Blog | Bonjour Quilts

Ribbon Heart Mini Quilt

January 28, 2019 By Kirsty 5 Comments

Ah, mini quilts – aren’t they fun? You can sew them up in an afternoon, entirely from your stash. They can be used as wall decorations, front door decorations, table toppers or runners. And of course, they make great last minute handmade gifts.

This mini quilt pattern, which I’m calling the Ribbon Heart mini, could be a sweet handmade addition to a baby nursery or a Valentine gift for a crafty friend.

The Ribbon Heart mini quilt finishes at 16.5″ x 12.5″.

The instructions and diagrams are detailed and show you exactly how to make sure your directional pattern fabrics all face the same way across the pattern.

I like it when my stripes are all aligned. It’s just a little detail that makes me happy!

Hopefully these instructions will be useful for other patterns too. It can be hard to visualise how patterns should be oriented in blocks to make sure they all match when sewn together.

I liked the idea of a small contrasting piece of fabric in the binding, so the pattern has instructions for that too.

I have another version almost finished. This will be a striped blue and green Ribbon Heart, with some IKEA hippos on the back. Perfect for a baby nursery.

I had two lovely testers make some versions of the pattern as well.

First up, Kimberly (from Autumn Hollow Patchwork) made a very Valentine version in pink and red stripes.

Look at those stripes all lined up the same way – soooooo satisfying. (Should I be worried about how much I want stripes to face the same way? 🙂

Amy (from Stitchy Mitten) also made a couple of test mini quilts, with very groovy quilting.

I quilted my versions with wavy lines using my walking foot.

Probably should have done some matchstick quilting on this one though… given all the matchsticks.

So that’s the Ribbon Heart Mini Quilt!

If you’d like to make your own version, and be deeply fulfilled by stripes that face the right way, then you can find the pattern listed here in my shop.

Thank you and happy sewing!

Kirsty

Finish Your Quilt UFOs!

January 14, 2019 By Kirsty 21 Comments

It’s the start of a new year, the perfect time to get your sewing room/supplies in order and finish off any quilt UFOs you have hanging around.

What does UFO stand for in quilting?

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, UFO in the quilting world stands for Unfinished Object. It applies to any project at any stage of progress that has not yet been completed.

UFO tends to refer to a project that has been put on the back burner for a while without progress, as opposed to a project that’s incomplete but is currently being worked on (that’s known as a WIP – work in progress).

We all have quilt UFOs. Some of us have MANY of them 🙂

If your UFOs become overwhelming, motivation-depleting or guilt-inducing then it might be time to actively work toward reducing them.

What to do with your quilt UFOs?

There are several options when it comes to handling your quilt UFOs.

You might like to spend a little bit of time reflecting on the project before you decide what to do with it. Was the quilt for a particular person or an event? Is the quilt still relevant to that person or occasion, or has it been overtaken by the time that’s passed? Is the UFO of a colour palette or style that you no longer appreciate?

There’s no rule that says YOU have to be the person to complete the project. If the quilt no longer speaks to you, you could gift it to a quilty friend who does love it and could complete and keep it. Or you can seek out organisations that need fabric/quilt tops for charity projects. (Just make sure that what you donate is useful for them. If they only take completed quilt tops, get it to that stage before giving it away.)

If you do complete a quilt UFO, you can give it to family, friends, charity or sell it on a handmade craft site such as Etsy.

Does the final outcome of the UFO have to be as first intended? If you were planning to make a twin sized quilt but found the process tedious, could you make a baby quilt instead and be finished with a lot less work? Or do you have an unfinished baby quilt that the baby has now outgrown? Could you extend the UFO with more blocks or borders to create a larger size that can be gifted to the now preschooler? Those two orphaned appliqué blocks don’t have to become a quilt – just make a pair of pot holders and be done with it!

Find some UFO Mojo.

The hardest part of finishing up quilt UFOs is finding the motivation to do so. That’s why the start of the year is a great time to commit to UFO busting… you can steal some of that Happy New Year magic and put it to good use.

Take stock of all your quilty UFOs and look at them honestly. Do you really want to finish this project? What else could you do with it to make sure it doesn’t go to waste? What’s the minimum effort required to get it to a useful state?

Once you’ve come up with a plan for each UFO, you can crack on with doing it. Give away what you need to give away. Prioritise which UFOs you’ll finish and remember – you’re aiming for FINISHED not PERFECT. Momentum is so important here – results will encourage more finishes; you want to take advantage of that. Try to keep the ball rolling!

Try to imagine how good it will feel to have those projects completed. They’ll be out in the world (or your living room) and they’ll be used and enjoyed. Much better than languishing in the back of a cupboard!

Once they’re gone, make sure they don’t come back!

When you have your quilt UFOs under control, be careful not to let yourself fall back into the same position.

Try and have WIPs, not UFOs. Even if you have several projects at the incomplete stage, making time to work on all of them will ensure nothing falls back into UFO status. I like to have a few things on the go at any one time so that if I hit a bottleneck with one, I have something else to work on in the meantime.

My simple way of making sure my WIPs don’t become UFOs is to keep them in plain view. I find if I put it in a cupboard for any reason at all, it’s a case of “out of sight, out of mind” and it won’t receive any attention. So I keep my projects out, taking up valuable table space, which provides further motivation to get them done!

The first quilt UFO I tackled this year was this sunny yellow project.

I think I started this quilt in 2011. It would’ve been for my daughter (who still loves yellow) and was about 5 years old at the time. (She’ll be a teenager in a month…eeek).

Problems can occur when WIPs become old UFOs, which is why I thoroughly recommend you don’t let UFOs hang around too long.

It’s much quicker to do them early.

Firstly, the reasoning behind this quilt is long gone. I can’t remember a thing about it. The yellow squares are all odd sizes – why did I do that? Did I have a handful of scraps in that size? Or were the sashing strips all cut before I’d done proper calculations? The individual patchwork blocks finish at 6 1/2″…again, I’m not sure why. You can see the weird sizes needed to create this quilt below.

The quilt is now too small for my lanky pre-teen daughter. I wouldn’t mind making it bigger with some white borders, but what white fabric did I use? Was it my preferred Kona Snow or was I using something else back then? And of course, even if it is Kona Snow, over time fabric changes colour and manufacturers can change their colours so they may no longer match.

The biggest reason why I’ll try not to let quilt UFOs get the better of me in the future is this:

In many of the rows I found seam separations, no doubt due to excessive handling over the 8 years this project went from cupboard to cupboard to moving box. I had to repair many seams before I could sew the rows together. So much extra work I could have avoided if I’d finished this project in a timely fashion. Even if I’d just reached the quilt top stage I would’ve saved myself a lot of sewing the same seam twice.

So if you can, finish those quilt UFOs before they degrade and you have to do the same work again.

If you like to set goals for these sorts of things, why not join the 2019 Finish-a-long that’s underway? There are several hosts across the globe and you can link up your potential finishes and read more about it all here.

Happy sewing and all the best with clearing your quilt UFO backlog in 2019!

Kirsty

My Top 5 Quilting Posts of the Year – 2018

December 28, 2018 By Kirsty 4 Comments

Can you believe 2018 is almost over? It’s a little disconcerting, right? Sometimes it helps to look back on the year and see that despite the rapid passing of time, plenty of things were made. I spent a bit of time reviewing my quilting projects and blog posts for the year – there were definitely some quilts I’d forgotten about.

I also had some fun delving into the statistics behind my blog to see which posts were favourites with you, my readers, this year. My rating criteria for choosing the top5 posts included the number of visitors a post received and how much engagement (comments and shares) it provoked, weighted with how early in the year it was posted. It’s a nuanced blend that rivals the Colonel’s 11 secret herbs and spices.

Ready to go for a wander back through the archives and see Bonjour Quilts’ top 5 posts for 2018? Here we go!

Christmas Embroidery Designs and Other Embellishments

December 14, 2018 By Kirsty 11 Comments

In my last post I introduced you to my latest quilt pattern – a mini quilt called Candy Christmas.

I thought I’d share with you some variations on creating the appliqué Christmas tree as well as some embellishment ideas.

Fabric Selection

Firstly, there’s a lot that can be done with this pattern just with fabric choices alone. Both my versions of Candy Christmas use a fabric with a ditsy-type print for the Christmas tree. The small scale patterns are a bit of a “cheater print” for Christmas decorations.

Just about any small scale print fabric would look great. You can see various colours of the Alison Glass Sun Print fabric I used above here*.

Other great options include these Libs Elliot stars*, or some instant garlands (stars or super cute jar lanterns*).

And pretty much every one of these adorable Swedish fabrics* would look fabulous.

Don’t forget your background fabrics, too. Solids work really well when you want your colours to shine, but pattern can also be used to great effect. Stars, bubbles, dots, ombré and stripes can all add interest to the background.

These new Lizzy House Constellations fabrics* have lovely, saturated colours that play well together.

My new favourite for a background might just be this Birch collection called Wink*.

So I hope that gives you some ideas with regards to fabric choices.

Patchwork Your Tree

Another fun way to create your tree is to hit your scrap bag. You can sew a patchwork piece any way you like that can then be used to cut your tree.

In this version I used some larger strips pieced together to form my “fabric”.

Then I cut out my tree with the template (from the pattern).

Another option is to use up all your smaller scraps by frankensteining them together:

When you cut out your tree, just try not to let any of the tree points fall on a seam.

Christmas Embroidery Designs

There’s lots of scope for embellishing with Christmas embroidery designs or other trims you might fancy.

I knew I wanted to do some embroidery, so I marked out a rough plan on the back of my appliqué template. I could easily adjust my garland and ornament spacing before I started on my actual mini quilt.

When it came to choosing thread colours, I went with tones that matched my background fabrics. I think it helped tie the whole thing together.

I also recommend completing your embellishment after quilting the top to the batting, but before you put on your backing. That way you don’t have to worry about being overly neat on the back of your piece, as that will all be enclosed in the quilt sandwich. As I embellished after the mini quilt was complete, I had to pop knots through into the backing, etc, to try and minimise the mess on the back. It wasn’t much fun, so benefit from my hindsight!

For those who might be worried about affixing your backing after you’ve embroidered, don’t worry. You can quilt a line outside each edge of the tree to hold your backing in place – this is plenty for a mini quilt. If you’d like to put a line of quilting on the tree but don’t want to sew over embroidery, just mark a line before you embroider so you know where to leave a clear path for later quilting.

Right. Back to the stitching. Firstly, if you’re looking for a straight forward, photo laden book on embroidery stitches I’m a fan of the book below (which you can find on Amazon here*).

I started with the tree garlands, which I marked with an air-erasable pen on my tree. However, I found my line wasn’t sticking around long enough for me to get my garland sewn before it faded away (it’s very humid here at the moment).

To counter that problem I cut my appliqué template along my drawn garland lines and pinned the sections to my tree as I sewed. I was able to use the cut edges as a guide for my stitching lines. This also worked really well for night time sewing, when I find it harder to see the air and water erasable pens against dark fabrics (old eyes!)

So back to the garlands. I started with a single line of chain stitch but felt it wasn’t hefty enough, so I did a second.

And then I thought it was a little plain for a garland, so I went back and whip stitched the two lines together with another colour thread. (If I’d had a metallic thread* I would have used that here, I think it would’ve looked fantastic).

I also scattered some gold and navy stars across the tree.

Other Embellishment Ideas

The sky’s the limit! What do you have lying around in your drawers? Ribbons, pom-poms, lace, doilies, beads and sequins – any sort of trim is fair game. You could machine sew garlands if your machine has fancy-pants stitches.

(Just remember to sew hardware down very securely if little hands are likely to be handling your mini quilt. Large beads, etc, can be a choking hazard.)

Alright, I think that’s more than long enough for a blog post. Thank you for reading and I hope this has sparked some Christmas embroidery design ideas of your own.

If you’d like to make your own Candy Christmas, you can find the pattern in my shop.

Happy embellishing and happy holidays!

*affiliate links

Candy Christmas Mini Quilt

December 14, 2018 By Kirsty 1 Comment

I have a new Christmas mini quilt pattern out, just in time for the holidays. It’s called Candy Christmas.

The pattern involves some easy appliqué over a pieced background.

I think this Alison Glass fabric is perfect for a Christmas tree – the ornaments are already built in!

Once sewn, there are many ways you could embellish your tree – embroidery, ric rac, beads, sequins, pom-pom trim and ribbon. The only limit is what you can dig up in your “miscellaneous” drawer.

After creating my mini quilt top, I chose matchstick quilting for my background. Well, it’s pretty lazy matchstick work – they’re not very close together. It’s a great choice for mini quilts as it adds a lot of body/structure to the piece.

And finally, the binding for my Candy Christmas mini quilt was the same fabric as my outermost background layer, as I liked the framing effect it made.

My sewing machine has a bunch of fancy stitches which would make for fun appliqué options. I went with an uneven edges satin stitch. It’s very forgiving and adds a kind of snowflake-y feel, in my opinion.

If you’d like to make your own Candy Christmas mini quilt, you can find the pattern listed in my shop here.

If you’d like some ideas on how to use a patchwork tree and how I embellished another version of this mini quilt, come and read my ideas over here.

Happy sewing, and happy holidays!

Self Binding Quilt Tutorial

December 1, 2018 By Kirsty 14 Comments

Not every quilt needs a frame – sometimes those edges just want to be left alone in peace! That’s where a self binding finishing method comes in handy.

What do you mean “self binding”?

It’s possible to finish your quilt without a binding. I’m going to show you how I used a “self binding” method to bind my Christmas mini quilt to give a more modern look. The method (in my opinion) is best suited to small items such as mini quilts, table toppers or baby quilts. I wouldn’t be prepared for the work required to implement this method with a large quilt. (But if you’re that way inclined, go for it!)

I’ve seen this method referred to as self binding, no binding and the pillowcase method. You’ll go through basting and backing, just in a different configuration.

Baste your quilt top

First up, you need to baste your quilt top to your batting. Because I’ve just got a small mini quilt, I used poly batting and some basting spray. You’ll want to add a few lines of quilting here to make sure your two layers are well secured. Stitching in the ditch along a couple of lines would be perfect.

I actually decided to go to town and do most of my quilting at this stage. Why? Because I’m lazy! I knew that quilting when the backing is on will require thread burying, which isn’t my idea of a fun night in.

Using my walking foot I straight line quilted, using the seams as rough guides. I quilted it fairly densely as I like my mini quilts to have a fair bit of structure.

Once your batting and quilt top are secured (however you decide to go) trim off the excess batting and square it up.

Attach your backing

You’ll now need a backing piece the same size as your quilt top/batting piece. Place the top and backing right sides together.

Pin all around the edges, but remember to leave an open section to turn the work right side out after sewing. You can learn from my mistake here – locate your gap along one side so that only one fabric is involved. I left my turning gap along the top of the quilt and it spanned several different coloured fabrics, which makes it harder to match the thread when hand sewing it closed.

I’ve pinned my edges above. You’ll see I’ve put two pins in the one spot – that’s my little code to remind me where my turning gap is, so I remember not to sew the whole perimeter closed.

I used my walking foot and a 1/2″ seam as the seams are quite bulky with all the layers. If this were a larger quilt I would also zig zag the raw edges or use the “serger” stitch on my machine just to help it stand up to washing better.

Once I’ve sewn the backing and top together around the edges I like to take the time to press back my turning gap seams. I find it easier to get them straight from the back side, rather than when the piece is right side out.

I also like to trim my corners to make sure there’s less bulk (but be careful not to clip your stitching).

Close the turning gap

Once you’ve pressed your turning gap seams you can turn the piece right side out.

Give the quilt another press. Focus on setting the seams around the edges and making sure your turning gap edges are still aligned and straight. I’ve pinned the turning gap closed below.

Now it’s time to whip stitch the turning gap closed with some hand sewing. I like to start with a nice long thread, which I double up. I put both cut ends through the eye of the needle and keep the thread loop at the other end. When you take your first stitch, pop the needle through the loop before pulling the stitch tight. This will make the loop close into a sturdy starting knot that will never come undone. It’s my favourite way to tie on a thread.

Quilt, quilt, quilt!

Once your turning gap is closed you’re ready to quilt the piece so the backing is better fixed to the top. If you have a larger project, you may like to put some basting pins in to make sure you don’t get any bunching or tucks in your backing. And remember that you’ll have to bury your ends at the beginning/end of your seam lines. Your start/end points can’t be later secured by the binding. (This is why I did so much quilting earlier.)

Because this is just a mini quilt I felt that two lines, about a third in from each edge, would work a treat. They’re a bit hard to see below.

And again, because it’s a wall decoration and won’t be washed, I just did a few backstitches at the start and end of each line. No thread burying for me!

Another good press, and there you have it.

If this was a larger quilt, I would have also done a perimeter of “top stitching” around the edge. This would add some extra strength and to help keep the edge seams where they should be.

So there you have it – one way of creating a no binding finish, or a self binding quilt.

If you like this pattern and would like to make a Christmas mini quilt of your own, you can find the pattern in my shop here.

Have you tried the self binding method before? Do you have any tips for young players? I’d love to hear them below.

Behind-the-Scenes of a Quilt Pattern Business

October 27, 2018 By Kirsty 164 Comments

There’s been a few articles here and there in the craft sphere about free quilt patterns that I’ve been mulling over. I have my own opinions, but I was curious how my readers felt about the issue. So I decided to ask them! Here’s an excerpt from my most recent newsletter:

I’ve read a few articles about free content on blogs (free downloadable patterns, in particular) and how it is hurting the quilting industry. What say you?

As you know, I have both – a pattern shop and some patterns that are free to download. The latter help me get my name out there (via Pinterest and Facebook sharing) and get people signed up to my email list (where I can nurture a relationship with them). It also offers a risk-free way (for customers) to check out my patterns before buying.

But on the other hand, is it conditioning people to expect patterns for free? Is it encouraging a lack of respect for intellectual property ?

If a business site offers free content, do you accept they have to make money some other way (adverts, sponsored posts, affiliate links)? Or does it kind of offend you?

I spend a lot of timing thinking about these things, but I’m not sure if the average quilter does too? Are you interested in how a quilt blog stays afloat, what costs are involved? I understand if you don’t – there are many things I buy that I don’t feel compelled to know the ‘how” of its creation/business model!

Let me know your thoughts (just reply to this email). I’m keen to hear what consumers think of this issue. The quilting industry needs to serve its customers, but without killing off small businesses.

I received 94 replies and the majority understood that a business has to make money. They were very supportive and advised me to keep doing what I was doing (thank you!).

There were also a few replies that showed not everyone understands what goes into running a craft blog/pattern store, especially the costs incurred by owners. So I thought I’d outline some of the details behind the running of Bonjour Quilts, in an effort to show why pattern designers need to make money somewhere in order to survive. And let’s be honest – it’s better that they thrive, not “just survive”, because just surviving gets tiring very quickly and encourages business abandonment.

So let’s have a look at what it costs me to run my online business. And then I’ll show you how easy it is to support your favourite quilt blogs/quilt pattern designers.

Costs to Run a Quilt Blog – Annual Overheads

Although my blog started on a free blogging platform (blogspot), I now have a website (created for me by Teresa at A Fearless Venture) with a custom pattern shop that uses Sendowl. I worked hard to recoup those set-up costs last year so I’m only listing recurring annual costs here (in $US). But do keep in mind I’ve put several thousand dollars into my website and pattern shop over the past few years.

Website domain (Hover*) – $15

Website hosting (Lightning Base*) – $240

Site backup (VaultPress) – $165

Illustration software (Gliffy) – $95

Photoshop – $120

Email marketing software (ConvertKit*) – $1345

G Suite email address – $60

SendOwl* – $180

Tailwind* – $120

Craft Industry Alliance* – $60

There is no line item for the cost of my time here. I’ll get to that later.

Add it all up and I have at the very minimum costs of $2400. With an average pattern price of $10, I need to sell 240 patterns every year to break even on my overheads.

But Bonjour Quilts doesn’t exist just to be a website – it has to produce patterns. So let’s have a look at those costs too.

PDF Quilt Pattern Production Costs.

Firstly, I can’t vouch for others’ costs, only my own. I know that there are cheaper ways (beware ye the risks!) of doing things, but this is what works for me. It’s important to me to produce a quality pattern that I have sewn myself and that has been technically edited by an industry professional. Do mistakes still occur? Sometimes. But I’m doing my best and learning all the time.

So – here’s an estimate of what it costs me to produce a pattern (all amounts are $US).

Technical editing – $100 – 150 (depending on pattern difficulty/length)

Graphic design – $200 – 300 depending on whether the template has already been set up (first pattern is most expensive).

Sample materials – $200

Please note that this doesn’t take into account the time it takes me to design the quilt, sew the sample, photograph the sample and edit the photographs. It also doesn’t take long-arming into account, as I probably send out only 30% of my quilts.

So the costs that come out of my pocket to create a quilt pattern are $500 – $650 (remembering that this doesn’t cover any of my time). Taking a $10 pattern price again for ease, you can see a pattern has to sell at least 50 – 65 copies to break even.

PDF vs Paper Patterns

Several replies to my newsletter question asked why PDF patterns weren’t cheaper than paper copies. After all, isn’t the main cost of a pattern the paper it’s printed on? I hope the annual overhead and pattern production costs I’ve outlined above show that this isn’t the case. A pattern, whether it’s paper or PDF, needs to cover production and overhead costs, as well as the intellectual work of the author. The couple of dollars it takes to print the pattern are a small portion of this cost.

There’s also another factor that needs to be considered in pattern pricing – selling wholesale.

Wholesale Pattern Sales

I’m a little on the fence with wholesale pattern selling. If you’re a quilt pattern designer having success in this area I’d love to hear from you!

Selling wholesale directly is quite simple. A quilt shop contacts you and purchases the patterns at half price. They then sell the patterns in their shop at the recommended retail price. This is why it’s important for a pattern designer to sell their patterns, both paper and PDF, at the same price. No quilt shop will want to carry your patterns if they know you’re offering the PDF version at a cheaper price (and rightly so!). The quilt shops would then have a whole bunch of patterns they can’t sell, or have to sell at close to cost price. So this is one reason why PDF and paper need to be priced the same – so it remains attractive to quilt shops to carry your patterns.

Selling wholesale through a distributor is another option. The distributor takes another cut of the pattern price, but the upside is they’ve a huge number of quilt shops on their books and can expose them to your patterns. The downside is they’ve a huge number of pattern designers on their books and your patterns won’t receive any special sales treatment. Distributors offer a service and have their own costs – it’s up to each quilt pattern designer to decide if that works for their business.

Here’s an indicative outline of the cost breakdown when selling wholesale through a distributor.

Paper pattern sells at $10 on designer’s website (pattern designer receives $10 per sale).

Paper Pattern sells at $5 wholesale to a quilt shop (pattern designer receives $5 per sale, quilt shop gets $5).

Paper pattern sells at $5 wholesale through a distributor (pattern designer receives $3.5 per sale, quilt shop gets $5, distributor gets $1.5)

The important thing to remember is that the quilt pattern designer PAYS FOR THE PATTERN PRINTING AND “PRINTER TO DISTRIBUTOR” POSTAGE.

Printing costs depend on how long your pattern is (more pages = more $) and how many you order. (Larger print runs are cheaper $ per pattern, but if your pattern doesn’t sell well then you’re stuck with a lot of money tied up in stock you can’t sell). Pattern printing costs can therefore vary greatly, but mine run in the $1.50 – $2 range per pattern. As you can see, there’s not much money left over from the $3.5 that goes to the designer in a wholesale distribution model.

When a distributor places a bulk order, the cost to send those patterns to the distributor is around $10-$20. It’s actually possible (if you have a paper hungry pattern or the distributor order isn’t very big) to LOSE MONEY when you sell paper patterns! This is why it’s really important to minimise the number of pages in a pattern. This is naturally at odds with a designer’s desire to give you as much instruction as possible. It’s quite conflicting!

So to recap – pattern costs are those directly related to producing the pattern and the overheads of the business.

To sell paper patterns, the designer has to be able to cover the printing and the pattern/overhead costs with the profits within a wholesale distributor model. Patterns sold for less than $10 make this very, very difficult.

To ensure quilt shops continue to stock paper patterns, the PDF patterns have to remain at the same price as paper. This ensures quilt shops aren’t undercut and helps offset the very narrow profit margins for the designer in the wholesale distributor model.

I hope this helps to show why designers can’t offer the patterns any cheaper than we currently do.

Additional Costs

There are other costs that aren’t captured above. One of these are fees. Paypal, Stripe (credit card payment provider) and bank transfers bleed small amounts of money away from each sale amount. 3% here, 2% there, bank exchange rates for those that don’t live in the US. They all add up to eat into profit margins. Once I change my shop over to Shopify, they will start taking a cut of my sales too. I’m not mad about it – it’s a cost of doing business.

What else? Quilting tools, fabric, rotary cutter blades, long arm quilting, thread, sewing machine repairs and servicing, electricity. Taxes – can’t forget those. Or the accountant. If you have a booth at Market, that’s a big expense (especially if travelling from Australia) Oh, and bar codes. If you sell paper patterns, you have to pay for bar codes. You get the drift – businesses have lots of costs.

Education is another expense that is really important for small business owners. Unless you’ve come across from a comparable employment category, you’ll be learning how to run a small business as you go. It’s important to me to take courses through the year to try and improve how I do things. I’m a member of an online business community and I’ve also taken several “one off” online courses to target particular topics – Sticky Search Engine Optimisation ($149), Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers Master Cse* ($297), Pinterest Traffic Avalanche* ($197). It’s a continuous process of learning and making myself a better business owner, and it’s a process I really enjoy, actually!

Here’s the big one – the additional cost that is really important. As you saw above, none of the costs listed so far cover my work, or the hours of time that I spend in the business.

I Need to Pay Myself a Wage

The average wage in Australia is AUD$85,000 (this is US$60,000). I’d need to sell 6,000 patterns (at $10) a year to make a US$60,000 wage.

The median wage in the US is $45,000. (Given the cost of living in Australia is higher, the two are roughly comparable.) I’d need to sell 4,500 patterns a year to earn that wage.

And I’d have to sell them directly myself, as PDFs, not as paper patterns through a distributor. That’s a tall order!

(Funnily enough, I have 13,000 people on my email list. If everyone on my list bought just one $10 pattern every 2 years, I’d be supported!)

This is why those in the quilting industry have to work hard at developing multiple sources of income – books, courses, workshops, fabric design, offering advertising, using affiliate links, accepting sponsorship deals to try and earn a living wage. They really have to hustle!

You can probably guess I’m not making a living wage from Bonjour Quilts. I am in the black (not in the red), but it will be a while before I can build up the income streams and newsletter list that can support me in that manner. I’ve another job, one that pays me a wage and my superannuation (401K for US readers) so I’m able to contribute to my family while building Bonjour on the sidelines. It’s a lot of work, but I enjoy it.

How You Can Support Your Favourite Quilt Pattern Designer

So you’ve seen the bad news – how about some good news? The good news is that it’s really, really easy to support your favourite quilt pattern designers. You can support them with money, or with actions, or with both.

Support with Money

+Hands down the best thing you can do is purchase a PDF pattern directly from the quilt pattern designer. That puts the most money into their pocket. And the great thing is that it’s an environmentally friendly way to support someone. There’s no trees being chopped down or ink being used. If you don’t get around to making the pattern you can be happy you’ve supported someone with none of the guilt that unused physical products generate.

+If you can’t buy a pattern (PDF or paper) from the designer, the next best thing is to buy their pattern from a quilt store. The quilt pattern designer, quilt store and the distributor’s families will thank you for the support.

+If your favourite designer has a book, a special ruler or designs fabric, purchasing directly from them (rather than through a middle man or Amazon) will pass on the most profit to them.

+If you can, purchase through the affiliate links on your favourite designer’s website. (Only things you were planning to buy anyway – I don’t like the idea of people buying things they don’t really need just to help someone with a commission.) That said, the commissions via affiliate links are very small. But they can add up over time and contribute a small bump of income to a blogger, at absolutely no cost to you the buyer. Amazon is going to pay someone a commission, so it might as well be your favourite designer, right?

Support with Action

I have many newsletter readers who have never purchased a pattern from me. The majority of non-purchasers are people on fixed incomes who say they would like to support me with a purchase, but unfortunately can’t. Luckily, there’s plenty of other things they can do to help.

Even if these readers can’t afford my patterns, they can help to get my work in front of others who can. There are millions of quilters out there, and some of them would love to purchase from me – if only they knew my patterns existed! This is where you can help your favourite quilt pattern designer. Get their name out in front of new readers so they’ve a chance to connect with new customers.

+Pin their photographs to Pinterest. Pinterest is a fantastic traffic generator for blogs and such a great place for people to find new things.

+Post their blog posts and new pattern listings to your Facebook feed, or share it in quilting Facebook Groups (if it’s within the rules). A recommendation is a powerful thing.

+Like their posts on Facebook and Instagram – this encourages both programs to show the photos to other similar users.

+If you’ve quilting friends who you think would enjoy a quilt designer’s newsletter, forward the email on to them with a recommendation. It would be great if you could help recruit new readers for them.

+If you see someone online in a quilting forum or a Facebook Group (or in real life at a guild or quilting circle) trying to source a free copy of a paid pattern, please speak up and defend that quilt pattern designer’s copyright. The more people that speak up against pattern theft, the closer we’ll come to stamping it out.

Back to the Free Patterns…

There is a place for freebies. They attract new people to quilting. I believe being able to download a free beginners pattern and give quilting a try opens the craft up to more people. And once we have them hooked, we have a quilter for life! Quilters, for the most part, who’ll go on to improve their skills and buy patterns.

Freebies are also a useful marketing tool. I have a few simple patterns that I use to get people onto my newsletter list. (So it’s really not a freebie – it’s a swap; an email address for a pattern.) On my list they can get to know me and my designs better and decide if they’d like to purchase a pattern. They may also decide they don’t like my style of quilting and unsubscribe. No biggie. This type of try-before-you-buy marketing is not new – think of test driving cars or trying the cheese samples in the deli.

Some other points to ponder on free:

The mass dropping of free patterns by companies when a fabric line debuts to encourage fabric sales. Even if a designer is paid a fee to produce the pattern by the fabric company, is it likely to replace the revenue that the pattern would generate over the entirely of its life? (Anecdotally it would seem quilt shops don’t like these free patterns either – they’d rather sell a pattern to a shopper.)

Are all free patterns technically edited and of good quality?

How much time is needed to support those free patterns? I’ve had people email and ask me to resize my free patterns for them – without paying me for that work. Of course, I politely decline, but why do people expect that I would want to do this work for them for free? No doubt because they think if I’ve worked for free before (free pattern), I’d be happy to work for free again.

In conclusion…

Lots to read and lots to consider. If you’ve made it this far, you’re a legend and obviously care about quilting and the industry. Thank you for your support.

You can read more thoughts on this matter in these places:

A Craft Industry Alliance article on the ethics of free content in the craft industry

Steph Skardal has written about being a Quilt Entrepreneur

Jen Shaffer outlines how she costs her quilt designs

Just surviving isn’t enough – why one artist went back to a day job

I’d love to hear your comments on the issue. Please let me know your thoughts below.

And if you’d like to support this quilter, please join my newsletter or check out my pattern shop.

Thank you – and happy creating!

Kirsty

*affiliate links!

Zed Quilt Pattern

September 29, 2018 By Kirsty 7 Comments

I have a great FQ friendly quilt pattern to share with you today. It’s called Zed (I suppose if you’re American you’d call it Zee 🙂 )

I am on a bit of a mission to reduce my stash so FQ friendly patterns are foremost in my mind at the moment.

The Zed quilt pattern uses two FQs for each row. I’ve gone for a light/dark matching pair, but you could use whatever takes your fancy. Or just use a half yard to make the whole row out of the same fabric.

I’m also considering sewing up the version below (with Carolyn Friedlander basics) and I’ll use a half yard for each of the colours featured in two rows. (This is very convenient for me as the majority of my stash is in half yards.)

Zed is a lap sized quilt that finishes at 53″ x 68″ and is suitable for a confident beginner and beyond.

The Zed quilt pattern is made with HSTs and HRTs (half rectangle triangles). And yes, if you love Bloc_loc rulers as much as I do, then you can trim the HRTs with their large 2:1 HRT ruler.

But if you don’t have that ruler, don’t worry. The pattern includes a link to very clear, photographed steps that show you how to trim your HRTs with a regular ruler.

I’ve included a pro-tip in the instructions to show you how to keep your printed fabric’s pattern facing the same direction across each individual block. This really satisfies the details-nerd inside of me! See – all the same direction:

And for those of you who like to try and get away with as little pinning as possible (yes, I see you there!) you’ll be happy to hear that thorough pressing instructions are included to ensure seam nesting. This makes it quick and easy to sew your blocks together.

The lovely Tara of Tara Sews made a version of the Zed quilt pattern in this Uppercase FQ bundle by Windham fabrics.

I love Tara’s bright, happy version. And so does her cat:

Tara did some great straight line quilting to echo the diagonals in the blocks.

For my Zed quilt I went with my favourite wavy, organic lines.

For binding, I used a mix of toothy prints by Carolyn Friedlander to add a stripe-like feel.

And for my backing I had a short run of an IKEA bird print which I matched with some half yards of green from my stash.

I’m not done visiting with this Zed pattern yet. I’ve had a family request for a purple version, so I’m working on that this weekend.

I really like the Tequila Sunrise vibe this quilt is giving me.

If you’d like to make your own Zed quilt then come on over to the Pattern Shop and buy yourself a copy!

And don’t forget to show me what you’ve made (either email or Instagram or Facebook). I really love to see what people make with all my patterns.

Hope you’re having a fantastic weekend!

Cheers,

Kirsty

Fish Quilt Block (and some Scrap Quilt Ideas)

September 18, 2018 By Kirsty 30 Comments

I’m always on the lookout for scrap quilt ideas – how about you? To me, a good scrap quilt pattern has simple repetitive blocks that let me have fun mixing and matching all of my most loved scrap fabrics.

Last week I wrote a post about Quarter Square Triangles and this scrappy fish quilt block uses a QST variant called the Hourglass block. It’s a simple but really fun block for a baby quilt, and I’ll give you some layout ideas at the end of the post. So let’s have a look, shall we?

This fish quilt block has three parts: a flying geese head, a square body and a Quarter Square Triangle tail.

The block is 3-1/2″ x 8″ unfinished (with seam allowance) and will be 3″ x 7-1/2″ when sewn into a quilt.

We’ll make the fish 2 at a time (as the method for making Hourglass blocks creates 2 at a time).

Scrap Fabric Requirements

If you’re using directional print fabric, read all the instructions first before you cut so you can see how to align the print all the way across your fish block.

For each pair of fish blocks you’ll need the following fabric pieces:

Scrap:

4-1/2″ square

Two 3-1/2″ squares

Two 2-1/4″ x 3-3/4″ rectangles

Background:

4-1/2″ square

Four 2-1/4″ squares

Sew the Hourglass Block Tail

Take a 4-1/2” background and a 4-1/2″ scrap square. Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the background square and pair right sides together with the scrap square. Sew a scant 1⁄4” from either side of the marked line. Cut on the drawn line to yield 2 HST units. Press seams toward the darker fabric.

Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of one of the HST units, perpendicular to the HST centre seam. Place the two HSTs right sides together, making sure different fabrics are facing each other.

Sew a scant 1⁄4” from either side of the marked line. Cut on the drawn line to yield 2 Hourglass units and trim them to 3-1/2” square (I like this ruler* for QST trimming because the extra lines make centring the block easier).

For tips on how to accurately trim Quarter Square Triangle blocks, make sure you check out this post here.

Sew the Flying Geese Head Block

Take two 2-1/4″ background squares and draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of each one. Align one square on one corner of the 2-1/4″ x 3-3/4″ scrap rectangle as shown, then sew on the diagonal line.

Press the corner of the background square away from the unit. Repeat the process with the second background square on the opposite corner of the scrap rectangle. You’ve just made a flying geese unit. Repeat so you have 2 in total.

Trim the flying geese units to 2″ x 3-1/2”, making sure to keep the points centred. I use these Bloc_loc rulers* to trim my flying geese. They’re pricey (as they’re made in the US) but I couldn’t go back to life without them.

Sew the Fish Together

Now you have your fish components it’s time to sew them all together.

I like to press my seams inward. They just sit better for me that way.

A note on directional fabrics. When you sew your Hourglass blocks you’ll get one block in each fabric orientation:

You can see above that it’s easy to rotate your tummy square to match the tail, but it will take a bit of forethought to match the head. If you just remember to cut one flying geese rectangle in each direction of the fabric you’ll be fine.

So, what do we do with these fishies? How can we turn a school of these blocks into a fabulous scrap quilt?

Scrap quilt ideas

The easiest layout would be a lovely ordered layout of fish. I’ve put them all facing the one direction below, but you could alternate directions in the rows, too, for a bit of variation. A colour gradation would also be very pretty.

Or how about a single, rebel fish? (We all know a red fish, right?)

Perhaps you could add a pair of kissing fish in the middle:

Then there’s this one, which I’m calling The Party Starters:

So lots of scrap quilt fun to be had with this block, to be sure.

I hope this gives you some ideas to help reduce your scrap pile. Do know a someone (a Pisces?) who’d like a fish quilt of their own?

Which is your favourite quilt layout – let me know in the comments.

Happy sewing!

Kirsty

*affiliate link

Quarter Square Triangles

September 8, 2018 By Kirsty 20 Comments

Quarter Square Triangles – what a handy block! Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs) can come in a few forms. You might know them as hourglass blocks or perhaps the hybrid Split Quarter Square Triangle. Let’s take a look at them all, with a downloadable Quarter Square Triangle chart thrown in for good measure!

Quarter Square Triangle Variations

Just so we’re all on the same sheet of music, this is what I mean by QST, hourglass and Split QST blocks (see photo below).

Hourglass blocks are Quarter Square Triangle blocks made with only two fabrics, which creates the hourglass silhouette. Or a bow tie if you read it from side to side instead of up and down. (A)

Quarter Square Triangles have four different colour fabrics in the block. (B)

Split Quarter Square Triangles are made with 3 fabrics and consist of one large triangle and two smaller triangles. (C)

How to sew Quarter Square Triangles

As the name suggests, the QST block is simply four triangles sewn together to give a square.

You could by all means cut four separate triangles and then sew them together to form the Quarter Square Triangle block.

This method is handy if you need an exact layout (you want to know the position of all the fabrics). It’s important to remember to cut your individual triangles such that the straight grains of the fabric are on the outer edge of the block. If the bias grain is on the outside you run the risk of stretching. If you cut your triangles from each fabric like this, you’ll be fine:

This method makes it easy to sew a specific unit but it can be a pain to sew bias edges together. Also, if you need a small block the tiny individual triangles will be a bit tricky to handle. For these reasons I prefer to make my Quarter Square Triangles from Half Square Triangle blocks, and that’s what I’m going to show you today.

Hourglass blocks

To make the Hourglass variant of a Quarter Square Triangle you’ll start with 2 oversized squares which you’ll use to make 2 identical HSTs. You will then sew the 2 HSTs together and cut them apart to yield 2 identical hourglass blocks.

When you’ve made your 2 HSTs it helps to press the seams both toward the same fabric. Then put them right sides together, but with different colours opposite each other (the seam will nest). You can see the purple faces the mauve below, and the seam is nested.

Draw a diagonal perpendicular to the direction of the seam, as seen below. Make sure it is at 90 degrees to your seam, otherwise you’ll have trouble maintaining your points in the corner.

Sew a seam a quarter inch either side of the drawn line. Cut the units apart along the drawn line and press your hourglass units open.

So 2 squares make 2 HSTs, which are then used to make 2 hourglass blocks. Don’t worry, I’ll talk about starting square size and trimming a bit further on.

Quarter Square Triangles

This “true” Quarter Square Triangle is made from 2 different HSTs blocks, instead of 2 identical HSTs.

The process is the same – the HSTs are placed right sides together, seams nesting, with a diagonal drawn perpendicular to the HST seams. Two HSTs will yield two QSTs.

One thing to note here is that the 2 Quarter Square Triangles produced will NOT be identical – so keep that in mind when you’re planning your design.

Split Quarter Square Triangles

This nifty little unit is made by replacing one of the HST units with a solid square.

The HST unit is placed right sides together with the square and a diagonal is again drawn perpendicular to the HST seam. One HST and one square will yield 2 SQSTs.

Again, the 2 Split Quarter Square Triangles produced will NOT be identical – they are mirror images.

Quarter Square Triangle Chart

Let’s talk about the size of the starting squares needed to make Quarter Square Triangle blocks.

I make my Quarter Square Triangles the same way I make my Half Square Triangles – oversized. I prefer to make them a little on the large size and then trim them back to give really accurate blocks.

If however you’ve perfected your quarter inch seam and really don’t like trimming, then you can create your Quarter Square Triangles with this formula:

Starting square size = finished QST size + 1-1/4″

So if you want a 4″ QST when it’s sewn into a quilt, you’ll need to start with four 5-1/4″ squares.

If you’re like me and want a bit of breathing room so you can trim your QSTs back to size, then use this formula instead:

Starting square size = finished QST size + 1-1/2″

So if you want that 4″ QST then with the oversizing method you’ll need to start with four 5-1/2″ squares.

Here’s a handy Quarter Square Triangle Chart that lists the starting square sizes for various QST sizes (for the oversized method).

If you’d like a printable version of this chart you can fill in the boxes below and I’ll email it to you. You’ll also get some handy extra emails that will show you where to find some of my other tutorials and downloadable quilting projects.

Quarter Square Triangle Trimming

Firstly, I recommend using a square ruler when trimming your Quarter Square Triangles. I have this one* (below) and it’s fantastic for blocks 6″ and less because of that high density area of lines which makes it easier to pinpoint the centre of your block.

There are two important things to look for when you trim your blocks:

1. Correctly measuring your centre point, and

2. Making sure the diagonals are 45 degrees at the corners of the block.

The centre point of the block will be at the half of the measurement of the unfinished block. So back to our 4″ QSTs:

A 4″ finished QST is 4-1/2″ unfinished. Half of that is 2-1/4″. So you’ll want to put the centre point of your block under the intersection of the lines 2-1/4″ from the edge of the ruler.

The red arrow, below, show the block centre point at 2-1/4″. The black arrows show where the diagonals hit the block corners (remembering the block will be trimmed to 4-1/2″).

It’s important the diagonals are bisecting the corners and you may have to wriggle/rotate your ruler a bit to make this happen. It’s not always possible to get all four corners spot on, but do your best to make them all as accurate as you can.

Having trouble with your triangle diagonals not meeting at the corners? You might need to pay more attention to when you draw your diagonal line on the back of your HSTs. Remember how I mentioned it needs to be perpendicular to the HST seam? Even if it means your line isn’t exactly from corner to corner when you draw it, you want to make sure the line is 90 degrees to the HST seam to create four even quadrants in your block.

I’ve also included the trimming size (unfinished size) on the downloadable chart, as well as the centre point location. It’s good to have all the info in the one place.

What to make with Quarter Square Triangles

I’m biased, but I think you should make my Fleur Queen or Fleur Mini pattern! They both use SQST blocks.

Fleur Mini:

Fleur Queen:

Peta of She Quilts A lot adapted the queen to a crib quilt (below) by only using 4 of the Fleur blocks – isn’t it fantastic!

I hope you get the chance to experiment with Quarter Square Triangles soon. Be sure to drop me an email and show me what you’ve made!

Cheers,

Kirsty

*affiliate link

What does UFO stand for in quilting?

What to do with your quilt UFOs?

Find some UFO Mojo.

Once they’re gone, make sure they don’t come back!

It’s much quicker to do them early.

Top Quilting Post Number 5.

Top Quilting Post Number 4.

Top Quilting Post Number 3.

Top Quilting Post Number 2.

Top Quilting Post Number 1.

Fabric Selection

Patchwork Your Tree

Christmas Embroidery Designs

Other Embellishment Ideas

What do you mean “self binding”?

Baste your quilt top

Attach your backing

Close the turning gap

Quilt, quilt, quilt!

Costs to Run a Quilt Blog – Annual Overheads

PDF Quilt Pattern Production Costs.

PDF vs Paper Patterns

Wholesale Pattern Sales

Additional Costs

I Need to Pay Myself a Wage

How You Can Support Your Favourite Quilt Pattern Designer

Support with Money

Support with Action

Back to the Free Patterns…

In conclusion…

Scrap Fabric Requirements

Sew the Hourglass Block Tail

Sew the Flying Geese Head Block

Sew the Fish Together

Scrap quilt ideas

Quarter Square Triangle Variations

How to sew Quarter Square Triangles

Hourglass blocks

Quarter Square Triangles

Split Quarter Square Triangles

Quarter Square Triangle Chart

Quarter Square Triangle Trimming

What to make with Quarter Square Triangles