submissions of a wide array from innovative sewists. The contemporary and fresh aesthetic of these projects pays tribute to the modern revival of patchwork, integrating traditional and innovative techniques to create items that are tasteful and unique.

We've recently freshened our guidelines for submitting projects to these two special publications and you can check out the details here. Submit your ideas today!

Kristine

How to Make Etsy Work for You (and the fabric winner from last week)

lindsey.murray — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:02:00 GMT

OK, first off the winner of last weeks fabric giveaway is danby miller! Please send your mailing address to me at lmurray@interweave.com so I can send the fabric to you!

How to make Etsy work for you

An interview with artist, author, and dedicated Etsy member Timothy Adams

You’ve probably heard the stories. The collage artist who opened an Etsy store and a month later had a licensing deal. The hobbyist who went from selling silkscreened t-shirts online to designing contemporary fabric for a major company and writing a sewing book. The designer whose cute little idea for a child’s fabric toy got bought by Anthropologie.

So why hasn’t your Etsy store made you rich yet, even though you’ve sold a few items and received good feedback? Maybe the site overwhelms you. Maybe you can’t keep up with the tricks of the trade. Maybe you’re a better artist than salesperson. In any case, Timothy Adams would like to help you, through his experience as a successful Etsy seller and his new book, How to Make Money Using Etsy: A Guide to the Online Marketplace for Crafts and Handmade Products (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011).

For those who don’t know, Etsy is an online store that allows people to sell and buy handmade items, supplies for making them, and vintage goods. But how do sellers and buyers connect on Etsy? This prospect can be a little daunting: according to the Etsy Weather Report (a monthly report that Etsy releases about the site’s numbers), in February 2011 alone, more than one million new items were listed.

In his book, Adams tells readers not to be worried, that it is possible to be successful on Etsy. The book has a straightforward approach, using the wisdom and experiences from successful Etsy sellers (including Adams himself) to give the best information possible.

I had a chance to chat with Adams and got some great tips on how to both buy and sell items on Etsy.

LM: Your new book, How to Make Money Using Etsy, is (as the title implies) about how to have a successful business on Etsy. Do you have a store on Etsy? How involved were you with Etsy before your book came out?

TA: I never went to art school, but in 2005 my sister-in-law needed help with metal things like railings. I took a welding course and fell in love with it. I wound up being certified. I did the projects for her that summer, and then went back to school but kept creating and designing stuff. My wife and I were living and going to school in Grand Rapids Michigan, and I started getting my art in galleries around there. In 2007 a friend mentioned Etsy, and I decided to give it a try. I had been trying to use eBay, but found it wasn’t the right spot, people were not looking to buy metal work there. I started out my Etsy store (Timothyadamdesigns) selling furniture. Then some fellow sellers on Etsy suggested selling jewelry and smaller items. I was skeptical about making jewelry, but I ended up loving it. I also sold one of my tables to Barney’s New York right after I had started selling, and it was such an inspiring experience. I got so busy that I quit my day job in late 2008 and started working full time with my Etsy store.

LM: What compelled you to share this knowledge?

TA: When I started selling on Etsy it opened up a new world for me and it got me online. I was learning about blogs and other social media aspects of selling handmade. I started a blog (handmadeology.com) and began helping people find their way around Etsy.

LM: How did this lead to you writing a book?

TA: One of my blog followers contacted her friend from Wiley Publishers. Although I was not planning to write a book, it made sense. With the growth of Etsy and the handmade movement, a book that helps people understand Etsy is something that people are excited about. The nice thing of the book is the How-to aspect of it. It is very straightforward and just tells you how to start selling on Etsy.

LM: In your work area/studio what is your favorite handmade storage item?

TA: At an estate sale of a metal worker I found a three-shelf storage unit. It was made by the metal worker and it is one of my favorite things in my studio.

LM: Any final bits of advice?

TA: Etsy is a very helping community and the site is community based, meaning that if you have questions there are teams and forums that people are willing to answer at the drop of a hat. There are teams for every state and group. The teams are there to help.

Thank you Tim!

Tim’s Best Tips

Do your research. Research what you are selling. Look on Etsy and see what other people are doing and determine if your product will stand up to the competition.
Use social media. Etsy is not magic, just listing an item is not going to sell it. Once you put an item up, you need to do what you can to get that item on Google and get it noticed. For example, it is important to blog about your items or use other social media avenues like Facebook and Twitter to get yourself out there.
Don’t be afraid of selling online. Etsy isn’t scary! It’s a process just like anything else; it is very simple. When I started working on Etsy I had no clue what I was doing, but I figured it out. It is simple to list something, and there is a lot of help on the site itself.
Photography is important. You can have the coolest items at the best price, but if your pictures are bad, then nothing will sell. You need to keep working at it and make your site like an online gallery. Have five pictures to display the item so buyers can see it from all angles. This doesn’t mean you need a super-expensive camera; you just need to work with what you have to get the best pictures possible. I practice taking pictures all the time, trying to constantly improve.

Use the right tags and keywords. You want people to find your site even if they don’t know about you. It is important for sellers to have used the right tags, so look for keywords. A good place for sellers (or buyers) to start looking for keywords to search with would be the Google keyword tool. In my book I review search engine optimization (SEO).

Vintage Quilts at Brimfield Fair (and a giveaway winner)

lindsey.murray — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:08:00 GMT

First of all, Congratulations to Quilnan for winning the fabric! Please send me an email with your mailing address so I can send the fabric out to you!

This past weekend, my fiancé and I went to the Brimfield fair. I have been hearing about this enormous antique fair for some time and was excited to see it for myself. There were so many amazing items there, and it was VERY hard not to buy a lot of things. I loved seeing all of the vintage and antique quilts, quilt designs, and machines, and took some photos to share. Now I know where to go when I want to start my vintage quilt collection!

Vintage Quilts

Pretty Pillows!

More antique quilts and textiles!

The great - grandmother of my sewing machine

A mini sewing machine! (there were a lot of these at the show)

Color in Quilting Designs: Q&A with Cover Artist Carol Taylor

Vivika_Blog — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:31:00 GMT

Carol Taylor is one of my very favorite quilt artists, and I was thrilled to be able to feature her work on the cover of the April/May issue of Quilting Arts. Carol uses color to stunning affect in her quilting designs, and I thought you would be interested in reading about her approach to color.

"Moonglow" art quilt by Carol Taylor.

VHD: This issue of Quilting Arts Magazine is all about color. Colors move people in so many different ways. What is your approach to using color in your work?

CT: I have always loved color ever since my first box of crayons! It just makes more joyous! I don't know that I have "an approach" to color, but just use it at will. I always laugh when a student tells me she is "afraid of color." What is there to be afraid of? I advise people to just go with the flow and add colors that please them in any combination. I think it takes all the fun out of it to worry about the color wheel and all, so I just try to use value (the lightness or darkness) and contrast to make things "pop" and "sparkle" and that seems to work for me.

VHD: I've asked this question to nearly everyone whose work appears in Quilting Arts April/May 2012: What is your signature color, and why is it so important in your artwork?

CT: I don't really have a signature color. In fact, I've never met a color that I didn't like and find useful. I suppose if I had to choose a favorite color, it would be green, but I think that has more to do with the peacefulness and freedom that it signifies to me, and you won't find that I use it any more than any other color in my work.

VHD: Your work has always struck me as joyous and life affirming. The colors sing, the patterns dance, and the quilting provides an undertone of tempo. In other words, each quilt you make is a piece of artwork in which all of the components work together like members of a fantastic jazz ensemble. How do you incorporate so much movement in your pieces?

CT: Again, I can't say that I have a formula for this, but I do tend to just allow things to flow. One thing that I believe helps is continuing to go across the room to look at the piece instead of staying too close up where you don't get the same "look" that a viewer gets when they approach from across the room. So when I am creating a piece, I continue to look at it from far away to see what is missing or what might draw the viewer in to take a closer look at it. My goal is to have the viewer enjoy my piece from across the room but get them interested enough in wanting to see it up close too.

VHD: When I see a "Carol Taylor" quilt, I immediately recognize it as yours. Your style is strong and clear. How did you develop such a strong artistic voice? What encouragement can you give emerging artists who are still developing their own individual styles?

CT: I think it definitely took me a while to even consider using the term "artist" in regard to me and my work. I finally got there, but not without making a whole lot of quilts. I believe in workshops and took lots of them every chance I got and I also finished every quilt I ever started (in a workshop or in my own studio). That doesn't mean i like all of them when I began either. I just kept working at making them better, and I believe that this made me grow and find other solutions to a design problem that I hadn't thought of at first. I also like the fact that I'm usually surprised at how a quilt turns out and it's often not anything like I thought it would be in the beginning.

Being prolific has helped me to grow too. When you make over 500 quilts, you're bound to learn more with each one, and all of that "practice" makes you better!

Carol currently has a solo show of 52 quilts at La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum in La Conner, Wash., now through June 30.

My New Inspiration to Quilt

lindsey.murray — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:33:00 GMT

Over the weekend, my fiancé and I adopted our first pet – a 1 year old rescue cat we named Ringo Star. He is adorable, and both of us absolutely love him. Naturally, since I am trying to think of ideas for decorating all of the wall space in our new home, I thought that it would be nice to make one of my small quilt projects in Ringo's image for the walls.

Unfortunately that isn’t really working out yet, since my studio is still in boxes. This weekend I think that I might have to start organizing the studio, just so I can get around to the fun stuff.

In order to try and inspire myself to clean up my studio, I decided to take a look at some past QATV projects that are pet related. I found this quilt-in-a-day project by Pokey Bolton and this project by Faith Cleary that uses fabric scraps, and am now excited to try them so I think that I really have to clean up my studio…

What inspires you to clean your studio?