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Bags & Small Quilts

Designing new patterns

April 14, 2016July 22, 2020 Post a comment

I love to sew. That is how I got into quilting in the first place. I like to knit, cross stitch is fun, I like to make clothes, but I love to make quilts. And I love to design quilts.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will say sometimes designing can be frustrating. I might have a partial vision in my head that may not work on paper. Because, let’s be honest, things that makes sense at night don’t always make sense in the light of day!

Sometimes I design a quilt without ever touching the fabric. Fabric companies sometimes send images of the fabric and I play on the computer. This method has it’s pros and cons. It is efficient as I can play, design, write and created a pattern without the time and expense of making a quilt. Let’s be honest, making a quilt is time consuming.  And the pattern is all done before the fabric is shipped.  But the down side is, I don’t get to touch and feel the fabric or make the quilt!

This is a pattern I created from Northcott using their fabric line Karma.

no sew circles
Life’s Story quilt

 

I called the pattern Life Story because of the words in the text print. The circles are made from their groovy no sew circle fabric. You just cut squares and piece them and the fabric makes it look like you pieced circles!

This is another pattern I created from Northcott fabric.

bundle of love fabric
Baby’s Scrapbook quilt

 

This fabric line is called Bundle of Love and my pattern is called Baby’s Scrapbook. I tried to make the quilts look like scrapbook pages. There are 3 different quilts in the pattern.

Bundle of Love fabric
Baby’s Scrapbook lap quilt

 

I think they are so cute!

And here is the other downside of designing without touching fabric. The fabric panels ended up being a different size than I specified in the pattern. I did not know that until a shop contacted me. So I created an update to the pattern to show how to adjust, but I felt bad. If you happen to purchase this pattern, make sure it includes the update or you can download it here.

In the meantime, I am having fun playing with some of my scraps creating a few projects to be seen soon.

pillow fabrics
scrap fun!

 

And enjoying the weather.

I love springtime and flowering trees!
I love springtime and flowering trees! Makes my deck smell lovely.

 

Yesterday and today are lovely, warm, sunny with occasional clouds drifting by. I better enjoy it now as supposedly winter is set to revisit us on Saturday. They are saying we might even get 6″ of snow! Yikes.

happy quilting,

Kate

Next week I am in Colorado Springs on Wednesday and Thursday spending time with the Piecing Partners Quilt Guild. Will I see you there?

 

About Kate

About Kate

Hi! I'm Kate Colleran, a designer who creates quilt patterns, fabric and surface designs. I lecture and teach about quilting. Welcome to my online home!

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Dreaming In Color

Dreaming In Color

Hi, and welcome to my blog, Dreaming In Color.

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