My copy of Mollie Makes Patchwork and Quilting arrived yesterday, and when I opened the box, I found that the lovely people at the publishing company sent me two copies! I’m thinking I should host some kind of giveaway, so keep on the lookout for that.
This is my first time contributing to a book, and it was really interested to learn from being involved in the process! I had previously done work for Mollie Makes magazine to contribute articles for their monthly publications. The process was very similar – they give you a brief to work from, you stay in touch on the process, and submit final copy according to their specifications. This includes deadlines, types and sizes of photos, and copy including a certain number of words. After you complete the submission, the editors may contact you was they go over what you’ve turned in – they look for any discrepancies in your pattern or instructions that might cause questions from readers, and may need extra information if you weren’t specific enough on things like quantities, sourcing materials, etc.
As you’re working on projects, you’re also asked to not share at all – no sneak peeks, or hints about any part of the process. This is for obvious reasons on their part. In order to maintain in interest in selling their material, they don’t want information on upcoming issues spread around the internet. Keeping secrets can be the toughest part of contributing, because I usually get really excited about the projects that I work on for them!
When working for the book, there was a bit more dialog on what type of project they wanted – Mollie Makes is so great to work with, because they gave me a list of options to choose what I was interested in most. Of course, the copy requirements were much more, but we also had a longer period to work in.
As I created my projects, I made many written notes in a notebook I kept, including measurements and quantities for everything. After typing, I always made sure to read over my instructions three times to try to catch as many errors as possible before sending my final in. Once my final was submitted, it was so good to have my notes to refer to on top of the final copy I had typed when the editors approached me with questions. I may have missed a step in the final, that I had written in my notes.
To give you an idea on the timeline, I first learned about and started working on the project over a year ago. In fact, I believe my final copy was due to be turned in around this time last year. (That’s a long time to keep such a fun secret!)
When I received the final copy this week, it was so fun to browse through and look at the other projects that were included! So many fun things to make, and TONS of techniques that you can apply to any patchwork project you decide to take on. There was a lot of extra pattern and instruction included in an extra section after the projects, too. All about the history and descriptions of some of the patterns. That actually meant a lot to me, since my family has a history of quilting.
I hope you get the chance to check out this fabulous little find! I’ve seen it available on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble so far here in the US!
Leave a Reply