New ideas are so exciting!

 It has been a very long time since I’ve been able to spend the time on new quilt idea, let alone work on it until it becomes a pattern that I can release.   Things are finally shifting in that direction and this past week while sewing with a group of friends, I was able to start working on my first new design in literally years.

I love the feeling of anticipation that I have when I get to start with a drawing and then see it slowly come to life in fabric.   I’m working through the process, looking for the most direct way to put the block together that I can turn into instructions.  One of the best parts of working on this while I was with friends, is that there was a lot of input on the pattern – from the overall design, to how it would best flow as a written pattern.

This coming week I should be able to finish the first version of the quilt along with the first draft of the instructions, then I will turn it over to some trusted friends for them to see if what I’ve written makes sense.    Since all my patterns now are pdfs that are downloaded, I can finally include the number of photos that I want to include, rather than being limited by number of pages and printing costs.  Yes, it’s been that long since I have had a solid pattern in the works.  I get to learn all kinds of new stuff for doing the pdf layout, which is rather funny to me given that my last blog post was a rant about how annoying technology is.  No matter my opinion on it, technology is here to stay and I must say it is a whole lot easier to draft instructions on a computer, than it would be to type them out on a typewriter and tape actual photographs and diagrams onto the page – there’s a reason things are called “cut” and “paste” in most programs now.  I will not have to invest in a case of scotch tape these days.

I’m excited about the prospects, and I’ve been going back through my computer looking for other designs that I started doodling with in Electric Quilt to see how I feel about making any of those into patterns.   This is going to be so much fun.  Somebody please remind me I said that when I start griping about technology again.