The overlays in my video are completely off, but I’m leaving it because, well, I’m human like that. I hope you don’t find it too distracting!
In this video:
- French Macaron Pattern
- Mug o’ Love free Pattern
- Broadway Lion King free Pattern on Fandom in Stitches
- Fandom in Stitches Facebook Group (they made all the awesome Lion King blocks!)
- Sewhooked Facebook Group (community & support for my website & patterns)
- Rainbow Cascade is coming in September!
- Find out how to be a Sewhooked Patreon Patron
- More of my patterns on Craftsy!
- Free Pattern Friday
- The Linus Connection, the Austin, TX-based blanket charity I volunteer for.
I forgot to mention in my video, we have a new Stephen King event starting tomorrow on Fandom in Stitches, hosted by Alida!
TTMT - Talk To Me Tuesday 
First! Love the macaron pattern 😉 looks delicious.
The lion quilt and the quilting on it.
I’ve been following along with the cosplay, my son keeps asking to see more photos. Now he wants me to make him a Gintama cosplay. Will see how it goes.
Love the cute little pillow. I was wondering when I was going to see those little squares.
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Thank you! I was so excited when Robin suggested it. Your suggestion is on my to do list. 🙂
I had to ask my son who Gintama is. He was like, oh, yeah, that guy! Cosplay is fun. It stretches my creativity. One of my favorite phrases to say to my son is, “I’m much better with two dimensions!”
So glad to finally share the cushion. ♥
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Love the all over meander on the Lion King quilt. Looking good. Both quilts are great.
The pillow is lovely! I’ve made that cup pattern on a mug run.
You and your children and cosplay are really quite something. I wish I were as clever as you and Julia about making costumes. But, alas, that talent passed me by. If I don’t have a pattern for something, I just cannot make it.
Got the Macaroon pattern. So cute. I’m going to have to make a quilt with it when I get a few more things off my “to do” list.
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I’m loving the Lion King quilt. I had a helper very sneakily ask what the gift recipient’s favorite color is so I could do it for the binding. Hopefully, that’ll happen in the next day or two.
I love making costumes. I did dress up stuff all the times when my kiddos were little. As they got older, it turned into full-blown cosplay. I have to be honest and tell you that I was tickled when he asked me to help with his costume. They are so self-sufficient now, they don’t ask for help much anymore!
My to do list is also very long. I think I kind of like it that way…always something to look forward to! 🙂
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French Macarons are so cute! They are making me want dessert. 🙂
The quilting is so beautiful. Everytime I see one of your all over meander quilts I get more motivated in my saving for a frame and midarm because I somply cannot do a large overall design like that on my machines.I have to quilt a block at time, even if it isn’t a QAYG project. Anything else is just too difficult. I’m hoping to have enough by early next year. We shall see.
that cushion is so cute! I’ve been meaning to make that mug forever. I thought about making it and using it as a label for my coffee quilt when I finally get around to quilting it.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with you still selling patterns and being on Patreon. You have goals of releasing specific things for free or doing specific QAL projects for free, and that gives people two options for supporting your endeavors.
Ah cosplay. We are talking about ZooBoo a lot lately, becuase it’s our goal to sell it out this month. Someone asked if I had decided to make a new costume this year. I was like “I have honestly not even thought about that”. Maybe September I will decide if I’m going to make something new or recycle a previous year’s costume.
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Weren’t the macarons a great idea? It’s one of the only “cookies” that Miss E can eat without changing the recipe and we get them sometimes for a treat. When Robin suggested it, I couldn’t resist!
I love meandering. I put my headphones in and just got. It’s really zen. Sometimes it’s a challenge to NOT do meander! I did the same thing when I was doing fmq on my home machine, but I won’t lie, it’s WAY easier on the frame. For one, I don’t miss spots. 😉
I got a bit teared up talking about why I made the cushion. There’s a lot of love in it. The quote started the whole project, but the mug was the icing on top!
Patreon is still very new to me and I’m working to figure it out. I figured all the rewards and such out at one time and I’m finding that I need to tweak things as I go along.
I’m really pleased G asked for help with cosplay this year. Who knows if I’ll get a chance to do something like that for him again? He has another costume for the same event he’s put together entirely himself, including wig styling!
It’s gonna be hard to ever top being a Ghostbuster…
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I’m going to miss seeing the lions behind you once you’re finished. I love meander free motion quilting for. quilts that are meant to be loved. Fancy quilting is gorgeous but a basic meander feels like home to me. Something to be used and loved.
I don’t see a problem with still offering patterns for sale either. Not everyone feels comfortable having a recurring payment or giving a website their card information. Plus, there will be people who are interested in your patterns but they have no clue who you are or that you have weekly videos.
I make my pillows like a quilt too. Using just the fabric feels too flimsy for me. Plus, like you said they don’t last as long. Even on the back I either add batting or at least double the fabric.
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The lions have been so fun to have on the wall! I love to meander. It’s my happy place.
I appreciate the feedback on continuing to sell patterns. It’s probably just me, but it makes me feel a bit like I’m double dipping and I don’t want to take advantage of the community in any way. I have an idea that might make it work better for me. If I can work out the details, I’ll share next week. 🙂
I’ve been on a cushion making kick! I still have at least two more to go before summer is over. Quilting in the tiny space is fun, too.
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Those lions are epic and I now the person getting the quilt will love it, who couldn’t it’s so colourful xx
Love the Macrons they look great.
Love the quilting too xxx
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Thanks, Vicky! ♥
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The lions really do look great. Both quilts will be fantastic.. I wouldn’t have guessed repeating a single block with that sort of style would make such a stunning quilt, but it really has.
I’m kind of iffy about Patreon. I think it’s a great idea in theory, but I’ve had the problem that if I supported all the people/podcasts/designers/etc. that I love, I’d be broke in no time, even at low donation levels. I’ve supported a couple of podcasts that way, but I recently wound up ending the payments so that I could switch to different podcasts because I just can’t do them all! I’m sure selling patterns is a really hard way to get buy as a designer, but I do buy patterns from people I want to support (sometimes even when I haven’t liked the pattern very much), because for me it’s easier to make that one time output than to be draining out a steady stream to a bunch of different people. I don’t know.. obviously you’ll have to keep doing what works best for you because ultimately, you’re the one that is paying the hosting fees for your websites and hopefully, ultimately, clearing at least a little for yourself!
That macaron pattern is very cute!
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The idea of Patreon for me is to help cover the costs of all the other stuff I do to support the online quilting community: websites, community support, tutorials, giveaways, Facebook groups, other social media, events, etc. If I can make a reasonable living, I’d love to make all of my patterns free, too. I could design and sell patterns full time and not make a living wage (believe me, I’ve tried for years). From networking with other designers and quilt professionals and from my own experience, I have come to the conclusion that unless I am willing to teach more classes, do paid promotions and appearances, a living wage isn’t going to happen. Working quilters have to be flexible, willing to travel, and inexhaustible. I’m a little of those things, but not enough to do it the way most designers making it work do. When I first started selling & publishing patterns, there were very few paper pieced designers out there. Now there are dozens if not more and the market has become saturated. My actual pattern sales tend to be less than I make for having Google ads on my videos, which can be a bit disheartening. Without the support of my awesome husband, I wouldn’t have been able to try as long as I have. Patreon is my last ditch attempt to make a living doing this. That may be more information than you were looking for, but it is what it is. I have to make a living or do something else and I’d much rather be doing this.
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It seems like this is a pretty difficult industry for people to find a living wage out of… the ones I know who seem to be doing it have their fingers in A LOT of different pies and I’ve seen more than a few eventually give in because they’ve said it started being too much work with not enough fun (or even enough creativity) when they had to have such a high output of stuff just to make it all happen. There aren’t very many people who really get into the financials, but I used to follow a couple blogs that used to post monthly updates on how much money they made and where and it never seemed like a very steady way to pull in an income.
All of which sounds terribly discouraging and that’s not what I mean to do. I suppose it’s all by way of saying You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do!
I forget where you mentioned about the idea of double-dipping (or not wanting to seem like you are, by having both patrons and selling patterns) (or maybe that was someone else having that conversation… hm..), but a lot of people I see who do patreon offer things first or cheaper (or free to patrons at particular levels) and then later sell them to people who don’t want to do the patreon thing. I don’t think that’s double-dipping to give something tangible to the patrons while selling things to people who aren’t.
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I was able to go to International Quilt Market in Houston right after my book deal was canceled (2008, I think) but right before I started selling patterns and was working on a business plan. I knew then that it wasn’t going to be easy. Being in the place where everyone is promoting their wares to other people in that market is pretty eye opening. I had a particularly interesting experience with a Big Name Quilter selling a product that she clearly didn’t know how to use even though her name was literally on the thing. It is something I’ve thought about every time I’ve been offered money to promote something. The few people I know that are making it work are doing several jobs or even work part time doing something else just to pay the bills. You don’t have to work to try to be discouraging, I struggle with it all the time.
What I’ve come up with for Patreon, for now, is a Pattern Club at the $10 reward level. Everyone at that level gets new for sale patterns emailed to them for free. I talked about that a bit this week in my video. I’m also considering doing some sort of coupon thing my other Patrons with my Etsy shop. Etsy costs a lot more for me to use than Craftsy (they don’t have listing fees), but they do have the coupon option.
Mostly, I feel like I’m constantly adapting what I’m doing to try to make it all work.
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