Consider Etsy, Threadless, and my new love, Spoonflower (I’ve intentionally linked to content related to me). All of these sites offer content that the site owners have not created, and which they do not pay for. Users create content, and upload it to the site. This content is then offered for sale to other users.

At this point, the sites listed above differ — Etsy charges a per-item listing fee, and a percentage is taken by Etsy and PayPal from every sale, but the shop owner gets most of the money. On Threadless, in order for one user-designer’s work to be turned into a T-shirt, it must receive enough votes from other user-designers. If it does, the designer is paid $2000+. On Spoonflower, the designer receives 10% of the cost of yardage sold. Contest winners earn store credit.

I love being able to share my designs and crafts with the world via the internet, without having to create or purchase my own shopping cart system, silkscreens, digital fabric printer, t-shirt blanks, or do much marketing (though marketing on my own definitely helps). But I am now more aware of the economics involved in these transactions.

Every time you comment on a blog, write a blog post, review your Amazon.com purchase, or critique something on Yelp, you are being a prosumer too.

The picture doesn’t show it, but one side of these trivets now features a silver crow silhouette. Snazzy.

Today I edited this site’s front page, adding links to Facebook and Ravelry. I realized I hadn’t updated my Ravelry queue in a while — so I did that too. I’m currently working on the scarf seen above. It’s about 6 inches wide, and will eventually be about twice as long as it is now. It’s a pretty easy pattern, and it’s helping me become an expert in kfb (a method of increasing stitches, by knitting into the same stitch twice).

Since I last posted, my daughter Kalena celebrated her first birthday! We had a very nice time in a local park.

Coming up in July, I’ll be attending my 20th high school reunion. I’m leaving my daughter overnight for the first time! I can’t believe it’s taken more than a year for this to happen, but in truth I haven’t had any compelling reason to travel anywhere yet this year. I look forward to the trip, but I know I’ll miss her and my husband.

Also since I posted last, the summer issue of Knitcircus Magazine has gone live! We also recently launched the Pattern Shop — now you can purchase selected individual patterns after the issue is retired.

Click here for the sign-up form.

And bear with me… I’m new at news!

storylinedesign
glitterworkshop
prettifications
whimsyhouse
thepainteddaisy
littledande
spaceoddities
theapple
helenmarybeck
baretree
haleystudio (that’s me)
daisypetaldesigns
berniesgirl
oddstuffbyxanthe

See the cool and uber-easy pattern here:

Gathered Scarf for your Mother-in-Law (or not)

Now I just need to go through my stash for some fingering-weight…

Audition fonts and choose the font (I chose one similar to Futura).

Figure out the block dimensions.  To end up with a toddler-bed quilt size I chose a finished alphabet block size of 5.25″ x 8.25″.  I will have 30 blocks: the English alphabet plus 4 animals.

Print the letters out on scratch paper so they will fit comfortably on a square. 

Work out the tone scheme (light, medium, dark) in a sketch.

Decide on colors: I chose green, brown, beige, purple, and some misc. floral and wacky patterns.

Audition fabrics for backgrounds and narrow down selection.

Match fabrics to tone groups and choose backgrounds for each quilt square.  Wash your fabric if it hasn’t been washed before.  I’m using only my stash (except for the borders & backing) so everything’s been washed already.

Rough-cut all the backgrounds.  I made a template out of some mat board so I could quickly determine whether a given scrap of fabric was large enough to be a square.

Don’t cut precisely yet — edges may fray with too much handling, and you want enough excess fabric to fit into an embroidery hoop.  This is a good stage to swap out backgrounds that you are unsure about.

I decided not to use some of my wackier fabrics (like the large green fish on a white background); they were just a bit out of scale with the rest of my patterns, and their tones and colors didn’t blend smoothly.  I’ll have to find some other project where they’ll work better.

Choose the foreground fabric to match each background piece, following the quilt tone layout.

Rough-cut each foreground fabric to the shape of the letter, and pin once to the background fabric so they don’t get separated.

Now it’s time to sew!

Make a sandwich of the foreground fabric (right side facing the muslin), a piece of muslin, and the paper letter (printed side up).

Sew through the whole sandwich, following the printed letter outline.

Note: for letters with “holes” such as Q, O, A, B, P, etc, only sew along the outer edge.

Carefully rip off the paper.  Cut away excess  seam allowance.  Cut a small hole in the muslin and turn the letter inside out.  Voila!  While you’re working on the other letters, just pin once again to your background.

When they’ve all been sewn and turned, pin a letter to the center of your background and sew down.  I sewed each letter by hand using blind stitch.

Cut all the blocks to size.  I used an Olfa rotary cutter and self-healing mat, and I made my large clear ruler into a jig.

Next, draw designs for the four extra blocks — I chose a cat, fish, lizard and butterfly. I forgot how much I like drawing!  You could also choose a heart, star, building blocks, log cabin squares, or any other applique or quilt pattern you like.

Your extra blocks could fit into the same tone scheme as the rest of the quilt (I hope mine do) or you could make them stand out.

That’s how far I’ve gotten so far!  I started on February 10th and have been working pretty steadily.

Next:

Sew blocks together into rows

Sew rows together into quilt top

Add border(s) and corner blocks

Trip to the fabric store for backing & to find long-arm quilting service

Sign and date

Finish!