Baseball Curves Quilt for ‘Modern Bee’ + Giveaway!
a) to encourage others (and ourselves) to make projects from the pages of our beloved craft books
b) to look behind-the-scenes at the stories behind craft books, their authors, publishers and the many people who contribute to their production
My third and final goal with Craft Book Month was to fulfill a personal goal and wild dream. I wanted to write a sewing book. And so I set out to learn everything I could about how they are made, how to pitch a book proposal. . . the whole shebang. In the process, I met wonderful people at several craft book publishers and in March of 2012, I got the incredible news that Stash Books had accepted my book proposal!
Modern Bee — 13 Quilts to Make with Friends is filled with full-size quilt patterns from myself and 11 friends who I had the pleasure of sewing with in an online bee, Mod Stitches. We each claimed one month and designed a block and coordinating quilt, swapping fabric and finished blocks with each other throughout the mail. I designed two quilts for the book, and sewed blocks for each of the others.
I’m sharing some little-known facts about my “Baseball Curves” quilt here today!
Fun fact #2: I don’t think anyone in my bee was excited about sewing curves. In fact, I think I heard a couple of (Internet) gasps! 😉 But you know what? Everyone did an amazing job with their blocks, and they all fit together perfectly. It just goes to show that YOU CAN DO IT!
Fun fact #3: The lovely and talented Angela Walters quilted this bad boy for me. When I opened the box, I was speechless! I gave her complete freedom to quilt it however she wanted, and I will forever bow down to her free-motion skills. Just gorgeous!
Fun fact #4: I bound the entire quilt in Kelly green. Then I ripped it out and added baby blue. So much nicer.
Fun fact #6: Once I’d collected all of the quilts for the book, I needed to mail them all to the book publisher in California for the photo shoot. Talk about nerve wracking. I researched the best way to mail quilts, and came up with all sorts of things. In the end, I wrapped them all in clear plastic bags from the dry cleaner, and stuffed everything into two boxes, like this.
You can imagine my relief when my editor Michele wrote, “Lindsay, the heavily-duct-taped boxes have arrived!”
Fun fact #7: For their photo shoots, my publisher took the quilts on location to someone’s house for “set shots,” and they also took “flat shots” of each quilt in their offices. I got to chat with my book team ahead of time to make suggestions on the overall vibe for the book, including photography and props. We went with a modern, fresh yet retro feel, which really complemented all of the quilts in the book! I think I gasped when I saw this fabulous photo for the first time.
Don’t forget to follow along with the 3rd Annual Craft Book Month blog hop. We’re celebrating all month long inspirational craft book projects, a crafty contest, free patterns and
prizes!
Week One
Monday 9/2: Fabric Mutt / LRstitched
Tuesday 9/3: Stitch This! The Martingale Blog / Stitched in Color
Wednesday 9/4: Fabric Seeds / Pile O Fabric
Thursday 9/5: The Feisty Redhead / Rae Gun Ramblings
Friday 9/6: Sew-Fantastic / Clover + Violet
Saturday 9/7: A Prairie Sunrise / Small Town Stitcher
Week Two
Monday 9/9: Hopeful Threads / Go To Sew
Tuesday 9/10: The Sewing Rabbit / Sewing Mama RaeAnna
Wednesday 9/11: Marci Girl Designs / imagine gnats
Thursday 9/12: Sew Sweetness / amylouwhosews
Friday 9/13: Lindsay Sews / 13 Spools
Saturday 9/14: Inspire Me Grey / Angela Yosten
Week Three
Monday 9/16: Sew Very / Craftside
Giveaway!
Would you like to win a copy of Modern Bee — 13 Quilts to Make with Friends, courtesy of Stash Books? Just leave a comment on this post for your chance to win. You can tell me about your favorite project you’ve ever made or what you’re working on right now, if you’d like!
Update: the winner is commenter #4, Claudia!
