My friend Irene left a comment a couple of posts ago about my open notebook next to a block I had photographed, so I thought I would elaborate on it a bit.
Yes it is my ‘work-book’ and it is my life line when it comes to writing up a new quilt pattern, by the time I finish a quilt and then write the pattern I need this book in order to know what I did.
I usually start my design on EQ6…I have an idea in my head about what I want to make (usually heavily influenced by an antique quilt in a book) and on the computer I start playing around with blocks/settings/borders etc.
Of course, I can’t wait until the whole quilt is designed before I start sewing so I will often start trialing fabrics once I”ve decided on just the centre. I really just have to start sewing so I can see if I’m happy with the fabrics…there is a limit to what you can achieve on a computer and I just have to see it in the real…Now.
That’s where my work-book comes in, it’s nothing flash, just a school book available from any office supply shop.
Spirax 5 subject Note Book A4 No.P596 by Esselte
What I like about it is that it is divided into 5 sections and between each section is a double sided pocket, perfect for keeping templates or other relevant ‘stuff’ in so it doesn’t fall out.
Work Book Pocket, photo doesn't show very well that the pocket is coloured for easy reference.
In the photo below you can see the start of my Connecticut Quilt. I have been very organised and named the quilt but I have not put the date at the top…not good, I pledge to date the start of a project in the future.
You will notice WOF which is ‘shorthand to self’ meaning width of fabric, I always note how many units I can cut from 40″ (I allow 40″ to be safe even tho most fabric is 42″…you never know when you’re going to get a really deep selvedge and because I’m writing patterns, I would feel responsible if someone didn’t have enough). Tho actually, by the time I get to writing the pattern I will still allow a bit extrain the fabric requirements…just in case.
I paste the fabrics into the book, in this example it’s the eleven fabrics for the centre star and a note about how many diamonds I need from each fabric and how many across the WOF or in some cases a Fat 1/8.
Instructions for Connecticut Quilt centre.
At the moment I’m working on the Basket blocks which go around the centre star. I got back on EQ6 and fiddled about a bit until I was happy with the scale and that everything would fit and then noted and pasted in my book what I had come up with so now I can work off these notes and make corrections if necessary.
When I was at 6-midnight at Threadbear a couple of weeks ago I got all the basket ‘bottoms’ made and am now up to appliqueing the handles on to the triangles.
Instructions for Basket blocks, Connecticut Quilt.
If I can offer one piece of advice about using this method of note-taking it would be to always always always write the finished size of the block/unit (you know that means the size without a seam allowance don’t you). It’s the finished size you need to know in order to know that things will fit. Cutting sizes are clearly marked ‘cut’.
On another topic, I have been catching up with my customer’s quilts this week and have been ‘pedalling’ away at the Long-Arm machine like a woman possessed. I feel very virtuous.
Til soon…
Thanks for this post Margaret! I do my pattern drafting in a similar way but i have plastic folders for each project – only because i do so many I design at one time – if i had a notebook then i’d stress out about how many pages to give each quilt etc. (useless stressing of course). And yes i agree – i too work on the 40in width – just in case. But I will have to start using EQ5 and 6 more to help with the scale of blocks – so I may need to come back for some more lessons.
Irene