Look what Myra found!Often we have been asked by friends, family, and fellow quilters if it is strange to see our names, and pictures in magazines. And the honest answer is no. It may be a surprise for our friends to open up a magazine and see us in it, but we are not surprised, because it was planned. We signed a contract, we made a project, we wrote and edit instructions, and we assisted the editors with any questions, so by the time we see our project on store shelves, it is almost an old hat for us.
However, this week I was surprised. While in a large chain store, I of course stopped by the magazine rack to see what was new, and what issues I didn’t already have. I was flipping through the latest issue of ‘Love of Quilting’ by Fons & Porter, when I was stopped in my tracks. There, on page 102 was a page of paisley fabric swatches, and among the 10 featured prints, 2 were ours. I was surprised how much seeing those two fabrics impacted me. It may seem silly, but it felt like a moment of acknowledgement. We work endless hours on projects, paperwork, and drawings, and to suddenly see two of our fabrics amongst so many other beautiful prints made me feel like the days we spent pouring over the small details of that print were suddenly worth it. It may be a surprise to many, but we actually do hand draw all of our designs, and hand detail all of the color placements in our prints. It can be a difficult task, but we want our designs to be produced by us NOT the work of an unknown artist who lets us put our name on their work.
And I also realized that there are pieces of our fabrics out there…and we will never see them, but they will be made into quilts, and treasured, and preserved. And someday I hope that our children and our grandchildren will see an old quilt somewhere, and find our fabrics used in it, and I hope they will be proud of who their grandmothers were.
However, this week I was surprised. While in a large chain store, I of course stopped by the magazine rack to see what was new, and what issues I didn’t already have. I was flipping through the latest issue of ‘Love of Quilting’ by Fons & Porter, when I was stopped in my tracks. There, on page 102 was a page of paisley fabric swatches, and among the 10 featured prints, 2 were ours. I was surprised how much seeing those two fabrics impacted me. It may seem silly, but it felt like a moment of acknowledgement. We work endless hours on projects, paperwork, and drawings, and to suddenly see two of our fabrics amongst so many other beautiful prints made me feel like the days we spent pouring over the small details of that print were suddenly worth it. It may be a surprise to many, but we actually do hand draw all of our designs, and hand detail all of the color placements in our prints. It can be a difficult task, but we want our designs to be produced by us NOT the work of an unknown artist who lets us put our name on their work.
And I also realized that there are pieces of our fabrics out there…and we will never see them, but they will be made into quilts, and treasured, and preserved. And someday I hope that our children and our grandchildren will see an old quilt somewhere, and find our fabrics used in it, and I hope they will be proud of who their grandmothers were.
~myra
