Overlap & Pattern Designing

I am just so excited for this new series that I thought I would share a bit about each the quilts that I designed.

So this first one is called “Overlap”

This is actually the last one I designed in this series….it has the most variety of blocks and it might be my favorite. It’s actually difficult to choose favorites because I love them all for different reasons. Sometimes I love a design because it came to me in a dream. Sometimes I love it because I played with the blocks so much that I almost gave up and then conquered it. Sometimes I can sit down to design and a design will come in what feels like seconds….like it seems to fast to be legitimate.

There is so much that goes into designing patterns. There is a lot to think about. Just some things off the top of my head:

1. Will anyone else like this design?
2. Is it marketable?
3. How easy or difficult is it to construct?

Then after you decide those things, there is the making of the sample, the writing of the pattern ( I pay someone to do this part because I don’t have time. I also really wanted my friend to have a job she could do from home in a subject that she excels…now she is also picking up new clients. :) ). After all of that ->then you have to photograph the quilt. This is harder than one might think given the lighting, size of quilt and styling the quilt. I struggle with this so much because I am not a photographer. I get impatient and there have been times where I have had to take a quilt out 4-5 times to get a decent cover shot. Then after all of that there is marketing and social media and TONS of PRAYING that someone will like it.

One thing that I also get hung up on is what to name a quilt. Sometimes it’s just there plain as day and there’s no thinking about it. Other times I marinate and stew over it. ( I am just a foodie that I can always use food terms to describe something….hahaha!) This one was originally named “Flaps” because I thought of envelope flaps. But it didn’t feel right. So my ghost rider came up with a few names that came to her mind and Overlap made the final cut.

Also while making this series of quilts I made 9 of them within a 2 week period of time with several HUGE events taking place and by the time I got to this one #9 I was tired and I couldn’t really think about quilting designs…..but now that I look at it….I am pleased with it. It’s “organic”..I freehanded everything without rulers and I just let it all go because I needed to get it finished. I had to get my daily work on the frame. So I let perfection go. I have realized that I have had to do that with a few of my own projects or I am not going to make deadlines.

I will share more on my journey with designing as I go along.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

blessings!

Charisma