Oh, I’ve heard this expression before, but never heard it used by fiber artists until I attended the Open House @ SEFAA over the weekend. SEFAA is an alliance of the sewing, quilting, spinning, weaving, knitting and any other fiber related folks in the Atlanta area. The different organizations that make up SEFAA held live demonstrations on Sunday afternoon and the public was invited.  I was fascinated by the nuno (laminate) felting demonstration that greeted me as I walked in the door. The artist exhibiting has her work in the American Craft Council Shows (she’s that good).  But anyway, it was during the demo chitchat that another fiber felter made the comment about how she felt she’d finally found her tribe at SEFAA simply because there weren’t that many felting artists around.

I can so totally relate.  In my day job as a librarian, I am often the only one in the school building. Sometimes I’m fortunate to be assigned a parapro with actual library experience and that definitely makes the job more enjoyable. I attend most, if not all, inservice meetings, mainly so I can be with my tribe (or fellow librarians).

It’s the same with quilting. Until our move two years ago, I was an active part of two very different quilt guilds. One is simply too far away. The other guild changed the meeting schedule and it conflicts with my weekend therapy dog visits. It’s a choice I made to do therapy dog work over quilt guild meetings (and I’d do it again), but I sorely miss my quilty peeps.

So now the search is on for a nearby quilt guild, especially since I moved the day job closer to home.  I discovered that one group actually meets at SEFAA, so I’ll probably be there on Thursday.

When a designer develops a new knitting, sewing or quilting pattern to bring to the marketplace, they generally enlist the help some pattern testers and a pattern editor.

The testers follow the steps exactly as written by the designer and construct a sample project from beginning to end. Feedback is sent to the designer who then incorporates the suggestions into a draft that is then sent on to the pattern editor.

The primary goal of a pattern editor is to make sure that the pattern designer’s instructions MAKE SENSE!

As a pattern editor, I check 3 areas:

(1) Grammar, spelling and punctuation;
(2) Sequence, flow and wording of the designer’s directions and visuals aids (plus I check math calculations); and
(3) Overall presentation against the master style sheet (font choice & size, vocabulary, format, etc.).

For a new pattern designer, a large chunk of time is spent developing a style sheet – or what do they want the final product to look like? A pattern appearing in a quilt magazine will look different from a printed pattern purchased at the local quilt shop.  You have to make certain to follow the publisher’s guidelines.

Once all of these decisions are made, the bulk of my time is focused on the instructional aspect of the pattern. I print out a hard copy of the pattern draft and go through it line by line with a colored pen.  Depending on the designer, I will either make edits to a Word file using the track changes feature, or simply scan and email my handwritten notes as a pdf attachment. Occasionally, I will make a sample block just to check things. The designer and I may go through this back and forth process 2-3 times before we declare it “done.” Usually, the final pass is just a quick once over before the pattern goes out for publication.

I always keep in mind that this the designer’s pattern – not mine. They may accept all, some or none of my suggested changes. My goal is to help the designer sell cute patterns with well-written instructions. It’s a win-win for both of us. The more patterns she sells, the more likely she is to develop future patterns and hire me again as her pattern editor.

If you’d like to see the results of my most recent collaboration check-out Summercrafter’s patterns.

P.S. The reason for all of this is that I downloaded a supposedly “absolute beginner kid-friendly project” to make as a sample for our upcoming kid’s sewing camp and I now have to re-write half of the directions. I have been sewing for 30+ years off and on and I couldn’t figure out the construction method featured in the project directions. Someone call a pattern editor stat!!

Due to my new job, I am unable to accept any custom quilt projects until October.  Customers with  quilts currently on the schedule will be completed/delivered as we discussed. Quilt Camp for Kids is still on at Stitch N Quilt for July 14-17. My Etsy shop is currently in vacation mode, but will be reopened once my ready to ship items are uploaded.

Thanks for the opportunity to serve you.

Teresa