My Pattern Design Business Experience - Part One!

Starting a quilt pattern design business may sound like a lot of fun and a great way to earn extra income. The reality is that quilt pattern design is a challenging profession that requires and a lot of time and dedication with a lot of hard work. With that in mind, I decided to devote a blog series to my experiences in running a pattern design business from my home. I hope that in sharing the struggles that I have faced and what I have learned will help others decide whether they would want to take the challenge of professionally designing quilt patterns.

First, a little bit about myself and how Quilting Affection Designs came to be. My quilting inspiration comes from my mom and my aunt. I began sewing at an early age on my Holly Hobbie sewing machine. In addition to taking home economics classes, which included sewing.  My love of quilting started while watching my mom make and hand quilt several quilts. After I was married, I took my first quilting class at a local fabric store. Here I discovered my talent and passion for quilting. I even got my first quilting job from my quilt instructor.

For many years while my husband served in the military, I quilted when I could. However, some places we stationed did not make getting quilting supplies easy to understand. So, I would find myself taking long breaks from quilting. We finally ended up in the Washington DC area, and while working, I was again able to take up quilting. Over the next few years, I dedicated myself to learning all could about quilting and all the new tools and technics. 

 

When I first got the idea of starting a home-based quilting business in 2012. I was focusing on becoming a Longarmer and running a quilt finishing service. My youngest son had just gone to basic training in the Air Force, and my husband and I had the opportunity to go to an APQS demonstration in Fredericksburg Va. I have been looking at different longarms at quilt shows for a while. I fell in love with the APQS Millennium, and the time seemed right,

so we took the plunge and ordered one. As I was getting my feet wet in the longarming business in 2013, I decided to design and enter a quilt in the Charles Maryland County fair for fun. I was surprised and excited to find I won best in a show that year. As time went on, I found myself devoting more and more time to designing quilts while my longarming service never really took off. So, in 2016, I decided to spend my time to pattern design and ended my longarming service and Quilting Affection became Quilting Affection Design.

From 2016 to the present, I have been a full-time quilt pattern designer, and what an enjoyable experience it has been. I genuinely love the challenge of coming up with original designs, choosing colors, and working with beautiful fabrics. Above all, I love that my job is to see my creations come to life.

Now, I also need to leave a word of caution because it is not all fun and games. Running a business is a lot of work and requires a lot of time and dedication. I am not trying to scare people away from doing something they love. I just want to ensure that if you are thinking of taking the plunge, you know what you may be getting into.

For the next several weeks, I am going to post about my journey into the world of quilt pattern design, what I have learned, and what I have experienced. Additionally, I will cover what my average day looks like, the tools I use for designing, working with other quilting companies, and the joys/challenges I run into every day. 

Now I want to make clear that this is not a step by step how to start a business blog. The purpose of this blog is to share my experiences and what I have learned in the hope that you will find the information enjoyable and maybe even useful.

Stormy Seas

Today, I would like to introduce you to one of my newest patterns, Stormy Seas. This pattern is made using the Studio 180 Design Tucker Trimmer® I and the Wing Clipper® I tools to make this striking quilt that measures 62" x 74".

The rich fabric used to make this stunning pattern is the Island Batik "Blue Sea" Collection by Kathy Engle, which is now available at your local shop.

The quilt is built upon only two blocks that use a combination of two units, the Four Patch technique, and Flying Geese.

Once you have all the units built, the fun part is putting it all together and seeing the beautiful design come to life. Then to add that extra enhancement a four patch border is added to create an appealing frame. 

Stormy Seas will enhance the look of any room. 

To purchase this pattern, head over to my website, www.quiltingaffection.com, it is on sale right now for $9.50 until January 31st.

Happy New Year, Goals for 2020!

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2020!

Yesterday, in my blog, I reflected on my goals of 2019, what I accomplished, and what got neglected. So today, I want to share my 2020 and beyond goals.

My personal goal for this year is to become physically and mentally fit. I will start by continuing my healthy eating program, Isagenix. But I will add in daily exercise to help clear my mind, build strength to help make it through the stressful time of the Quilt Markets. I also want to find some personal development podcasts and audible books for more personal development.  Also, to find more time for myself, schedule time off to go on vacation with my husband, and weekend hikes.

My Business goals will also benefit significantly from my personal goals.

Let’s start with long-term business goals that will take a couple of years to develop: Starting with continuing to build my name as a quilt pattern designer in the quilting world. Next, I will continue to find ways to work with different Fabric Companies. I would also like to continue to build my business into a profitable company.  Lastly, I want to grow my lecture and workshop offerings.

In 2020, I will continue to work on my Social Media, Blog, and Newsletter presents as short-term goals. In doing this, I plan to schedule daily Social Media posts that will feature information on my projects, personal and happenings. Also, work on getting back into Facebook Lives.  In my blog, I plan to develop a weekly blog post. Finally, my newsletters, I would like to include tips and much more to make them both educational and exciting.

Another short-term and ongoing goal is to develop more patterns that use both the Studio 180 Design and Sue Pelland Designs tools that are exciting and eye-catching. These patterns will combine piecing and applique to create fun and exciting designs that will feature just a couple of tools as much as possible. Another goal for these patterns is to design them so they can be teachable quilts for shops.

I plan to accomplish all this with carefully scheduling and planning each week and help from my loving husband that is contributing more and more in the business. I also have an excellent support system from my friends and family. Additionally, I want to thank my Studio 180 Design and Sue Pelland Designs Certified Instructor family for all their support as well.

I want to finish this blog post with a big thank you to all my blog, newsletter, and social media followers, if it weren’t for you, I would not be where I am.

I hope you all have a wonderful and healthy 2020.

Tina

"Designs to Inspire"

2019 Reflections!!

Wow! It is hard to believe that this year is almost over, and so is the decade.  Today, I want to look back at what I did and didn’t get accomplished in 2019.

 

When I look back on my January 2019 post on my goals for 2019, I feel that I finished many of them, but fell behind in some of my goals I wanted to get done.  Let’s start with my long-term goals first; I started working on getting my name out as a pattern designer, which is a long hard process; therefore, it is on my long-term goal list. I did get another one of my long-term goals completed, which was to get picked up with by distributors.  I signed with Checker this last year, I hope I can gain more as time goes on.

One of the short-term goals that I accomplished this year was to have a booth at Quilt Market. I had two Quilt Market booths, Spring (Kansas City) and Fall (Houston). I feel having booths at the quilt markets greatly benefited me as a person and my business.  The Spring Market was difficult, not knowing what I was getting into, plus I ran the booth by myself.  The Fall Market was far better due to my good friend, and my Longarmer Januari Rhode, aka The Quilted Ginger, went with me. I learned so much from her on pushing myself a little further, and getting my name out there and getting over those fears. 

Another goal that was on my list was to find time for myself and take a few classes. This year I attended a couple of Deb Tucker class during the AQS Lancaster Quilt show. That was great, just to get away and spend time learning from the best. Another way to find time for myself was to sell my longarm. This was a tough decision, but not doing the quilting on my patterns, freed up more time so I could produce more exciting designs and get to take a break here and there as well.

Another goal was to continue to grow my social media, blog, and newsletter followers. This year I did fall behind in my newsletter and social media posts. However, I had a great Quilt-Along that was fun, called Graceful Points, which combined the Studio 180 Design Blockbusters into one learning process to make either a wall or queen size quilt.

I did continue to design fun and exciting quilts over the past year. I released four new patterns, Getaway, Garden Enchantment Block of the Month, Stormy Seas, and Whimsical Dance, with more coming shortly in 2020.

One accomplishment that was not on my set of goals, but I’m so glad that I didn’t pass up the opportunity was to become a Sue Pelland Designs Certified Instructor.  She has opened the door for me in the designing world.  Stay tuned as the first of these designs will come out in 2020, you may glimpse some of these projects on my social media posts.

There was so much more I want to get done but got neglected this past year, such as grow my lecture and workshops, design more patterns using various fabric companies. However, I will add these to my long-term goals and work on them over the next couple of years.

This was a fun reflection on 2019, tomorrow I will have my new goals for 2020 ready to go for you. It will be an exciting year coming up, and I look forward to sharing the adventure with you.

Tina

"Designs to Inspire"

Island Batik Ambassador Final Post!

Today, Is my very last Island Batik Ambassador post. It's hard to say goodbye to a good thing, now that it is time for me to step aside and let others have a chance to enjoy the pleasures I had over the last couple of years. 

When I started out as an Island Batik Brand Ambassador in 2016, I was just trying to figure out the pattern design business and get my name out there. Over the last several years, the hard and fulfilling work I put into being an Island Batik Ambassador has paid off. Oh, don't worry, I plan to continue designing with Island Batik Fabrics. 

There have been so many highlights over the last 4 years of being an Island Batik Ambassador. Starting off with the biggest highlight, which is the opening of the First and Second box of the gorgeous, yummy, and fun goodies.  Some other highlights are planning your project every month with all the fun and exciting fabrics, learning new tools and techniques that you have not tried before. 

Over the years, several projects that I developed for Island Batik became a published pattern. Such as Beneath the Waves, Welcome Home Pooch, Keeping Watch, Getaway, and Mountain Snowfall.  Check out my website for more information about these patterns.

Let me show you some of the projects I have completed over the last couple of years.

2016

2017

2018

2019

Before I leave, I would like to give Island Batik a huge thank you!  It was a pleasure to serve as one of your Ambassadors. I would like to thank the following Sponsors for the great products they provided us over the years.

Aurifil Thread

Hobbs Batting

Accuquilt 

I hope you all continue to follow me as a designer and watch as the 2020 Island Batik Ambassadors give us all new and exciting projects.

Tina

"Designs to Inspire"