This weekend, I went to Pinners Conference in Utah. I usually go just for Project Life, Wood Connection, and anything related to sewing. While there, I met Emily Taylor, who has designed several beautiful designs for Riley Blake Designs, a local fabric company. Emily totally changed my world, introducing me to this wonderfully exciting (and potentially addicting) website, PatternJam. PatternJam is a free website that allows you to design a custom quilt. You pick the block sizes, sashing size, and a border. As of right now, there's roughly 3000 fabrics you can choose from, and includes designs from Riley Blake, Moda, and Michael Miller.
Check out this video to get a more in-depth overview:
Doesn't it look like fun? I love that it's free! You should have seen my face as Emily walked me through the site. I was completely awe-struck! Here's a few of the designs I've made so far:
If you would like to try out PatternJam, click HERE to begin. It really is so easy and fun!
Here's another website I learned about from Emily: Black Bee Quilts. This website allows you to design a quilt and submit it. Emily's company will then print out the quilt in one piece and quilt it onto minky. You design your own quilt, and have it made without any insane math, and no piecing of tiny pieces. The best part is, you get a beautiful, high-quality quilt shipped to you in 7 days! How crazy is that?! I love it so much!
A concern is the cost. At Pinners Conf., Emily had a throw-size quilt on display she had made with her company as a promotion product. The regular cost of that quilt is $250. However, if you take into account the cost of fabric, the time for shopping, cutting, piecing together, and quilting the fabric, I personally believe the cost make up for itself! If you think of how much time it makes a quilt, and if you charged yourself minimum wage ($7.25 in Utah), you would be charging yourself roughly $217 just in labor costs! Like I said, having a quilt done by Black Bee Quilts pretty much pays for itself.
Black Bee Quilts is not yet up and running, but they're working on it. In the meantime, by signing up you get 10% off your first order. But, if you get 3 friends to sign up, you get 25% off! Click HERE to join up!
Good luck, and happy sewing (or designing)!
