Several Updates

I think we're in the need for an update post today! There has been a whole lot going on, both online and offline that I'd love to share with you:

First off, last month I did an interview about Release Your Light for the Alliance for American Quilts. An old friend from the Asheville Quilt Guild came to Shelby and interviewed me about creating this quilt and my quilting history.


Click Here to read the full interview. Remember this transcribed from an conversion, so if it seems to be a big mass of run-on sentences, that's just the way I talk!

This interview is apart of a program called Quilter's Save Our Stories. This program "creates, through recorded interviews, a broadly accessible body of information concerning quiltmaking, both present-day and in living memory, for scholarship and exhibition." (A.A.Q)

This is an ongoing project and you can get involved! Click here to learn more about the Save Our Stories program and see a list of all the new quilts recently added to the archive.


Now lets get an update on the Beginner Free Motion Quilting Fillers DVD.

I know I had sworn this would be a quick project, finishing up easily in July, but that lets you know just how blindly optimistic I can be!

There have been a few setbacks and I finally bit the bullet and hired a professional to help me produce the master DVD.

The great news is this will speed all my future DVD projects up by quite a margin, but of course the bad news is we had to figure everything out about what file types to use, how to send them, and what looks best all with this project!

So it's taken longer than expected, but I'd rather take a bit longer to produce it and end up with a high quality, long lasting DVD, than a project I'm embarrassed by in 2 years.

Today I'm busy reproducing the files into another, higher quality file type and will send them to my DVD person this evening. I'm hoping to have the master disc sometime next week and to officially launch the DVD by mid-August.


Since I've updated you all on the DVD status, I should probably also mention how the Beginner book, From Daisy to Paisley is going.

Back in June I asked for opinions on what everyone was looking for in a small, pocket sized quilting book. It seems everyone was really excited about the idea, but price was the most important factor. My goal is now to create a book of 50 designs for $12.99.

So I spent several days searching and reading about self publishing a small book and finally found decided to use a professional printing service instead of lulu.com.

Now the finished book size will be 5.5" x 8.5" and feature 4 inch photos of each design, along with "how to stitch" information.

But of course, once I found my printer, I still had to write the book! In between finishing Shadow Self and My Cup Runneth Over, blogging, traveling, and working on the DVD there hasn't been much time.

I've also had a bit of a mental block about the project simply because it felt so huge. Even 50 designs feels like an overwhelming undertaking. What will I do when I start working on the big 365 design book at the end of this whole project?

Finally I decided that was a question I could answer on another day and right now the book project is halfway done. The 72 pages are laid out and formatted, so all it needs is the photos of each design, a few graphic illustrations, and of course the instructions on quilting each design.

I'm planning to get back to work on the book this weekend and aim to publish sometime in September or October.


So that's it for this update day! I'm off to get back to work on all these projects and hopefully get upstairs to quilt on the new machine by the end of the day.

Let's go quilt!

Leah Day