Quilting In the Digital Age

Sew much information, sew little time! When I tell people I make quilts I usually hear one of two things. The first is a pause then ”Oh” (cue the crickets here). The second is “My Granny had one of these things that hung from the ceiling and she would raise it up and down……” OK so most non-quilters either don’t get what we do or hearing the word "quilt" brings back fond memories of Granny.

Well Granny didn’t do quiltmaking like we do it today. With our computers and smart phones coupled with all this new technology, our resources are nearly limitless. I have recently found myself purchasing digital media such as eBooks, PDF files, DVDs and CDs instead of an actual book I can hold in my hand. Digital media is lightweight and portable. Publishers such as Martingale are now making digital or Print On Demand versions of previously out-of-print books.

My first book, Long-Arm Machine Quilting, was out of print for several years but the demand for it was still there. Since the supply was low, the price rose and more than a few people told me they paid over $75 for this book on the secondary market. That's more than three times the original cover price. Martingale recently made this book available as print on demand and the price has come back down to the lower cover price. Same thing with my second book, Professional Machine Quilting Revised. But for this book, I was able to make revisions to the first book then self publish a print on demand version with CreateSpace, a division of Amazon.com.

Many other quilt authors and teachers are making their books and information available via digital media. Here are just a few I found on an internet search.

Happy quilting!

Carol

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