Category Archives: designing

Closing Time

Dear friends, in case you missed my last video, this was my big announcement: I will be closing up the Sewhooked Pattern shop, hosted on Etsy, on December 31st.

I’ve had a blast designing and selling over the years. I registered Sewhooked as a business back in 2006 and I’ve been working at it ever since. I’ve sold patterns to magazines, & websites, but most of all, I’ve sold them independently through a changing landscape of internet sales and to a variety of quilt stores.

A lot has changed, both personally and in the quilting world, since I first started in this business as an independent designer. What has become increasingly clear to me is that it’s time for me to move on to other adventures. I’m not leaving quilting or crafting, but I am closing up shop and will no longer be actively designing and I will no longer be selling patterns. There are lots of reasons, some of which I talk about on last week’s Talk to Me Tuesday.

Some important points: I’m not “leaving” or going away. Sewhooked.com will continue to exist and will still be a quilt and craft blog, but it will no longer be a business.

My free patterns, including all of those on Fandom In Stitches, will continue to be available. I will still run fandominstitches.com, but will be looking for more help to keep the website up-to-date and the Facebook communities blossoming.

2020 will be a year for contemplating what’s next and how to best be the person I choose to be.

Now through noon on December 31, 2019 is your last chance to purchase the patterns listed in my shop.

Thanks for the love and support all the years! 💜

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Posts on this blog may contain affiliate links. Thank you for your support. ♥

New Pattern – Frosted Firs

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I debuted Frosted Firs in yesterday’s Talk to Me Tuesday because I just couldn’t wait for the official pattern release!

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Frosted Firs was inspired by my family’s winter trip to Utah in January 2017. We rarely get winter weather in Austin, and snow was high on my adult children’s wish list. There is a point when they don’t really need “stuff” anymore, so we gave them a snowy experience instead!

The Frosted Firs block can be paper pieced as a 6” block or as a 12” block.

Quilt instructions & fabric amounts are included in the document to make the 46″ x 64″ quilt shown here. Quilt layout uses the 12″ version of the block.

Bonus updated version of Holiday House to mix & match with Frosted Firs.

Frosted Firs is a very versatile block and can be mixed & matched any way you choose for a variety of fun wintery finishes!

The pattern includes a 6″ & 12″ pattern for Frosted Firs, quilt instructions for a 46″ x 64″ quilt using the 12″ pattern, a coloring page, more idea suggestions, and an updated version of Holiday House as a bonus. The complete pattern is $4.95 and is available on either Craftsy or Etsy.

★ Frosted Firs on Craftsy ★

★ Frosted Firs on Etsy ★

Members of the Sewhooked Patreon Pattern Club should already have a copy in their inboxes. Thank you so much for your support!

★

Join the Sewhooked Facebook Group for community, support & prizes! I’ll be there, as will many other friends of Sewhooked. We’ll answer your questions and nudge you along if you need it. Joining the group is never required, but it is fun!

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Posts on this blog contain affiliate links. Thank you for your support. ♥

Jack and Few Other Thing

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Union Jack

5″ x 8″ paper pieced

a free pattern designed for Fandom In Stitches

One of the great joys of running a fandom website like Fandom In Stitches is the never ending variety of requests. On any given day, there are over 100 requests in the spreadsheet that the FiS Designers share.

This freebie is one such pattern.

I have to admit, the Union Jack, as well as a whole slew of other flags, is included in the patterns that come with EQ7, the design software that I use to design most of my patterns. There are actually a ton of patterns in the software that can be used, adapted, etc. What I did with this was to change the size, color and number the pattern and make it available as a PDF so it’s free and easy to use.

The Union Jack is just the tip of the iceberg for my recent free design work. I’ve been furiously going through my older patterns and updating them one at a time. You’ll find those under Free Patterns with the notation “updated 2014.”

I started designing at the end of 2004 or so, and many of my patterns haven’t been updated since then. Back in those days, I drew everything out in Photoshop. Those early patterns are still quite usable, but they aren’t as clean and easy to read as my current patterns. I suppose it’s obvious to say that I’ve improved a lot in the ten years I’ve been designing quilt patterns! With that in mind, I’m updating everything to fit with my current style and to make it much easier for you to use.

Here are just a few of the updates you’ll find. Click on the image to go to the pattern. For even more updates, check out Free Patterns . These will also be added to Craftsy, as time permits.

There are more pattern updates on the way, posted as I have time to get them online!

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If you love my free patterns, then I’d ask if you’d very kindly considering buying a pattern or two from my Craftsy shop. Selling patterns is how I am able to continue to do and share all the things I do and I appreciate each and every sale!

Share your projects made from any Sewhooked pattern with the Sewhooked flickr group in September, including Paper Piecing Vintage, and you’ll be entered to win a free copy of Sunbonnet Sue’s Magical Friends, Set 1: Monster Madness. The set includes 5″ patterns for all the classic monsters shown…just in time for Halloween!

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Paper Piecing Vintage – August

College Days Blog Hop – GO TEAM!

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Welcome, College Days blog hoppers! Enjoy the free pattern shared here today and make sure to read through to the end to find out how to win a free pattern set from my Craftsy shop!

Go Team - Finished Block

Go Team! (free pattern)

or…get it on Craftsy (also free!)

a 10″ pattern to paper piece

The College Days blog hop comes at a time when we’re just a few weeks away from my own daughter returning to her university for her second full year of college studies.

We live in Texas, and the fall in Texas means football. I’m a high school marching band mom and I won’t lie, I’m not much of a sports fan…I attend games for the music!

Anyway, while thinking about how to tackle this pattern, one thing kept coming back to me: the university bunting I myself hung on my wall while in college. All universities have a team of some variety, whether it be football, baseball, rugby or quidditch!

Need some help with paper piecing?

Check out my FREE full-length paper piecing workshop!

Go Team - Close Up

Go Team in UNT Mean Green colors. Caw!

The are the colors of my alma mater, Sul Ross State University!

This is for The University of Texas, my hubby’s favorite.

Go Team - Hogwarts Colors

My brilliant friend and faithful pattern tester, Amber, suggested that this design would be perfect in Hogwarts House colors. She is, of course, absolutely right!

As a special bonus, leave a comment letting me know your favorite university team or alma mater for a chance to win a free copy of my Holly Jolly pattern set! Already own Holly Jolly or would prefer something else? The winner can choose any other pattern or patterns of equivalent value from my Craftsy shop!

While you’re here, I’d like to invite you to a couple of events going on right now!

Join me and lots of other quilters for Paper Piecing Vintage! Registration for the entire year is just $12. That’s 12 patterns in two sizes (plus the occasional bonus!), entirely paper pieced for one awesome price! All patterns for the year to date are included when you download. Upcoming patterns will be added for you to download the first of each month in 2014.

On my fandom website, Fandom In Stitches, every Wednesday into September, we invite designers of all experience levels to join us to design patterns for a new theme and help bring fun, free, fandom-themed patterns to our quilting community!

Last, but not least, the chance to win another prize! This month, ALL photos of projects made from Sewhooked patterns, including Paper Piecing Vintage and College Days, that are shared with the Sewhooked flickr group will be entered to win a copy of my pattern Topsy-Turvy Trees!

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Featured Pattern: Wee Lil’ Penguin (2 sizes, paper pieced), just $2.95!

Okay, fandom? Okay.

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TFiOS Okay? Okay. a free fandom pattern by Jennifer Ofenstein

Also on the Fiction & Literature page on Fandom In Stitches

I get a lot of emails from readers of both Sewhooked & Fandom in Stitches and one of the comments I receive more than any other is “why aren’t your fandom patterns on Sewhooked?”

Well, isn’t that a good question?

Back in 2012, I split Sewhooked in two when I established Fandom in Stitches. My collection of fandom patterns designed by myself and my friends had grown so huge that it was actually crashing my website. After a lot of rearranging, I eventually decided that those fandom patterns needed a home of their own.

Everything that was Harry Potter Paper Piecing, the Twilight Block of the Month (designed by Cat Magraith), and a slew of other fandom-themed patterns by both myself and my designer friends were the beginning of Fandom in Stitches.

When I split Sewhooked, I moved all those fandom patterns to make Sewhooked friendlier and easier to navigate. The unanticipated side effect is that you, my beloved and loyal readers, often don’t realize that I design for more than one website, so when I share a pattern like The Fault In Our Stars: Okay? Okay. (above), you may never see it.

10″ TARDIS

also on the Doctor Who page on Fandom In Stitches

So, by popular request, I have compiled my collection of fandom-themed patterns designed by me and put them together on their own page here on Sewhooked!

Each and every one is absolutely free for your personal & non-profit use.

Harry Potter Patterns on Sewhooked

Find more Harry Potter on Fandom In Stitches

Find my free fandom patterns and many more by other excellent designers on fandominstitches.com. All patterns are absolutely free. All we ask in return is that you use them for personal & non-profit use only. We wouldn’t say no to sharing your photos either!

I love to share free patterns and continue to do so by your generous support of my Craftsy shop. Thank you so much for shopping Sewhooked and supporting Indie Designers. 😀

Share your Paper Piecing Vintage photos with the Sewhooked flickr group for a chance to win fun prizes all year long. The May prize includes the bundle of fabric and two Sewhooked-themed pin back buttons above! Winner to be chosen Monday, June 2, 2014.

Need some help with paper piecing? Check out my FREE full-length workshop.

Featured pattern: Runic Alphabet, now just $9 on Craftsy!

How to Add & Sell a Pattern on Craftsy

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Hi there Sewhooked friends!

As you probably know by now, I am an independant pattern designer, sharing patterns both here and on Fandom In Stitches, selling on Etsy and Craftsy and with the occasional pattern published in a magazine.

While I started designing years before Craftsy existed, it is the existence of Craftsy that kicked my ability to design and share both my free and for sale patterns to a wider crafty audience. What is most helpful to me as an indie designer with limited resources is that Craftsy is free for me to use. FREE. If you are a Designer, you know how hard it can be to scrape a living selling patterns. There are a million patterns online and many, many of them free. Making money in this industry is hard, but thanks to Craftsy, it’s a little bit easier and I can keep on doing what I love.

Without Craftsy, I would not had a venue for Paper Piecing Vintage, the 2014 Sewhooked Block of the Month, an event that I’ve not only loved creating but, here’s that word again, sharing!

Many of my readers are also Designers and I know at least a few of you lovely people that have indicated you would like to share your patterns but you don’t know where to start. I have some super useful information directly from Craftsy that will help you get started!

Want to design, but don’t know where to start?

We have some great resources over on Fandom In Stitches to help get you going!

I’d like to add that you do not have to sell patterns on Craftsy to share patterns. You can opt to share patterns for free. For my Designer friends that work on fandom patterns, FREE is always your best choice. Keep in mind the moment you start selling fandom-related patterns, you violate laws surrounding derivative work and risk copyright infringement.

Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which means I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking through.

In addition to wonderful online courses and craft supplies, Craftsy also has an independent online pattern store that lets anyone upload and sell downloadable e-patterns with no fee!

How do you add a pattern to Craftsy and start your pattern store? It’s easy!

1. Make sure you have a Paypal account. All pattern transactions happen through Paypal, and Craftsy requires that you have a Student, Premier, or Business account in order to sell patterns.
2. Put your pattern in .pdf format. You can’t upload any patterns to the online pattern store unless they’re a .pdf file format, so if they’re currently saved as a Word doc, .jpg, or other file format, you must convert it to a .pdf before you upload it to Craftsy. (See Fandom In Stitches for some easy ways to do this.)
3. Include a photo. All patterns must have at least one photo to accompany them, but you can add up to five photos. Colorful, interesting photos tend to work the best for catching our members’ eyes!
4. Fill out the pattern description. We will ask you some basic questions around your pattern making it easier for Craftsy folk to find your pattern and know what your pattern is for. Make sure you have info about your pattern handy for this step.

For more information on how to sell a pattern through Craftsy, or to get started, visit Craftsy today!

Be sure to stop by Sewhooked on April 30 for a sneak peek of my block in the upcoming Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks and for a chance to win fun prizes!

PPV Prize April 2014

Share your Paper Piecing Vintage photos with the Sewhooked flickr group in April and you’ll have a chance to win a copy of Quilts From 100 Blocks, Fall 2013 (includes a pattern designed by me!) as well as copies of my patterns Poppies from the Past and My Kitchen Window!

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Featured Pattern: Bluebonnet to Hand Embroider, just $2 on Craftsy!

Name That Mustache – Mustachio!

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Welcome to the final Name That Mustache post!

It’s been a month of fabulous and funny mustache names!

Thank you to every single person that submitted a name. Whether your submission was chosen or not, I loved reading them all and sincerely appreciate your ideas!

Today, I have our Week 4 WINNERS to announce!

Each winner receives a free pdf copy of the mustache pattern he or she named, a free fat quarter and his or her name included in the new version of the pattern!

If you were chosen as a winner, please email sewhooked@gmail.com with your mailing address so you can receive your prizes.

In the case that a name was suggested more than once, the first commenter to suggest that name wins the prize.

Mustache #10 – “Reginald” – submitted by Gwen

Mustache #11 – “Clarke” – submitted by Michelle Thompson

Mustache #12 – “Gus” – submitted by Gwen (two in one week, way to go, Gwen!)

Get the entire Mustachio! set from my Craftsy shop!

Once I hear from today’s winners, Mustachio! will be updated with the winning names. If you purchase Mustachio! from Craftsy prior to the name update, you will receive a notification from Craftsy that the pattern has been updated.

Just want one mustache? For the first time ever, all twelve mustaches will be available for the first time ever! The first nine are already on Craftsy! The last three will be up as soon as I hear from the winners.

But hey, why not buy the whole shebang and help a good cause? During the month of November, I will donate $1 to Movember for the sale of each Mustachio! pattern set!

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite quilts during the Blogger’s Quilt Festival! You’ll find my entries under Wall Hangings and Bed Quilts.

Stay tuned for a Crafts of Halloweens Past flickr roundup and winner! Another big thanks for all of your recent participation! See you tomorrow for Talk To Me Tuesday!

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Featured Pattern: Turkey Talk, just $8 on Craftsy!

Learn to Paper Piece with Sweet Skating Sue!

Name That Mustache, Week 4!

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Welcome to the final week of Name That Mustache!

Thanks for stopping back by and for ALL the wonderful mustache names! Week three was just as fun as weeks one and two and I found it even harder to choose because all the names were just SO GOOD!

Before we move on the final three mustaches, I have our Week 3 WINNERS to announce!

Each winner receives a free pdf copy of the mustache pattern he or she named, a free fat quarter and his or her name included in the new version of the pattern!

If you were chosen as a winner, please email sewhooked@gmail.com with your mailing address so you can receive your prizes.

In the case that a name was suggested more than once, the first commenter to suggest that name wins the prize.

Mustache #7 – “Pierre” submitted by Roubaix

Mustache #8 – “Pops” submitted by Sandy A.

Mustache #9 – “Albert” submitted by Kelly

Congratulations and THANK YOU for the wonderful names!

And now, on to Week 4 of Name That Mustache!!

Name That Mustache is a weekly challenge for my readers throughout the month of October.

The rules are simple:

Share a name idea for one or more mustaches in each week’s post, making sure to include the mustache number.
Comments must be made on Sewhooked during that week’s post. For example Week 4 Mustache names must be commented on this post.
At the end of each week, I’ll pick my favorites and that will be the name of that mustache pattern!
Please do not use copyrighted names. If you’re not sure, just let me know.
The winners will receive a fat quarter, a free PDF copy of the mustache pattern he or she named AND I will include the winner as the namer on that pattern!

In November, Mustachio! will be updated and all of these fun mustaches will be available individually…for the first time ever! To celebrate and help a good cause, during the month of November, I will donate $1 to Movember for the sale of each Mustachio! pattern!

Enough talk, let’s get started…ready, set…GO!

Name these three mustaches in the comments for a chance to win: