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 discoveries that are really ...

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 se...

I'm going to take you behind the scene of my working process.

When I started creating quilt patterns, I had a computer using Windows, so I searched for a program other than "WORD" to draw up my patterns. 

Back then there were no "online pay monthly" systems, you would simply go to the shop, buy a box with a CDrom in it and a manual to help you install the program and a tutorial on how to use the software.

So the software I came across was PAO (Publication Assisté par Ordinateur, which means Publishing Software Helped by the Computer). I learned how to use it and started making my patterns with it.

As time was going by, I had started designing fabric, I had been taking a 3 year class in Fabric Designs and was learning to use Illustrator. After a while I wanted to upper my game and get myself a screen that would allow me to view the colors better than on the laptop. I was recommended to buy a wide screen Apple computer. And that was the best decision ever.

I am now a proud user of I...

When comparing Paper Templates with Acrylic Templates, each has its Pros and Cons, in order to figure those out more easily, I have broken down the comparison in three subjects: the Cost, the Size and the Time

The cost is about the money aspect of the template taking into consideration what needs to be bought in order to make it or use it.

The size is about the dimension that the template allows the block to be.

The time is about the estimation of minutes or hours that the making or the use of the template will consume in order to get the project going.

PAPER TEMPLATES

1. Cost

All that is needed to make a paper template is a piece of paper, a ruler and a pen. So the cost of making one's own templates is very low.

Three possibilities concerning the type of paper to use:

- You will be using the paper to trace the shape on the fabric, in that case the paper needs to be a heavy weight paper as you want it to be as thick as possible so that you can reuse it several times and avoid t...

Keep a journal, whether it is a notebook or a file on a computer. 

Every time you see an image, a texte or an object that seems interesting, you need to register it, either by taking a picture, by saving a screen shot, or by writing a description.

The purpose is not to copy something already existing, but to make a collage (in your mind or on paper) of all this documentation. Some might call it a mood board others an inspirational board, but what ever way you want to make it, you need to start that way.

During my cross stitch designer years, I would spend hours in a store called Maisons du Monde (Homes of the World), it's a store to decorate your home. I would just look at the frames, the boxes, the furniture and imagine what cross stitch I could create on them. I bought a gardening jug and cross stitch a jug design and glued it on the jug. I bought the mechanism to make a clock and made the four seasons around it. I bought some glass soda bottles at the supermarket, loved their sha...

A thread idea is an idea that you start with and that you will develop, my thread idea was using the Marti Michell templates and finding new patterns to use them for that, it was a "THINK OUT OF THE BOX" approach.

As a designer in the quilt world, there are many patterns out there to be inspired from, but I prefer to get inspired by other domains than my own.

The reason I do that is that I don't want to end up "copying" somebody, whether it is consciously or not.

So to avoid that kind of situation, I choose to have a look in domains that are totally different from patchwork and look into architecture, home design, home furnishing...

Lately I was looking into internet designs and came across the Gestalt Theory, did some digging into it to understand what is was about, found it fascinating and decided to adapt it to the quilt world. Finding ways to put into perspective the view of the mind into the collaboration of shapes.

To go from the world of the mind to the world of the real.

People are going to remember you more easily if they can identify you in one single glimpse.

That visual touch has to be in your work, in your presentation (flyers, booth, packaging), on your website.

That visual touch can be monochromatic, can be very colorful, can be pastel, in other words, it can be anything you want as long as you stick to one style.

After 13 years of being around with my style in the cross stitch design world, customers would recognize my booth and know my brand "Alice and Co".

I have made a change recently by taking on patchwork as new long term project, and adding to my business name the word "designs", but after all the work put into being known in the cross stitch world, I have now to find my place in the quilt world.

I started out by working for a French quilt magazine called La Pratique du Patchwork, in order to be different from others, I chose to use the Marti Michell templates in a different way, instead of using the templates to make traditional blo...

WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

It comes most of all from your imagination,

The way it works for me, is that I see things surrounding me and all the information piles up in my head and all of a sudden the ideas come to me.

You might think "well this doesn't help me much"!!

So let me tell you about my experience: I started my business in 2006 as a cross stitch pattern designer, when I started designing, my main concern was

WILL I HAVE MY OWN STYLE?

When looking around me there were lots of designers that just by looking at a pattern they had made you could immediately relate to them without needing their name on the pattern.

HOW CAN YOU OBTAIN THAT ?

By sticking to an idea.

I am a geometrical person, meaning that I like patterns with symmetry either horizontal or vertical.

To break that symmetry I decided to make the outskirts of my pattern in a heart shape rather than making big squares or rectangles.

My other choice was to only cross stitch in one color which was red.

When I star...

I would like to tell you about the Barn Quilt Trails, that I just find fascinating and would love to have someday a wooden shed and create a wooden quilt block for it!!

Where does the Barn Quilt Trail come from?

In Adams County, Ohio, in 2001, Donna Sue Groves set out to honer her mother, Maxine, and her quilt art by painting a quilt block on her tobacco barn.

Her idea had a big success and soon her friends and neighbors wanted barn quilts for their own. 

Donna realized that her idea had an effect on the area, so she decided to paint barns with quilt squares all over, soon the first barn quilt trail was born.

A Quilt Trail, is a collection of quilt blocks on a series of barns that are on a walking or driving trail, the quilt patterns don't have to only be on bars, it can be on the side of any building the quilter sees fit to put them on.

Since the barn quilt project, many quilt trails have been launched, these works of art have brought serious tourism boosts to rural communities....

Hello everybody,

As we are in the month of June, the second workshop is out, it is about the Sawtooth Star.

Amongst the MEET THE STAR theme, I did a first workshop about the Ohio Star, and here is the second workshop to go on playing with the star shape blocks.

In this workshop, you will learn how to play with the center square by introducing 4 patch and 6 patch designs.

The workshop is also about the 5 different techniques that are available to make the flying geese on the sides.

To find out more, the information page is available here: Sawtooth Star Information

I am sure that you will have fun discovering new ways to use the Sawtooth Star.

Enjoy this new workshop,

Emmanuelle