Confessions of a Pattern Designer

First off...I don't get it. I've been teaching for over 15 years, and to this day, whenever I develop a new class, it means I develop a new pattern. I like to teach my own patterns so that I don't have to pay copyright fees to another designer.

Here's the snag: coming up with a new pattern takes a while but it can all be "mocked up" on a quilting app. I can tweak and fine tune the shapes, colors, effects, etc. I can play with the finished blocks and then design an entire quilt or should I say wall-hanging, down to the last detail. And then I start sewing the quilt together and see how it goes.

And that's where it goes wrong for me. I dive in head first. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and then I have to figure out how to make it work. Usually I can.

The last pattern I developed (or am still developing) was "Not Your Daddy's Log Cabin"©. It took several months to design, a couple of months to put it together, and after a few false starts (oh the wasted fabric) it finally worked.

And here's where it goes horribly wrong. I need to write the cutting specs, yardage, widths and lengths of all of the the segments, blocks and and ultimately the entire quilt. Do I ask anyone to double-check the directions? No. Do I ask anyone to try the cutting specs before publishing? No. Do I rush it through because I've shown the finished project and gotten very favorable feedback and quilters want to make the project? Yes.

It's not until I offer the class for the first time that I'm made aware of all of the inaccuracies and for that I sincerely apologize to all of the "first" students who dive in and then have to email all of the questions and suggestions to make their process easier.

And that's where you all come in. I'm asking for help. I'm asking for a couple of experienced quilters to volunteer to proofread what I consider to be the final draft of the directions with an eye toward typos, grammar, math, accuracy and ease of cutting.

I never write down specifics of the actual paper piecing aspects, since that's what we do in class, and I've got that covered.

So, who wants to step up? I'm hoping there will be three volunteers who want to be in on the ground floor of new projects. Each volunteer will be eligible for the class they work on, at no cost. We can communicate on zoom individually and together.

Please contact me directly thru my website if you're interested. Here's the link: I want in!

Thanks so much