My first commercial quilt pattern, Downtown Dandy, will be available for purchase on Monday, July 1st. While this is the first pattern that I'm selling, it is FAR from my first pattern. From the beginning in my quilting journey I was interested in doing my own thing and not just copying designs or patterns made by other people. I still occasionally used patterns (and still do!), but there is just something about designing something that is all your own that makes the process extra special. So for the past 25 years or so I've been creating quilt patterns for myself and occasionally for a friend who asked nicely.
Over the years I thought about selling my patterns, but I was a bit intimidated by the whole process. In the spring of 2021 I decided to sign up for the Pattern Writing Academy by Amber of Alderwood Studio. I started designing Downtown Dandy during that course and I learned so much in that course. I made three sample versions of the quilt and had a pdf pattern ready to go. However, at the end of the course I still felt overwhelmed by the thought of figuring out how to sell the darn thing. I was also worried that my pattern wasn't "good enough" for prime time quite yet, despite all the great things I learned in Amber's course.
Then Amy Ellis entered the picture and changed everything for me! I signed up for her 12-week Write Better Quilt Patterns course (spring 2022) and I'm so happy that I did. The course had a very small number of students, so Amy gave all of us individual attention and guidance every step of the way. She customized the course for us to make sure that we all got exactly what we wanted from her and from the course. Amy is the best coach and friend that I could have asked for to get me over the finish line.
With Amy's help, I streamlined and simplified the Downtown Dandy pattern that I had started the year before. In addition to learning how to make my quilt patterns better, she also helped me pull the trigger on setting up a website on shopify and other business-related tasks that I'd been hesitating to do. Finally, I worked with a technical editor that Amy recommended (super special shout-out to Rebecca Kemp Brent !) and got the pattern cleaned up even more and verified that all my math and instructions are clear and 100% error-free.
So now, on July 1st my new website and the pattern for Downtown Dandy will finally go live! It is an exciting day that I've been working towards for a very long time and I'm so happy that it has finally arrived.
P.s. To celebrate the release of the Downtown Dandy pattern, I'm offering 20% off from July 1st - July 4th. Use the code DANDY20 when checking out to take advantage of this discount. (This code will expire at midnight on July 4th.)
Get Your Downtown Dandy quilt pattern
