Inspired Creations By D - Moms Joy Fabric Wall Art E-Pattern

Of all my sister's wonderful wall art quilts I have to say that Moms Joy, shown above, is my favorite. Second to that is her Dads Tiger.

Of course, it's not hard to see why they would be my favorites.  Moms Joy was created in remembrance of our mother and Dads Tiger was created in remembrance of our Dad.

I think they both would be very proud of my sister's beautiful wall art quilts and very pleased with the designs she created for both of them.

Copyright © 2013 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Designed By Debbie Bohringer

How Can Small Business Artists and Crafters Not LOVE Pinterest?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have fallen in LOVE with Pinterest.com and have been in love with it for several months now.  If you haven't heard about the Pinterest.com phenomenon by now you certainly will be.  It is by far the most wonderful way to organize everything and anything about "you."

What moves you, what you like, what you're keeping tabs on, things you saw online that you want to remember, things you want to try in the future, places you've been, what you consider "beautiful", your creations, your interests, foods you like, websites you like, blogs you like, your dreams, future plans for a wedding, dream home, your decorating style, must haves, things you'd like to make, inspirations, DIY projects to try, tips for everything and anything, tutorials to try, your bucket list, beautiful pictures, beautiful colors, things for your kids, nature at its finest, beautiful animals, decorations for the holidays, and your favorites - whether they are artists, crafters, movies, pictures, collections, music, recipes, favorite hobbies, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Your boards and your page give your followers and the world a pictorial glimpse into the essence of "you."

But, it's also become a great tool for small business artists and crafters online.  In fact, in my opinion,  it's become a "must" for artists and crafters.  A "must" not just because it is one of the easiest ways to promote your creations online and drive traffic to your website or blog, but one of the best ways today for artists and crafters to promote each other.  In fact, it could easily be called the best link exchange ever.

For example, I am a doll maker and doll pattern designer who loves dolls of every kind and creation, who loves doll pattern designs, who loves art dolls, teddy bears, cloth dolls, etc.  However, I also LOVE artists and crafters blogs, tutorials, patterns, projects, sewing, quilting, handmade goods, beautiful pictures, animals, etc.  As you can see my list go on and on and on.  Yours could, too.

Well, what Pinterest.com does is it allows me to organize my likes, desires, and inspirations into boards containing whatever I want to put there. Just by looking at my boards you get a feel for who I am and what I like. And, it helps to keep me organized. For someone in the "baby boomer generation" any help in this area is always welcome.

So, how does it help one small business artist or crafter? Well, if you look at my "Art Dolls Designers" board you will find that I have many, many pins. Each and every pin contains a picture of one of my favorite art doll artists creations along with a link to the page I found it on. Plus, I'm a firm believer in crediting artists and crafters with their creations so every one of my pins contains the artist or crafters name and is linked back to their website and/or blog, their Etsy page, etc.

When someone clicks through my board to the pin and clicks through to the original source they wind up on that artist or crafters website, blog, Etsy page, etc.  If they like my pin they can "like" it or re-pin it in which case the picture and all the links follow through to their board.  If someone sees their re-pin and likes it they, too, can either "like" it or re-pin it to there boards.  All of the descriptions, likes and re-pins for this particular picture are linked together on all the boards.

Talk about a beautiful way for all of us to help promote one another. It doesn't get much better or easier than this.  My motto has always been, "What Helps One of Us Helps All of Us!"  Pinterest.com is a fabulous way to do just  that.

If you'd like to follow my boards on Pinterest just click the red "Follow Me On Pinterest" button above.  If you'd like to see my page please CLICK HERE.

A Wonderful Doll Collection

If you follow my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog you know that I just LOVE the Victorian Era, love history, and love to do research. In doing all of that I ran across the Metropolitan Museum of Art website the other day and fell in love with their collections, the ability to see everything they have in their collections, and the ability to set-up my own "My Met" space to bookmark items at the MET that I love.

Well, while "Moseying At The MET!" last week I came across items from their French Doll Fashion Collection and fell in love with them.  Now all you have to know as to why I would fall in LOVE with them is they have to do with dolls and have to do with the fashions of the Victorian Era and periods before and after that.

They are in fact a collection of fashion dolls displaying French fashions from 1715 until 1906.  There seems to be 42 dolls int he collection and they give you a wonderful picture of the way French fashion has changed through the ages.  I would love to see this collection in person, but it isn't on display.

If you'd like to read more about this collection please CLICK HERE for my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog post entitled, "The French Doll Fashion Collection At The MET."

My Historical Fashion Periods Timeline

The other day I posted an article entitled "A Wonderful Moseying At The MET!" concerning my preliminary research on the historical fashion periods and what I had learned.  Since I tend to like everything nice and neat and totally organized I decided the best way for me to try and understand the different fashion periods was to create a time line that I could update, change, and add to from time to time.

So, I created an Historical Fashion Periods timeline that I've added to the sidebar of my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog

This timeline is really for me to help me understand what periods the fashions I like might fall into when I see different styles.  I am far from and will never claim to be any kind of an expert on historical fashion periods.  My timeline is being included in my sidebar as a personal reference tool for me. Something I can learn from, something I can update, something changeable if incorrect, and something I can update from time to time.

I'm hoping to do a little research into the different fashion periods, especially the periods before and after the Victorian Era and will post what I've found on my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog.

If you'd like to see what my timeline has so far just click on the link below and scroll down the right hand sidebar.

YIKES! That's A Lot of Family and Childhood Stories, Linda!

Time certainly flies when you're having fun - or so they say! Whoever they are?

I was thinking about all the stories I've written about my family and my childhood. Stories about my ancestors, my grandparents, my mother and father, my brothers and sister, my mother-in-law, my step-children, my grandchildren, my sisters-in-law, my brother-in-law, my fur baby "Bud", the "dollies", and - of course - my dear husband.

I've probably written the most about "hubby" as he's involved in many, many of the "dollie" stories and at times is the reason for their "antics!" But, that story is for another day.

In any event, since 2004 my family category has risen to over 255 posts. That's a lot of stories.

YIKES!!

Either I've been very busy, I've got "Blogorrhea", I'm very old,  or I've got a very large family.

I'd have to say it's the latter. With a big extended family there's a lot of stories.

Sometimes my story is about a family member or about my childhood. Sometimes there's a reference within a post to a family member or my childhood. Suffice to say - it's a mixture of both. A little if this - a little of that!

So, I decided to create a family label on the sidebar of my Linda's Blog just to keep track of my stories.

Of course you have to keep in mind that these are "stories" and as such there may be a little exaggeration going on here or there. They are stories after all.




Graphic - courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

A Wonderful Moseying At The MET!

I spent last weekend fascinated by pictures of beautiful Victorian dresses on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.  I had wanted to add some more Victorian dresses to my Victorian Dress Fashions page on Pinterest and figured that a museum website might be a good place to start.  So, I decided to go to the biggest museum in the U.S. the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

I would have loved to have physically visited the Met and seen these dresses, but they aren't on display right now and New York city is not a hop skip and a jump away.  So, I let my fingers do the walking or keying and spent several delightful hours just moseying through all their virtual displays.  I have to tell you that the amount of donated material is just astonishing.  I couldn't believe how many incredible Victorian dresses they have.  Hundreds upon hundreds.  All I could do was drool over them and think about what an astonishing display it would be to actually see them all in person.  Ah, one can dream.

The nice thing about the Met website is you can see all their collections whether they are currently on display or not.  Everything is cataloged and available online. You can even set up a "My Met" page where you can store and categorize your own MET favorites - which, of course, I did.  Of course, seeing beautiful creations is the optimum.  However, visiting the MET online is a close second.

While I was out there I quickly gathered that there were many, many dresses that might look Victorian, but actually aren't from that period which, of course, led me to a little research.  If you're a follower of my Linda's Blog you know how much I LOVE history and love researching.  My researching led me to several reference websites, several fashion websites, several museum websites, and so on.  I was in research heaven  which for me is like the next best thing to sliced bread.

What I learned was there are many, many periods to fashion and if you were to have a historic lineage display of the fashions throughout the years you'd be able to easily see how a Victorian dress might differ from an Edwardian or a Romantic period dress - even how the Victorian crinoline was different from the Victorian bustle dress.

It was a wonderful eye opener for me and benefited me in two ways.  One, I got to exercise my brain by learning something new and two, I got a lot of research material for my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog.  My Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog is a personal, ad free blog all about the Victorian era, their history, their traditions, and my feeble attempt to create some Victorian dolls of my own.

With all this new knowledge I decided that I'd like to write a series on my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog about the different fashion periods and show you some of the astonishing Victorian dresses that you can see on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.  Not only do you get to see some of their Victorian dresses, but they provide you a little insight into the dress and a little history surrounding the fashion.  If you love Victorian dresses like I do you'll be in fashion heaven and be drooling over all the astonishing creations like I was.

I'll be sure to post over here from time to time to let you know what's going on over on my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog or you could bookmark it and check in from time to time yourself.

LOVE Victorian Dresses

It's no secret that I LOVE Victorian dresses. So it should come as now surprise that I've got A "Victorian Fashions" board on my Pinterest page.  In fact there's quite a few boards over there that have to do with my love of the Victorian Era and Victorian Fashions.

In finding pins for my "Victorian Fashions" board I happened to stumble across the Metropolitan Museum of Art which has an astonishing collection of Victorian Fashions. It took me close to an hour to go through all the wonderful fashions and, of course, to pin most of them to my board. If you've been following my blog you know I haven't found any Victorian dress I haven't liked.

I also found two Victorian fashion websites that sell fashions from the Victorian era. These included "Maggie May's Historic Clothing" and the "Antique and Vintage Clothing" website.

According to the "Maggie May's Historic Clothing website they sell "Custom and Ready-made garments for the museum, exhibit, and film industry since 1994 featuring historically documented fabrics drawn from museum collections across the United States and Europe!"

According to the "Antique and Vintage Clothing" website they sell "Original Antique and Vintage Clothing for Sale from the 1800's through Today!" What I really liked about the "Antique and Vintage Clothing" website is they had a ton (and I do mean ton) of close-up pictures for each dress. If you click on any of the images I have from their on my board you'll see what I mean.

I also have a few images from the Philadelphia Museum of Art from several of their "Costume and Textiles" collections.

I also found an Etsy shop "Christine Hall Designs" which sells beautifully custom made Victorian dresses.

I just love going to my board and looking at all the beautiful and historic creations. If Pinterest.com is all about the visual then, hopefully, you'll enjoy your visual visit to my board as much as I do.

There are a few dress that aren't technically "Victorian Era" which was during the reign of Queen Victoria and which ran from June 20, 1837 until January 22, 1901. They pre-date that, but were so beautiful I had to include them. They're more American Colonial than Victorian.

I'm going to continue to add to my "Victorian Fashions" Pinterest.com board so be sure to stop by every once in awhile to see what I've added.

Victorian Fashions

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 20, 1837 until her death on January 22, 1901. I for one am fascinated by Victorian Fashions and LOVE seeing them on display. Here's a few I'd LOVE to see.

If you love my Victorian Fashions board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

My Artful Gathering CQ101 Kit Arrived - YIPPEE!

I've been going back and forth trying to decide which Artful Gathering classes I want to take.  Should I take one - should I take two - maybe three?  If I take two or three which ones should they be?  There are just so many wonderful classes I'd like to take, but I can't take all of them.  I might want to, but I can't.

I know for sure that I'm taking Pat Winter's Crazy Quilting CQ101 class. I'll be making that adorable crazy quilt purse you see in the picture at the beginning of this blog post.  The class description is below:

Crazy Quilting 101

Pat Winter 

Pat takes crazy quilting above and beyond the styles of the past creating wearable art that will leave you crazy for more! Be warned, this is not your grandmother's method for creating wall-hangings and bedspreads, and it is addictive. Pat will guide you through the steps for making your own unique Crazy Quilt Swing Purse. A class for all levels, you'll start with a quick and easy piecing method, basic embroidery stitches and silk ribbon embroidery that anyone can master. Pat also discusses embellishments, placement, sources to find unique stash builders and much more. 

I'm so excited. I can hardly wait.

Well, last week Pat posted in her Pat Winter Gathering's blog that she would be selling some of the CQ101 class kits in her Etsy shop. I, of course, got all excited.  After years of trying to decide whether or not to take an online course I didn't want to miss out because the available kits had run out. So, I purchased one right away and to my delight it came yesterday.

Since blue is my favorite color I chose the navy blue kit which is shown in the picture below:

I haven't opened my kit yet. It just looks so pretty in the packaging. I don't want to spoil it as of yet. I can keep it this way and admire it until the class starts.

YIPPEE!!!!!! My first online class. I'm so excited.

My sister will be so jealous. No matter how much she begs me I won't be giving her my navy blue crazy quilt purse. I'm her big sister and I know that big sisters should be generous to their little sister's, but this is where I'm drawing the line. I've given her many, many things I've made over the years, but she can't have my navy blue crazy quilt purse. No! No! NO!

No matter how much she begs she won't be getting this! No! No! NO!

She'll just have to take Pat's class and make one of her own.

I'm so excited! Once again, I'm doing a happy dance in my jammies.

I Can't Stop Pinning - I Love Pinterest!

I know I'm always telling you that I need help.

Well, this time I definitely need help!

You see - I have become a "pinning" addict.

Now, if you're wondering what "pinning" is I have to tell you that it's not a new craft that I just learned.

It's a very, very addictive, popular, fast growing internet activity - a "visual" pin-board. One which seems to have control over me the last few months as I just cannot stop "pinning."

If you're wondering what in the world has grabbed a hold of me it's a website called "Pinterest" (http://pinterest.com).

What exactly does this website do?

Well, according to their Facebook page: "Pinterest is an online pinboard to organize and share your inspirations! Pin your favorite images and videos from anywhere. Discover new things hand-picked by people who share your interests."

According to their About page: "Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. To get started, request an invite."

Their mission statement is: "Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests."

So far I have created 51 boards with 2202 pins and, if you know me, I'm sure you know there will be plenty more before I'm done.

I've created different boards for all sorts of things I like, such as: some of my handmade Victorian dolls (of course), my cross-stitch projects that I'm very proud of, patterns and tutorials from "The Best Free Craft Articles" that I love, some of my e-patterns, creative embroidery I'd love to try (if I had a few spare moments), my favorite art doll artists, my favorite mixed media artists, my favorite doll pattern designers, my favorite teddy bear artists, my favorite needle & wool felt designers, doll and craft classes I'd love to take, my favorite "softies" designers, Victorian fashions and Godey's fashion plates I love, my favorite prim and folk-art designers, doll houses and miniatures, crazy quilt designers I love, beautiful art quilts, amazing art, cross-stitch and punch needle designers I love, some of the best blogs from "Top Blogs By Crafters", some of my patterns and e-patterns, quilt things I'd like to make, craft books worth reading that I've reviewed on the "Book Review Corner", felt things I love and would like to create, fun paper crafts, mixed media, items I wish I could paint, sewing ideas and notions, etc.

I find myself drawn to my boards each and every time I sit down at my computer.  There's just something inspiring in looking at all the astonishing creations from my favorite artists and designers.  I find myself drooling at times at their amazing creativity and the talent there is among the artists and crafters on line.

Pinterest.com touts that it's all about the "visual" and I have to tell you that the "visual"  has captured me and it certainly inspires my creativity - not that I can create anything as astonishing as some of the creations on my boards.

So, why would I spend so much time on this?

Well, with everything I've done above I've been able to not only promote myself, but to promote some of the amazing artist and crafters on the web, and to help promote some of the artists and crafters who are members of or who have contributed free content to some of my blogs/websites.  Also, I get to organize all the things that interest me and which I love in nice, neat boards.

For a small business crafter "pinning" is a win-win. It's a fabulous way to present a visual image to a vast audience whose distribution capabilities are endless.

Members of Pinterest can follow all your boards, follow some of your boards, re-pin something they liked of yours to their boards, or "like" your pin. So something you pin can have a cascading effect and end up on countless pinboards.

And, here's the best part, and why it's a win-win for a small crafter - items pinned from the web carry the URL of the website they were pinned from. So, if someone clicks on a picture of something on one of your boards the URL connected to that image is the webpage where the image was found.

This is accomplished by adding a "Pin It" button to the bookmarks bar of your browser. That way when you're browsing the web and you find things that you like or that are of interest to you can just click the "Pin It" button on your browser and then add the image to one of your pin boards.

You can further promote your products by adding a “Pin It” button to your the product pages of your website. If you have a selling blog you can add a "Pin It" button to each of your blog product posts. This will allow blog readers or customers to pin the products of yours that they like to their boards.

You can also add a "Follow Me on Pinterest" button to the home page of your website or sidebar of your blog. Mine is in the upper right hand corner of my blog.

If you choose to follow other members boards or some of their boards then you can browse through the latest pins of the members you follow, go to their pages and browse through all their boards, browse through "everything" on "Pinterest" by category, browse the most popular pins, videos, or gifts.

Like just about everything on the web Pinterest is not without it's own fair share of controversy.  Some things have been corrected already and some still need to be changed.  Some concern copyright issues, the ability to change the URL's of the pins, and so on.  There are a lot of posts out there that have been written about Pinterest over the last few months.  If you Google Pinterest I'm sure they'll pop-up and you can read them for yourselves.

My take on all this is I believe in crediting artists and designers with their creations.  All my pins include the artists name and/or business name and the URL is always to the website where I found the pin.  Uusually this is the artist or crafters blog or website.  If I'm re-pinning from someone else's board I always click through to the website attached to the pin.  If I want to re-pin this item I will add the artists name and/or business to my re-pin and make sure the URL is to the website where the item was found.

If an artist or designer has a board of their own creations and has uploaded pictures of their creations then I always add the URL from their Pinterest board to their item on my board.  Right now if you upload images yourself the URL is blank and Pinterest shows as "Uploaded by User" on your board.  Pinterest needs to change this to provide the URL for the board it was uploaded to so everyone can click through to the actual user who uploaded that item.

What's really great about Pinterest for me is that it's quiet. In that I mean that I can go to Pinterest and browse at my leisure. Unlike Facebook, their is no date or time stamp.  There is no pressure to comment on friends posts or activities. No one knows if its been a few days, a few hours, or even a few minutes since I've visited or not. I can pin away at my leisure, make a comment on something I like if I want to, re-pin something for further reference, or just browse through beautiful eye candy. It's a simple website that is extremely easy to use and I hope it stays that way as it gains in popularity.

If you're thinking you can just set-up boards to promote yourself - well, you'd be missing the main point of "Pinterest" which is to share the things you love and in doing so share a bit about yourself. According to them: Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.

Pinterest is a great tool for small business crafters because it allows you to quickly show the things you've created that you're the proudest of and allows potential blog readers or customers to see what interests you.  That way they get to know more about you, your likes, and your passions.

Plus, if you add the "Pin It" button to your product pages then anyone who likes your product can "Pin It" to one of their boards and if others like it they can re-pin it.  Talk about a great way to easily promote your products.

Right now if you want to become a member of Pinterest you have to request an invite by clicking the link on their home page or ask an existing member to invite you.

If you become a member, don't be surprised if you can't stop pinning either!

I'm Taking My First Online E-Class - Artful Gathering 2012

I have been wanting to take some online e-classes for years and have just never had the time.  This morning, while nursing a head cold and perusing Pat Winter's "Crazy Quilt Gatherings" magazine for the umpteenth time   I saw a page on the "Artful Gathering 2012 - An Online Video Art Retreat" which was offering online classes in June 2012.

While browsing through the Session One Workshops I saw several that I thought would be nice to take.  And, I saw one that was being taught by Pat Winter, who is one of my all time favorite crazy quilt designers. I met Pat many, many years ago when she signed up for my Top Blogs By Crafters toplist and fell in love with her creations.  She was one of the first artists who participated in my "Get To Know The Artists/Crafter Series" that I was writing at the time for "I Love Crafts and Craft Blogs."  I loved her creations and loved her "Comfort Doll Project" that she was doing back then and decided to write a blog post about it.  When I learned that Pat was going to publish a "Crazy Quilt Gatherings" magazine I was thrilled to pieces.  I believe I was the first in line to purchase it - that is is anyone can be first in line when purchasing online.    And, of course, I LOVED.

So, when I saw that Pat and several other amazing artists that I know were teaching I decided "if not now - when" and signed-up for the workshops.

I haven't decided which of the Session One and/or Session Two classes I'm going to take.  I would LOVE to take them all, but that is impossible.  So, I'll have to trim my list a little.  When I know more about the online gathering and what classes I've decided to take I'll let you know.

YIPPEE!!!!!!  My first online class.  I'm so excited.

You can't tell and certainly wouldn't want to see me doing this, but right now I'm doing a "HAPPY" dance in my jammies.

How Can Small Business Artists and Crafters Not LOVE Pinterest?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have fallen in LOVE with Pinterest.com and have been in love with it for several months now.  If you haven't heard about the Pinterest.com phenomenon by now you certainly will be.  It is by far the most wonderful way to organize everything and anything about "you."

What moves you, what you like, what you're keeping tabs on, things you saw online that you want to remember, things you want to try in the future, places you've been, what you consider "beautiful", your creations, your interests, foods you like, websites you like, blogs you like, your dreams, future plans for a wedding, dream home, your decorating style, must haves, things you'd like to make, inspirations, DIY projects to try, tips for everything and anything, tutorials to try, your bucket list, beautiful pictures, beautiful colors, things for your kids, nature at its finest, beautiful animals, decorations for the holidays, and your favorites - whether they are artists, crafters, movies, pictures, collections, music, recipes, favorite hobbies, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Your boards and your page give your followers and the world a pictorial glimpse into the essence of "you."

But, it's also become a great tool for small business artists and crafters online.  In fact, in my opinion,  it's become a "must" for artists and crafters.  A "must" not just because it is one of the easiest ways to promote your creations online, but one of the best ways today for artists and crafters to promote each other.  In fact, it could easily be called the best link exchange ever.

For example, I am a doll maker and doll pattern designer who loves dolls of every kind and creation, who loves doll pattern designs, who loves art dolls, teddy bears, cloth dolls, etc.  However, I also LOVE artists and crafters blogs,  tutorials, patterns, projects, sewing, quilting, handmade goods, beautiful pictures, animals, etc.  As you can see my list go on and on and on.  Yours could, too.

Well, what Pinterest.com does is it allows me to organize my "likes", "desires", and "inspirations" into boards containing whatever I want to put there.  Everything and anything is fair game as long as there is a picture online and a page to link to.

Just by looking at my boards you get a feel for who I am and what I like. And, it helps to keep me organized. For someone in the "baby boomer generation" any help in this area is always welcome.

So, how does it help one small business artist or crafter? Well, if you look at my "Favorite Art Doll Artists" board you will find that I have 161 pins. Each and every pin contains a picture of one of my favorite art doll artists creations along with a link to the page I found it on. Plus, I'm a firm believer in crediting artists and crafters with their creations so every one of my original pins contains the artist or crafters name and is linked back to their website and/or blog, their Etsy page, etc.

When someone clicks through my board to the pin and clicks through to the original source they wind up on that artist or crafters website, blog, Etsy page, etc.  If they like my pin they can "like" it or re-pin it in which case the picture and all the links follow through to their board.  If someone sees their re-pin and likes it they, too, can either "like" it or re-pin it to there boards.  All of the descriptions, likes and re-pins for this particular picture are linked together on all the boards.

Talk about a beautiful way for all of us to help promote one another. It doesn't get much better or easier than this.  My motto has always been, "What Helps One of Us Helps All of Us!"  Pinterest.com is a fabulous way to do just  that.

CRAFTSY.com - A New Venue For Pattern Designers

NOTE: Unfortunately, as of 12/28/18 Craftsy is closing all indie designers pattern stores.

I'm a Craftsy Designer

If you're a pattern designer, like me, you might want to visit Craftsy.com as they are adding a FREE PATTERN sales service for Indie Designers to their website that is set to launch in February 2011. It's a win-win for pattern designers as right now it's totally FREE for pattern designers to upload and sell their e-patterns on Craftsy.com.

Here's what they had to say about selling patterns on their website:

Why Indie Designers sell their patterns on Craftsy -

As an independent designer, you want to get your patterns in front of great crafters looking for inspiration. Plus, you need to get the most out of every sale and your marketing budget. That's why we've made Craftsy free for independent designers to sell patterns to our huge audience of enthusiastic crafters. When you sell your patterns on Craftsy:

It's free. Buyers buy directly from you via PayPal. Craftsy does not charge any fees. End of story.

It's hassle-free. You use a simple form to set up your lovely pattern sales pages, and Craftsy handles the rest. Buyers download your pattern directly (no email headaches). You get paid!

You get your patterns out to a vibrant, growing craft community. With over 1 Million Facebook fans and 500K monthly visitors and counting, Craftsy is a rapidly growing marketplace where great designers can connect with LOTS of potential buyers.

You create an ongoing relationship with your customers. As a small business owner, you know it's critical to stay engaged with your best customers. On Craftsy, your followers get notified every time you post a new pattern. Buyers are encouraged to post photos of their finished projects and review your pattern. Popular patterns can gain even more attention on leaderboards, increasing sales and reputation within the community.

Craftsy.com is a crafting community that offers online classes and workshops in all sorts of crafts as well as holding MeetUp Craft parties and events all over the world.  They also offer free projects, crafting challenges, a blog, and great deals on craft supplies. And, soon they will be offering e-patterns.

According to the buzz they are one of the fastest growing crafting communities on the web. They went online in March 2011 so they are still a relatively new community.

I became a member, set-up a profile page, and then set-up a pattern store for selling my e-patterns. The set-up and adding of e-patterns is EXTREMELY easy to do and takes no time at all. Besides selling your e-patterns you can also offer free e-patterns and projects for the community, which I did.

You can include a description on your profile page as well as links to your blog and websites(s). Your page will have a tab for your projects and your pattern store. 

This is a win-win for e-pattern sellers. If you're a pattern designer you might want to check out Craftsy.com as a new venue for selling your e-patterns.