QuiltE

Yes, indeed ... everyone has been so helpful and encouraging! I KNOW that my FWS would have been somewhere in the long forgotten PhD Dept .... instead of now being at the LAQ!

One thing that I've loved about both FWS and PC ... is learning to work with smaller pieces! Many of my FWS were done in traditional piecing, and I was quite pleased with them ... then I relinquished to PPing and thankfully so, as now I have added that skill to my quilting repertoire!

Another funny thing ... when working with the PC blocks, they seem SO huge compared to FWS!!! And ... I've found that working with larger pieces as I am with the BCS Mystery, seems outright ridiculous. I'm almost all thumbs with anything bigger now!!!

OK OK OKSGlad ... you can beam right away as you say ..... gosh darn, another MiniMouse recruited!
Yes, I foresee the Minis ... especially with my acquisition this week!

dublb

Welcome back Toni. I didn't do the FWS but am loving the PC! These blocks do seem very small ta me. I can't believe how much I have learned! I'm mostly using the freezer paper method. Some blocks I've PP'd. I'm behind by 6 blocks. I'm making my blocks w/ a patriotic theme instead of a pony theme.

oksewglad

This ride had been so friendly and welcoming. And we share more than the PC! Isn't that what the quilting community is all about? And yes I'm still behind, but hope to catch up soon!

I am so looking forward to what you come up with to put with your "new acquisition" QE! Should be awesome with your fine sewing skills!

QuiltE

Only time will tell ... I keep saying, no, continue on and catch up on the WIPs .. then there's all the PhDs and UFOs ... but I have a feeling that I HAVE to do something to keep the new acquisition warm! And so that it does not feel unloved!

tdtdesign

I just unsubscribed from two forum digests because I realized I wasn't reading them, and every time I did, it was more annoying than fun. Now I can spend my avoid-what-I-really-should-be-doing time enjoying this group more. So here's a question: can I post a photo on this thread? If so, how do I do it?

I just finished writing a case study on the PC book for a design competition. When I interviewed Laurie as the "client" for the case study she mentioned that she had been worried about the pony winner photos because most of them were kind of a wreck in the original pamphlet (page xiii in the book). We contracted with Barbara Smith to see what she could do to enhance the photos. We didn't want a full restoration because we thought that brand-new-looking photos would be out of place and kind of artificial.

I was so busy laying out the book, doing the illustrations for the CD, and generally bossing Laurie and Barbara around that I never took a close look at some of the work she did. I was pretty amazed when I did and thought you'd like to see the example I prepared for the competition.

BTW, I got to boss people around because I was the project manager. Laurie and Barbara were very sweet and cooperative, maybe because they thought I knew what I was doing. Ha ha. Lucky for me they never caught on. Or maybe they did catch on and were too nice to say anything.

tdtdesign

QuiltE, that so true!

It would be a huge win for me. I know it's a good design, but the competition is *very* stiff. We'll find out in the Fall. In the meantime, I just might unpack a box.

Come to think of it, my brother-in-law will be here for a few days for a fraternity reunion and the (University of Oregon) Ducks football game. He's already bought me a ticket, so I'd better get the guest room ready, at least!

I hope I did that quote thing correctly.

oksewglad

It looks like you are catching on, tdt! I find it's easiest to download the photo here in the "quick reply" box. Click on the icon with the little green tree. And follow the instructions there. The one thing you have to remember is to have the image small enough around 1K. I rountinely do it it my picture program on the computer before I start my "reply". We are all waiting!!

dublb

TDT - Welcome & post away. We have 2 threads a week. A discussion thread & a photo thread. All of these threads are active right now. Ya can post in anyone of 'em & we would see 'em. Here would good too. We don't stay on topic all of the time, but we do have fun! Anyone can come & join at any time & post picts or just yack at us.

tdtdesign

Hi gardnergal,

N-o-o-o-o, Laurie is the brains behind the book and the quilt. She had the idea of pairing quilt blocks with the letters from the pony winners before she even finished the proofreading the final pages for the FWS book. She chose the blocks according to their names: Crystal Star goes with the letter from a little girl name Crystal, A Beauty goes with the letter about the pony named "Beauty." At the Depot goes with the letter where the little boy talks about the pony being "at the depot."

So Laurie is the author of the book, she selected the blocks and made the quilt. As project manager and lead designer, I designed and laid out the cover and the book itself, and did all the illustrations for the book and CD. I worked directly with the company that printed the book and burned the CDs. That's because they had to tell me all the technical stuff they needed me to do so the printing would come out right. I had to locate and make arrangements the people to do the extra tasks listed on the copyright page. From the beginning, our friend Barbara Smith (retired Executive Editor for AQS Books) was our Photoshop person who would enhance the pony winner photos, copyedit the text, and technical edit all of my illustrations.

When I say I bossed them around, I only mean that I set the deadlines for when I needed things from them for each phase of the book production. A lot of times I didn't give them much time to meet the deadline because I didn't completely know in advance when I would need things. I would set a tight deadline and then hope they wouldn't be mad at me for not realizing sooner that I needed things from them. I learned a lot about work flow and scheduling for the next time I get to work on a book like this.

Everything took longer than I thought it would. For example, while I was working on the foundation patterns, every morning I'd start out thinking, "There's no reason why I can't finish at least ten patterns today." Ha! The most I ever got done in a day was four. For each pattern, drawing and labeling those little assembly diagrams took a while. Fitting the sections on the pages as close as I could get them to the order they would be sewn together took a long time. And labeling each piece in each section took *forever*.

Then Barbara had to proofread all the patterns, and mark corrections for me to make, then recheck my work. Then Laurie did the same thing. Laurie gave final approval on every page in the book and on the CD.

It's my design, but it's Laurie's book! .

oksewglad

This just goes to show that the book is a cooperative effort