megan • November 12, 2011 • 8 Comments
Yesterday was Veterans’ Day and many of us spent at least part of our day offering remembrance and thanks to the men and women who have served in our country’s armed forces. My own dad served in the Army and was stationed on Johnston Island, where he was witness to some of the nuclear weapons tests on Eniwetok Atoll, and my brother was in the U.S. Navy for nine years. I am very grateful to them both for their service.
Yesterday was also Nigel Tufnel Day. I hope everyone turned it up to eleven. I know I did.
Quilt and Blog Post of the Week
Today I am combining our quilt and post because the two are, to me, kind of inseparable. First, let’s take a look at the quilt, called Fabricland, by Elizabeth D. of Don’t Call Me Betsy.
Elizabeth says, in her post about this quilt, that it was “based on some doodles my late father used to draw. It reminds me of him, and makes me feel close to him, even though he’s been gone for several years now.” I love how this quilt takes us on a winding path from colored square to colored square, and how at first it appears random until you see the pattern of the blocks slowly emerge. The use of different tones of the same color in the squares and in the grey path gives the quilt a dynamic quality it wouldn’t have had without them. But it’s also a pattern that leaves a lot of room for interpretation, and I can’t help glancing over at my stash as I write this and wondering how this or that stack of fat quarters would look.
And I can try it out, because Elizabeth has published the pattern, her very first. Yep, we may be looking at the next quilt design star here, folks. You can buy it at Patternspot.com as a downloadable PDF for $8.00. Instant gratification!
And that’s why I chose her post, in which she debuted the quilt and announced the availability of the pattern, to be Blog Post of the Week. Because how cool is it that someone who has only been quilting for a few years can put her maiden effort out into the world and we get to see it happen? That never ceases to amaze me, and is why I love this virtual quilting world so much.
Fall/Winter 2016 (Issue 22)
Summer 2016 (Issue 21)
Spring 2016 (Issue 20)
November-December 2015 (Issue 19)
September-October 2015 (Issue 18)
$9.99
July-August 2015 (Issue 17)
COMMENT #1
Megan, wow, thank you so much for featuring my little quilt here on Gen Q!!! I’m so honored!! 🙂
COMMENT #
You are so very welcome. I’ve been admiring it for days now and couldn’t wait to show everyone. Great work!
COMMENT #2
Totally awesome! Great spotlight on Elizabeth!
COMMENT #3
Very cool! Elizabeth’s post was touching and her quilt beautiful! She definitely deserves the recognition!
COMMENT #4
I just loved this quilt the minute it appeared on Elizabeth’s blog, a very well deserved feature 🙂
COMMENT #5
Yay! I love Elizabeth’s blog, and this quilt has to be my favorite one of hers yet. Well-deserved! : )
COMMENT #6
This is a very interesting pattern and one I haven’t seen before, however, isn’t $8.00 a lot of money for ANY pattern delivered pdf? This involves no printing, no handling, and no postage. I am not saying anything bad about this talented designer who has a unique pattern. I have seen designers sell their Rail fence and log cabin patterns for up to $12 for one pdf file. I know this is a money making effort, but $1 or $2 seems to be more reasonable.
COMMENT #
Well, when you consider that sellers must give a cut of sales to hosts such as Patternspot or Etsy, as well as Paypal or credit card processing fees, there are fees and costs associated with selling a PDF pattern online. Plus, and more importantly I think, is that a lot of hours of work and effort go into creating a pattern and the volume of pattern sales is not generally so high that one can make a mint off of one pattern, so sellers have to balance that cost rather carefully. Most patterns on Patternspot seem to run in the $7.00 to $9.00 range, as do the ones I’ve seen on Etsy, so it’s probably safe to say that this has been determined to be a reasonable price by the market. Personally, I think $8.00 is worth every penny, but I understand not everyone may see it that way.