In the 1970's my use to buy old quilts on printed photographies. The store selling the old quilts would take pictures, have them developed and sent by mail a stack of pictures that my mom would choose from, place her order and receive the quilt, she still has, fifty years later, the quilts around the house.

This was happening in Riverton Wyoming where I grew up, quilts are an heirloom in the USA, in France not so much, most people don't even know what the word "quilt" is.

I am a big fan of Star Trek, watch the latest episodes of Star Trek Discovery on Netflix, and one of the scene talks about a quilt. I watched the show Sweet Magnolias, the girls wonder what they are going to put on the wall of their new spa, and one mentions a "quilt". Lots of American shows that I watch will have a quilt on the bed or on the couch. That warms my heart up as a quilt gives a notion of wellbeing, of comfort.

In France, my feeling is that quilts are not considered as something to be used every day....

In 2019, I created an online course called "Designing a Quilt 101", it is an eight module course made up of workbooks with really cool worksheets to fill out, to color in or to cut out, plus videos to go with the workbooks.

In 2020, I created three online workshops with a common theme being the Star. It is called Meet the Stars and included The Ohio Star Workshop, The Sawtooth Star Workshop and The Hunter's Star Workshop.

For 2021, I am creating a membership called CONUNDRUM, it will be available on my website hosted by Kajabi, every month will be about a different aspect that happens when making a quilt, I called them Seasons.

Season One is THINK IT, it will be all about choosing a pattern or creating a pattern of your own to become a quilt.

Season Two is PREPARE IT, it will be all about the fabric, the notions and everything that is needed to get started.

Season Three is PIECE IT, it will be all about the piecing of the quilt.

Season Four is QUILT IT, it will be all about...

Oups, I had my blog post ready but it never got published, so better late than never!!

As the year is coming to an end, I will be thinking about what I have accomplished this year and the answer is: quite a lot.

I created 3 workshops: the Ohio Star Workshop, the Sawtooth Workshop and the Hunter's Star Workshop.

I have made several quilt tops: don't even know how many, haven't counted them as they were made for the workshops.

I have made loads of leaflets and documents: that I will be sharing them in my membership (more about that coming up as I am launching a membership in January 2021).

I have been working on my website, trying to make it useful and attractive.

I started a new day job in May, it has kept me very busy this summer as I did long hours which has frustrated me as it took me away from my main pleasure of designing and creating new things, but after working from 7 am to 7 pm, I would just get home, have something to eat and go to bed!! Will try not to go through that...

Hello,

In order to help you tell the Story of your Quilt, I have prepared a document that you will fill out as you are making your quilt. 

It is a journal in which you enter information about how, when, where you are making your quilt.

Once your quilt is finished you will have made the Story of your Quilt.

To access the document: Quilt Story

Have a nice week.

Emmanuelle

How to Make an American Quilt with Winona Ryder:

"For as long as I can remember, my grandmother and her friends have been a part of a quilting bee.

I remember sitting under the quilt frame pretending that I was surrounded by a forest of friendly trees and that their stitches were messages from giants written across the sky.

I used to spend my summer with my grandmother and my great aunt, who lived in Grasse, California. (...)

The day Sam drove me to my Great Aunt Glady's house, the Grasse quilting bee was there setting up to make a new quilt.

They've always met here at Aunt Glady's.

My grandmother moved in after she'd lost her husband.

They have been fighting ever since.

Everyone defers to Anna, who is the master quilter.(...)

- The challenge with a quilt like this is each of these squares are made by different hands. So I have to bring all these different squares together and balance them in harmonious design.

First we have to find a theme.

Now for this particular quilt, the theme...

I thought I would share with you the project I am working on: a Quilt App.

I am working on the Business Requirement Document, where I am writing down all my Features, all the information I need.

This video is the first draft of my project, a little mockup of what I am trying to create.

If you have any ideas about it, please share with me.

Have a nice week

Emmanuelle

When we start talking about patchwork, we say DO YOU WANT ME TO TEACH YOU PATCHWORK? but have you ever thought about WHAT PATCHWORK TEACHES YOU?

Well let me tell:

The first step to starting a quilt is to prepare all the elements that will be needed to make the pattern that you have chosen.

Once you have decided to make a quilt pattern, you will want to have all the fabric handy to start working, you are not going to go back and forth to the store as you can only start once you have all the fabric coordinated if you want to have a pleasing looking quilt.

That teaches ORGANIZATION

When you start cutting or sewing your fabric, these different steps need to be identical for every piece that is prepared in order for the end result to look straight rather then wonky, 

Once you have chosen the pattern and the fabric, you start cutting the shapes out, all those shapes need to be exactly the same wether you use a paper template or an acrylic template.

After that you move on to the...

I am part of a membership, once a month we have a Mind Set Coach (Corinne Crabtree) talking to the participants, I enjoy very much her state of mind. Her view is that our brain has a tendency of thinking everything negatively, so we have to remind it constantly to be positive.

I have always used that method in my everyday life, if I have a negative thought I immediately try to find a positive reply to it. I also try to avoid using negative expressions such as the word "ugly", that word can come up quite often, we can use it to say what we think about a fabric print or a quilt.

If i go in a shop and see something that I would say is "ugly", well I am not going to think that way, I am going to say: "it isn't to my taste" or "it isn't pleasing to my eye".

We have an expression in french that says "taste and colors can't be explained", meaning that everybody has different visions of the environment, what we find pleasing others might find displeasing.

In the quilt world, this has its...

Once I have prepared something on my computer, I then move on to make a prototype.

What I call a prototype is the first making of the quilt, that will allow me to write the pattern text, to determine the amount of fabric needed, the sewing techniques needed, the color position on the pattern, because even if the pattern looks good on the computer screen, once I start going through my fabric, changes usually occur!!

There are occasions also that I will give a shape a try, for example I wanted to try out my paper piece Flying Geese, so I printed out the paper* and liked the result, I then printed out another pattern and gave it a go.

Afterwards, I wanted to find a way to connect all these patterns and make a quilt top, but since I did not pay attention to the finish size of each square, they don't really match, so I have to add extra fabric on each side to make them match.

That is the fun side of being a designer, you try things out all the time, you make...

Lately I have been working on paper piecing Flying Geese designs.

The fact of creating a triangle repeated and ending up making a circle needs to be done thanks to certain functions of Illustrator.

While searching through different videos, I discovered lots of new functions, some I might never use but others have been very useful in my work.

There is a software available to create patchwork designs, Electric Quilt 8, but I like to play around with my shapes without having a set grid, so I will continue using Illustrator.

During my cross stitch designer years, I did use the cross stitch software, I had Patternmaker and I loved it but believe me when I say that I started by using Excel and putting the letter "X" in the boxes to represent the stitches. Mostly I printed out my blank grid with Excel and then I would fill in the boxes with a pencil. Those were the days!!

Now we have computers that allow us to work professionally just from our homes, I love spending hours on my screen...