Daydreams of Quilts has a new website! You can find all of our digital patterns, physical handmade items and print on demand items there! We also offer international shipping from our website as well.
Our new Shopify website is open!
We are still on Etsy too! Currently personalized items such as stockings and gift bags are only available in our Etsy shop. Shipping on Etsy is available to Canada and USA. Digital patterns are available worldwide. We have our new print on demand items on Etsy too.
Shop our early Black Friday 20% off sale now on either site to beat the rush and avoid shipping backlogs.
A few weeks ago a friend of mine who is a teacher contacted me to ask me if I would consider sewing teacher aprons. I had no idea but these are much needed during the pandemic. Teachers have a lot of extra things to carry and manage throughout the day such as hand sanitizer, which they need to squirt on the elementary school kids’ hands, masks and all the other usual things like white board pens, phone, keys and so on.
Teachers are wanting aprons to help manage all these things, stay organized and keep their hands free. Maybe you know a teacher who would like one for Christmas.
My friend wanted her aprons made from this free tutorial on the Crafty Staci blog and so that is what I used. These also make fantastic vendor aprons for when we can do craft shows again.
Teacher Apron sewn by Daydreams of Quilts in Coral Heather Ross Kinder Fabrics.
I created a YouTube video tutorial on how to sew these as it can be a bit tricky following along on a blog post sometimes. I made the Library Books themed one below on the video. The pattern and written instructions are on the Crafty Staci blog.
Teacher apron sewn by Daydreams of Quilts with office supplies and books. Fabrics by Cotton + Steel and Crimson Tate.Teacher aprons sewn by Daydreams of Quilts using Heather Ross Kinder Fabrics.
I have a teacher aprons section in my Etsy shop where you can find these aprons available to purchase. I received some teacher themed fabrics I ordered on Spoonflower with math, science and general teaching motifs so more aprons will be coming soon.
Teacher aprons in Cotton + Steel, Heather Ross and Crimson Tate fabrics.
I so appreciate my friend coming to me with this idea as I would have never thought of it! She loves her math themed aprons so it was a win/win for both of us. 🙂
This pattern includes instructions for a monochromatic baby quilt 36″ x 48″ and a rainbow large throw 60″ x 72″. There are 11 pages including written instructions, computer diagrams and colour photos.
I finished a quilt yesterday! This one was for a custom order from my Etsy shop. The customer who ordered it said it is for a gift for a new family coming to Canada from Syria. What an amazing welcome gift!
Canadian Flag in a Pixel Heart Quilt by Daydreams of Quilts
Yesterday was a perfect prairie day for quilt photos. I am thankful I finished yesterday because today is windy and stormy and I would not have been able to take photos.
The fabrics are almost all Moda. Mostly from Kate and Birdie’s “True North” line but there are also some French General fabrics, Moda grunge and Moda grunge dots.
There is a horse paddock at the end of our street and the horses seemed interested in what my son and I were doing with this quilt near their fence. I like to think this quilt is horse-approved. 🙂
I hope the family love their new quilt and their new country! <3
I made this colour blocked modern hexagon quilt this week. It was finished yesterday but it was too windy and rainy for taking quilt photos. My son was my quilt holder today and he helped me get photos of this newest finish. This quilt is for sale in my Etsy shop.
Colour Blocked Mermaid and Ocean Themed Hexagon Quilt by Anita LaHay of Daydreams of Quilts.
This quilt is made entirely with fabrics by designer Alison Glass from her fabric line called “Diving Board.” The fabrics are mermaid and ocean themed. The quilt is backed with a blue fabric by Mia Whittemore from her Flourish line.
The backing is a blue print by Mia Whittemore from her Flourish line for Windham Fabrics.
I used the Hex n’ More Ruler by Jaybird Quilts to cut the 8″ hexagons and tried to fussy cut the mermaids whenever possible.
The blue mermaid touching her palm to the tentacle of an octopus.I needed just one more piece of pink in my pink block of colour so I added this florescent pink mermaid in.The pink mermaid touching the octopus.
This quilt is quilted a quarter inch on either side of all the vertical seams with bright pink thread.
Hello! I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas had a wonderful day. We had a very nice day in our house, our kids were happy and the turkey supper I cooked was well appreciated by all so I was happy. 🙂
I am doing my usual end-of-the-year look back and planning ahead to the next year. 2018 was a bit of a strain but it was also our best year yet for Daydreams of Quilts and we learned a lot. We almost gave up when we were being hit by so many things that were out of our control but at the encouragement of customers, friends and family we have stepped back and taken a look at things and are making some changes which we hope will be good for our customers and for our family business.
One of those changes will be to say Good-bye to our pattern shop on Craftsy. I knew this day would come when Craftsy was bought out so I am not surprised that it’s happened. For those who don’t know, Craftsy had a free pattern marketplace. Designers could upload their PDF patterns and sell them on Craftsy for free. Craftsy did not take a cut and there were no fees (other than PayPal fees.)
Just before Christmas Craftsy (or Blueprint as I guess it’s now known) sent out an email to designers informing them that some pattern shops would be closed and some would be allowed to stay but not all of the patterns would remain in the chosen designers’ shops. In my email I was told I had been chosen to stay. However, when I checked my Craftsy shop today only one pattern remains. (The Pixel Heart in a Pixel Heart pattern.) So I will be closing my Craftsy shop and all PDF patterns can still be found in my Etsy shop. I did have a Shopify site for a couple of years but at $60 CDN a month any funds that came in from pattern sales were being eaten up by the monthly fee to have the website so I closed that site in October. We may revisit having an e-commerce site later in the year.
Although Etsy has upset a few sellers with their recent fee increases (fees went from 3.5% to 5% on sales and postage) and changes to how payments are made (they now take all their fees immediately from the funds generated by a sale rather than billing at the end of the month) I feel that this way is more transparent plus I am happy not to owe them any money throughout the month. I can see exactly what I am paying Etsy for each item I sell now and can adjust my prices accordingly. So I am staying put on Etsy and am actually planning to open two more shops. More on that to come soon. 🙂
We will be offering some custom listings this year as well as some designs we plan to carry throughout the year (rather than one-of-a-kind). We hope our customers will like them. We have a few new pattern designs in the work as well.
Thank you for standing by our side and supporting myself and all the other pattern designers out there as we transition through these changes. Change can be stressful but it can also be a transforming force for better things to come. I am working on new product lines and ideas this week which I hope to have ready to show soon.
My husband and I took our daughters out to a beautiful lake yesterday afternoon (our son is away on a backpacking trip in the mountains). We had such a great afternoon. We even saw a rare Wolverine run across the road on our way back home! When we arrived back though I started to feel a bit sad that the summer is almost half over. So I decided to have a Christmas in July sale to feel happy again! 🙂
