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I’m glad you’re considering hiring me for your quilt group.
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Booking Specials for Quilt Guilds
As part of my 10K Celebration, I’m running a special on virtual trunk shows for quilt guilds for a limited time.
Read all about it.
Stash Bandit is Celebrating!
I hope you’ll join me to celebrate a milestone! Stash Bandit reached 10,000 Instagram followers on Sunday, Feb 14 and that calls for a party!
- 10 days of giveaways
- “Scrap Quilt Secrets” Class Launch (it’s complimentary!)
- A new pattern that’s fun and easy (and free!)
- Sneak peeks of what’s ahead
- Booking specials on Stash Bandit trunk shows
Let’s first talk about the launch of my complimentary series of classes: Scrap Quilt Secrets. Why am I giving away six hours of instruction on fabric, color and making dynamite scrap quilts? Here’s why:
I want to visit your quilt guild!
I’m doing this series to give people a sense of my style and a taste of what I share during my trunk shows. And there’s another reason:
I love to talk about scrap quilts!
People are hungry to know how to use the fabric they already own to make beautiful scrap quilts. They want projects with cohesion rather than a messy jumble of chaos—and that’s what I will teach you.
You can sign up for one, any or all of the six one-hour sessions. I will give a presentation on a scrap quilt topic and then we’ll have discussion where you can ask questions or show me your fabric and get help.
The first session is Sunday, Feb 21 from 2 to 3 pm CST. It will happen on six consecutive Sundays: Feb 28, March 7, 14, 21 and 28. Sign up for one, any or all. Missing one won’t put you behind. Each one stands alone.
Read more or sign up for Scrap Quilt Secrets right here.
Starting Tuesday, Feb 16 we’ll have 10 days of giveaways with all sorts of great treasures!
There are books and bags and bling! Some of the giveaways will be here and some will be on Instagram. You can enter either or both; the giveaways will be for US addresses only. Find me on Instagram @stashbanditquilting.
If you subscribe to the blog, that’s the easiest way to be sure you never miss a thing.
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I’ll also publish a new complimentary pattern this week for my easy, simple, modern design called Nights in White Satin.
I designed this quilt in EQ8 and I’ll start piecing it this week. Join with me if you want to! It would be a good time to get EQ8 for yourself or to learn how to use it. Lots of great info at The Electric Quilt Company.
Pattern coming later this week!
But wait! There’s more! 🤣
For quilt guilds, I’m running booking specials this week.
Discounts plus a quilt!
I am giving a 15% discount on virtual lectures booked for any time in 2021 or 2022. And for the first three guilds that book a virtual lecture, I will send you a quilt which you can award to a member, donate or use as a fundraiser. This offer only applies to new contracts not already in place or in progress.
Offer ends March 31, 2021.
See my trunk shows here.
Thank you for your support over the first four years of my business adventure. I so appreciate it!
Need to get in touch? Click here.
Log Cabin Playtime
Earlier this month I hosted a Facebook Live for Quilter’s World and Annie’s Craft Store. We talked about making Log Cabins using Block 1 in the Awash with Color Mystery Sampler.
I made a couple of blocks and parts to help viewers understand the ideas I was sharing, and I liked them so much that I just kept on sewing. Then I decided to open up EQ8 design software and see what other possibilities lurked! I was not disappointed.
New Ideas, New Adventures
I have a new idea for a quilt I really want to make, and it happened in a very roundabout way. First let me show you a mockup of the quilt that I designed in EQ8 quilt design software.
I think it would such a great quilt to practice machine quilting on! The blocks are easy and forgiving, and you can use any type of fabrics and it will look great.
I think I will do something special with the border. Stay tuned for that. So here is how this quilt was conceived.
Yule Glow, or You’ll Glow!
This blog post originally ran in October 2019.
This is Yule Glow, my latest design for McCall’s Quilting and their Nov/Dec ’19 issue, on newsstands now.
Yule Glow, designed and made by Diane Harris. Appears in McCall’s Quilting Nov/Dec ’19.
Who the heck is Diane Harris?
If you found me because of Global Quilt Connection, you might wonder! Here’s my story.
I spent 11 years as an editor for Quiltmaker magazine, where I wrote pattern instructions and product reviews. I shot how-to videos and wrote a variety of articles related to quilts and quiltmaking. It was a dream job!
I was the online voice of Quiltmaker for most of that time. In the early days, we were figuring out what it meant for a business to be online, along with everyone else. It was exciting, exhausting and fun!
Some of the editors helped promote the magazine by giving trunk shows of the quilts from our pages. I loved doing that, and I got good feedback from quilt groups. So when my time with Quiltmaker ended, since I’d been making quilts for 30 years, I started Stash Bandit and began sharing my own quilts in trunk shows.
I’d been teaching quilters here and there as requests came up over the years, so I added classes to my lineup as well. Writing for a pattern magazine is a form of teaching, so it seemed only natural.
also happens during the one-hour presentation.
There are three components to my business. The trunk shows and classes are the most visible part. And they’re probably the most fun!
From American Patchwork & Quilting, June 2019.
The second part is that I still design and make quilts for magazines. That helps me spread the word about Stash Bandit and leads to calls from quilt guilds. It’s fun to see your work in a professionally styled shot in a national publication! And it’s always a happy day if your quilt makes the cover. Never gets old.
And the third part of my business that I’ve just added this year is helping other quilt-related businesses with social media. I manage this area for a couple of entities and I love doing it. And it’s fine with me if my name is not publicly associated with that work. I’m an introvert and I don’t love the spotlight so much.
The most visible of those is working as brand ambassador for HQ Stitch by Handi Quilter, a line of three (fabulous) domestic sewing machines. I love the machines, and it’s my job to use them and write about them. Which I happily do every day! Learn more: HQ Stitch on IG @hqstitch and on Facebook/hqstitch.
One area that I have not forayed into is the pattern business. After a trunk show, people naturally ask me where they can buy the patterns for my designs. I don’t have a great answer!
It takes a lot to bring a pattern to the market. I’d spend a lot of time and money to do it. And then you have to sell an awful lot of patterns to cover all of that before you start making a profit. And that is just one of the reasons. The others are probably not interesting to a blog reader!
I would much rather show people how to make their own unique quilts by understanding how fabrics work together. I’d like to help them unlock their creativity and be fearless in making something outside their comfort zone. So that is how I work and where I place my focus:
I use scrap quilts to help others understand fabric, color, design and quilting techniques.
Some patterns remain available from the various magazines. And a few are freebies on my own website.
So that’s a bit of my story. It’s nice to meet you!
I’ve started offering virtual trunk shows and classes in 2020. I’d love to bring one to your quilt group! Get in touch and…
Let’s Talk Quilts!
You could help me out here by leaving a comment if you’ve been to a class or trunk show of mine. A few sentences about your experience would help others to know what they’re signing up for. Thank you!
Going Virtual in a Pandemic World
I’m excited to have several trunk shows and classes available for booking as virtual learning! We can’t gather for meetings, conferences and all-out quilting parties but we can be together using modern technology, and what’s not to love about sewing in your own space with all of your tools close at hand?!
Visit my Virtual Learning page to learn more, and if you have questions, please reach out: diane@stashbandit.net. Always happy to hear from you!
I teach a multitude of concepts by using scrap quilts sewn mostly from my stash. You can make this kind of quilt, too! I love showing willing learners how to combine unlikely fabrics they already own to make a dynamite scrap quilt.
Get in touch, and…
Let’s Talk Quilts!
How Much Difference Can a Tiny Triangle Make?
I finished a hawg this week. That’s my new term for a quilt you love and hate as you make it.
It wasn’t the quilt’s fault. I think it was a difficult project because of the bias edges on hundreds of small pieces and on a bunch of big pieces, too.
A full-on hissy fit and other random thoughts
A while back I wrote about some quilts that were in trouble with me for a post called “Quilts in the Doghouse.” I just finished piecing another top, a recent UFO (which means I started it in the past year or so), and near the end of the process, I had what you might call a full-on hissy fit.
First I want to say that Hexie Framed is a great design and a well-written pattern from Emily Dennis of Quilty Love. None of this story is the pattern’s or the designer’s fault. This is all on me.