March 29, 2024

My First Quilt with Sarah Goer

It's the last Friday of the month, which means it's time for another My First Quilt interview! Today Sarah Goer is sharing the story of her first quilt with us. Sarah is a quilter, artist, and teacher who helps quilters learn improv piecing skills.
My First Quilt with Sarah Goer | DevotedQuilter.com
You can connect with Sarah at her website, on Instagram, and on Facebook.

And now, here is Sarah's first quilt! Isn't it pretty? I may have laughed when I first saw it, though, because the colours are not at all what I would expect to see from Sarah (and you'll learn why below) 😄
My First Quilt with Sarah Goer | DevotedQuilter.com

What year did you make your first quilt? What prompted you to make it?


2002. Post-college we had two family friends who were avid quilters. I was drawn in to the geometry and color of quilting.

What techniques were used in that first quilt? Did you quilt it yourself?


My first quilt had four 9-patch blocks set on point. I quilted it myself with stitch in the ditch straight line quilting. I'm pretty sure I didn't even have a walking foot yet then.
My First Quilt with Sarah Goer | DevotedQuilter.com

Who taught you to make the quilt?


I already knew how to sew and I borrowed books from a family friend quilter to learn how to make a quilt. The patterns I used for my first two quilts were out of the book Quilting for Dummies. For years I was convinced that the pattern was incorrect on my first quilt and that's why I lost all my points, but I eventually realized it was probably because my 1/4" seam allowance wasn't super accurate.
My First Quilt with Sarah Goer | DevotedQuilter.com

Are the colours you chose for your first quilt ones you would still choose today?


Oh no! I think I was using a lot of fabric that my mother had on hand, so my first couple quilts were much more her colors - dusty rose and country blue. My first project featured a large print floral background in those colors and I chose solid or near solids for the rest of the fabrics.
My First Quilt with Sarah Goer | DevotedQuilter.com

Did you fall in love with quilting right away? Or was there a gap between making the first quilt and the next one?


Right away. I started my second quilt before I finished the first one. That began a long chain of having multiple projects in the works at once.

Where is the quilt now?


I gave my first quilt to my mother. It is a small table topper that matched her aesthetic. That quilt is back in my possession now. In a closet. Because it really does not match my aesthetic.


Is there anything you wish you could go back and tell yourself as you made that first quilt?


I guess since I was striving for precision, I could give my past self some tips on that front. And I had no idea at the time that quilting would be a lifelong passion and eventually a business for me.


Anything else you want to share about your first quilt?


It was the first quilt I started, but the second quilt I finished. I've included a picture of my "second" quilt as well since it was officially the first quilt I finished.
My First Quilt with Sarah Goer | DevotedQuilter.com

Thanks for sharing your first quilts with us, Sarah! I loved seeing how you got started quilting ❤

March 25, 2024

What Is Our Default?

Devotion for the week...

One day last week, I read 1 John 3:17, which says, "If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?" There's so much to think about in that one sentence!

John creates a kind of hypothetical person for us to imagine. John doesn't say this person is wealthy, but that they have enough money to live well. I take that to mean a person who isn't just barely scraping by; it's someone who can pay the bills and put food on the table. They may not have enough to go on fancy vacations, or be always shopping for new clothes, but they have the resources to meet their needs. By that definition, most of us likely have enough money to live well. Is that how we feel about our financial situation?

Then this person sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion. There might be a lot of reasons why one person might not reach out to help another. Maybe they don't feel like they have enough to be able to share (entirely possible if they're only just paying their own bills), maybe they don't feel the other person is deserving (why aren't they working?), or maybe they're focused on trying to reach some goal of their own and giving to someone else would set them back (saving for a big purchase, for example). Whatever the reason, John's hypothetical person sees the need, but chooses not to help meet that need.

If you're like me, you've seen needs you didn't try to meet because of those reasons I mentioned and more. Sometimes we end up feeling like we can't possibly meet all the needs around us, so we block them out. 

Then John asks a question - how can God's love be in that person? Ouch! That really packs a punch, doesn't it?

John follows his question with an exhortation: "Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions" (v. 18).
Is our default position one of reaching out to help others | DevotedQuilter.com
I don't think John was saying that not meeting every need around us means that God's love isn't in us. I think he was trying to prompt us to think about how we live, and how we see the needs of others. Is our default position one of reaching out to help others, or one of hoarding and saving for ourselves? And if we don't reach out to help by default, how could we change that, to make our actions reflect the love of God?

March 21, 2024

TGIFF - Pattern Cover Redesign

Welcome to this week's TGIFF party! Today I have a different finish to share, one that involved time at my computer rather than my sewing machine, but it is quilt related.

In November 2018, I released Love Birds and Churn as my first printed patterns. At the time, I really liked how the covers looked, but over the past year or two, I've been wanting to redesign them. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure how I wanted them to look. I also knew I wanted to update my logo first, so I could add the logo to the cover, but I wasn't sure how I wanted that to look either. That meant that for a long time, nothing got done.

Then last month I finally updated my logo, so it was time to tackle the pattern covers! For reference, here's how my patterns look now.
Scrappy Playground quilt pattern cover | DevotedQuilter.com
And here's how they'll look going forward. I love that it looks more sleek and modern than my existing covers do.
Illusion quilt pattern cover | DevotedQuilter.com
I create my patterns in Microsoft Publisher, and one day last week I noticed there's a place to click to open up a menu of "page parts." When I clicked on it, I found all kinds of already created things that could be added to a document, including the header I ended up using for the pattern title. I had to tweak it a little, removing some parts I didn't need, but I love the blocks of colour, which I can change to match each cover quilt. Finding that menu of 'page parts' gave me exactly the starting point I needed to get moving. 

I'm working now on getting my three most recent patterns ready to send to the printer (Illusion, Merry Mini, and Hot and Cold). Those three quilts feature very different colour palettes, so I'm looking forward to seeing them all printed together. Case in point, here's how the redesigned cover looks for Hot and Cold. I love how they're the same, but different.
Hot and Cold quilt pattern cover | DevotedQuilter.com
By the way, these patterns are all available in my shop along with a whole lot more 😉

Once these three are sent to the printer, I need to work on updating the existing pattern covers, too. This kind of feels like an "If you give a mouse a cookie" moment...If you update your logo, it'll be time to update your pattern covers. And if you update your pattern covers, you'll need to print new covers for your existing patterns. With 30 patterns already available in print, it'll take a little while to get them all switched over.

In the meantime, I'm celebrating having the cover redesign finalized. What finish are you celebrating this week? Link it up below, then visit some of the other links to celebrate their finishes, too.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter