Building the Empire: Fun Book News

So I walked into a quilt shop on Saturday and I met a

quilter who has my book in her hand and she is buying 

fabric to make the Beach House quilt,  I walked a bit

 further into the shop and met another quilter who has

made the Colonial Saltbox quilt from my book, and she

only bought the book last week!

Oh yeah, that felt awesome...

When we compare the quilt to my quilt from 

the book we see this quilter has decided to use

only 3 fabrics.  In the original I used 8 different

cheddar fabrics in the center checkerboard area

and then used those fabrics in the corners as 

well.  I think it is great when quilters make a 

quilt their own.  I always tell students to 

remember this is their quilt and they can make

changes to suit their tastes.

This quilt design started when I bought this

roll of cheddars.  I knew I wanted to use all

of the fabrics in one quilt.  I had seen a game

board when I was visiting Colonial Williamsburg

and thought it would make a great quilt, so 

using these 2 things as inspiration, a new quilt

design was born.  This was the quilt I used

to show a sample chapter in my book proposal

and it was what shaped the idea for...

... my book, American Homestead Quilts.

The Colonial Saltbox quilt was the first 

quilt I made for the book and then I went

forward to design 8 other quilts inspired

by iconic American homes.

This is another version of the quilt using

a more scrappy style.  I think I may have

to make this one, I rather like it.

If you should spot my book out there in a

quilt shop, book store or library, please take

a picture and send it to me.  Or, if you or

someone you know has made one of the 

quilts, by all means, let me see it!  It is one

of the joys of being a designer to see how

someone else interprets your design!