Friday, December 6, 2013

My Quilt Calendar





I take a lot of pictures for this blog and for HubPages, and of course family pictures. I get the family pictures printed from an online store such as Snapfish or Shutterfly.  Once I get on the mailing lists, they will often send me offers to try out products or get something free.  Now, I have figured out that free isn't really free, since I do have to pay for shipping and handling, but it does bring the overall price down to a point where I, the thrifty shopper, will be willing to try it.





  Recently, I got an offer for a free calendar from Shutterfly.  I thought about what types pictures to use, and after much internal debate, I decided to do one for my quilts.  It is free, and there was a deadline.  I  probably wouldn't do one for my quilts if I had to pay a lot of money for it.  I thought about doing one with old  family pictures but I needed more time to get just right order, layout, etc.  Quilts would be much easier, since they could go on any page, and if I did something wrong in my haste, I was the only one who would have the right to complain to myself.  I thought about doing a UFO calendar, and work on the quilt on the month it is featured, and hopefully finish it then, but I thought that would be too much pressure.  I just want to enjoy my quilts, even the ones that aren't done.




 Ordering was easy, but it does take some time to choose the photos, decide what page they go on, etc.
There are several options for backgrounds - you choose a theme, and the whole calendar carries the same theme.  I chose one with quotes.  You can choose different layouts for each page depending on the number of photos, and can choose the font if you want to write something.    I tried to put the quilt photo that would look good on the background color.

It even lets you add birthdays and other important dates to really personalize the calendar. If you want, you can add photos on the birthdays, but I decided to leave the space free so I could really use the calendar.


unfinished quilts

Spool of thread on the floor
 I had some trouble loading the photos. The system told me it couldn't load some - maybe they were too big?, so I found more photos and added them one at a time, but then I went back and retried one I had already tried, and it worked fine.   I could have spent more time making sure they were tightly cropped, perfectly color matched, etc., but in the end I just found some random quilt photos and went with it.  I forgot some of the quilt names, and instead of looking them up, I made some up.  I was really at a loss for a quilt that I gave to a neighbor.  Really, Four Patch Star Mini? I'm sure it had a much better name than that.



I got it in the mail today and am so incredibly happy with it.  I have finished quilts, and lots of progress shots.  This type of calendar would be great for people who want to finish their UFOs.  Work on the quilt that is featured that month. There are a couple that have some clutter in the background, reminding me to clean as well!

These photos of the calendar were taken at an angle and it is dark outside, so the calendar doesn't look as good in these photos as it does in real life.



gifted quilt


The calendar is very professionally done - it was printed and sent quickly (I just ordered it last week), the paper is a great quality and the photos look great.  It makes me look like a real professional quilter instead of a hobbyist! And now that they have the important dates, they will be able to transfer them over to my next calendar without me having to retype them.

2 comments:

Michele Bilyeu said...

Absolutely, completely, totally awesome! What would one cost normally? Love this idea!

Safiq said...

Very nice! Proud of you.