‘Round the Block with Sara
Well it’s been a long time coming but my new website is finally here and along with it comes my new blog. I am very excited about the launch of my new site as it will finally let me share all the exciting things that I’m doing and all the things that my Sew Inspired Design System can do for you. I have been working on this site for a long time myself and finally realized that there are certain things that I can do well and certain things that I need to leave to those who know what they are doing. Websites and Marketing are best left to experts in that field. So I want to thank Tim Haak at Mile 6 Web Design for all his help getting the site finished and working for me.
One of the things that I can do well is teach and inspire other quilters how to expand their creativity which is what I plan to write lots about in my blog. In 2004 when I first design the Spinning Pinwheel templates for a class I was teaching in the New England area, I never dreamed that a simple block design would turn into a complete template system nor did I ever imagine that I would create an entire business that would stem from that single quilt block. However, that is exactly what happened. I thought since I was launching this entire new website, it would be good to give you a bit of history on how this all began and why I created the Sew Inspired Design System.
In 2002, I was working as a Creative Consultant for Pfaff Sewing Machines, which was a dream job for me at the time, and is the reason I was able to start this business. As a Creative Consultant, it was my job to inspire and teach consumers how to use their home sewing machines to their full capacity and help the find creative ideas for sewing project that would help sell sewing machines and notions. This picture is of the first Spinning Pinwheel quilt that I ever made. Prior to this quilt, the first art quilt that I ever made was to prepare for a class at The Original Sewing & Quilting Expo in Wooster MA that I was asked to teach for Pfaff. They gave me the book Strips & Curves by Louisa Smith and asked me to teach a class based on her templates. That was the first time I had ever used templates and it was the first time I had ever done any curve piecing for a quilt. I quickly learned the pitfalls of using templates and of making quilts with curved pieced blocks. I will discuss those pitfalls and what I learned very quickly about templates and curved piecing in my next blog entry.
For my first few classes I had to have my students make their own templates out of cardboard or template plastic which took up so much time in the class that they weren’t able to finish their projects and no one ever like taking workshop and not finishing the quilts, right? One of the comments that repeatedly came up on the class evaluation form was the students didn’t like making their own templates in the class. I had an AHA moment and I got the bright idea of have acrylic templates made for the student in my classes, which is how this whole business got started.
