The Creation of a New Book

After a flurry of activity, my latest book Strip Therapy 4, met me in Houston at Quilt Market. Many people ask, or wonder, how long it takes to put a book together. Well, due to the wonder of being self-published, this book took two months! A little longer than 2 months if you include the stolen moments when I drew up the designs and wrote the rough patterns.

The quilts were started while I was retreating with friends during the first week of August. The girls took pity on me and helped sew a few of the quilt tops. With their generous help, I was able to return home with 4 completed quilt tops. The completed tops were passed off to my beloved machine quilter who loaded them on her machine immediately.

While the remainder to the quilts were being quilted, I flew to California for a teaching engagement. The completed quilts were packed along so I could bind them during my down time. The remaining quilts were collected and bound after my return home.

My copy editor was proofing the manuscript while I was in California.

When all of the quilts were bound, my hubby built a new photography backdrop for the quilts so we could shoot the quilts inside. We are usually working in the driveway. Unfortunately, this time, we had rainy weather, so a day was spent collecting the stuff necessary to create the pin-able quilt wall.

With the digital photos in hand, I was able to complete the manuscript edits, drop in the quilt images, add the final touches to the book layout and send the file off to the print shop in Minnesota. The book was printed very quickly - due to great timing that was purely accidental - and delivered to my warehouse.


While the book was off to the printer, I went on another teaching run before going to Houston for Quilt Market.

While it is easy to say the book took two months to create, there is no way that I could have done this without the terrific, generous people that are willing to become a part of the whirlwind that seems to surround me. To them I say Thank You!!!