Secret Stuff for 1 out of 20 people

I'm going to start today by sharing what I love most.  I love to quilt and I love to research. I'm not a writer and I don't have a bubbly personality.  Rather I love to create things and I've always wondered if I could start a business making this craft or that.  I used to send my children out canvasing door to door in our neighborhood selling crafts just to see if they were salesworthy projects. ( Is it any  wonder that 4 of my children are now good salespeople. ) 

I was an accountant/CPA  (they come with a dry personality) and I would spend my time costing out my projects.  I wanted to know if there was really any money to be made once I added up my hours to make the project plus all the dollars I spent on craft supplies.

And this is where the research comes in.  I would search for anyone making similar projects and how they made theirs to see how mine compared.  And how much were they selling theirs for!  That was usually the death of my projects.  I wasn't willing to work for 10 cents an hour just to say I sold  something.   

So what is today's research? 

Do you know that 1 out of 20 Americans quilt.   That's 16 million active quilters according to the 2014 research numbers that were released. And they spend $3.76 billion a year on quilting. Whether times are good or bad, quilters quilt.  Quilting is not an optional hobby.

Can you guess how many sewing machines the average quilter owns?  How many do you have?  More on the answer to this later.  

Secret stuff 

I haven't had much to write about for a long time because most of my new quilts were secret.  That is to say, they will be released either when the new fabric comes out or (ring the bells here) when our book is released from C & T Publishers.   Yes, that's right, my daughter, Yvette Marie Jones and I are co-authoring a book thru Stash Quilts.  We are quite excited.  The first draft is almost finished.  

I am working on 2 of the quilts for the book right now.  I can give you a sneak peak at the fabrics I used.  I fell in love with both of them when I saw them.

The first is "Henna" from Makower UK.  

The second is "Modern Folkloric" also by Makower UK.

I also have 3 new patterns being released soon by both Riley Blake Designs and Andover Fabrics - I will show them to you as soon as I can.

I was reading about Indie Pattern Designers on Craftsy today.  I found a great article in Forbes magazine touting the niche that Craftsy is filling for our craft community.  

I do sell patterns on Craftsy as Pink Hippo Quilts and they are doing very well.  I am very happy about that.  Take a look at our Evening Stars pattern.

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