Follow your dream - publish a catalog of your art quilts!

Hello!

For the last couple of years I've had a ball working on my quilt history research and then self-publishing the results using a method called "print on demand." Print on demand is a technique where a single book is printed affordably once the book is purchased.

As some of you know, I love researching quilters' past. Mostly, I've been hanging out in the 19th century ... reading newspaper microfilm and long out-of-print tomes.... looking up U.S. census, birth records, and other official data.

I wonder, though, what happens to all the great insights on today's quilters? How will researchers or family members 50 or 100 years from now learn about our quilts and motivations? So many fabulous quilts are pictured on Facebook - but what happens 25 years from now? Will those quilts be accessible to see? I'm being a bit selfish. The historian in me would like to do my bit to help preserve more quilt history.

How would you like to publish a catalog of your own quilts ... or artwork .... or quilt history research? How would you like to see your own catalog on a popular website such as Amazon.com - imagine having others potentially made aware of your quilts in ways that a local quilt exhibit can not. Really!

I'd like to share with you how you can publish your own quilt catalog in an affordable, accessible way. Disclaimer - I'm not an expert. I'll share what I've learned from self-publishing. In the next several posts, we'll walk through different steps to publish your quilt catalog using print on demand.

Really! We'll walk through the steps to publish a 24-page art catalog ... you'll need:

• Microsoft Word
• photos of your quilts or yourself in your quilt studio (or sewing on the dining room table, like I do!)
• Internet access
  
• and, your excitement!
  

That's it - for the most part. You are free to follow the posts here. If you'd like, you can purchase the workbook I've developed to provide an affordable way for you to take notes and see the paper and printing quality. In the workbook, I've also added a few bonuses.

Feel free to follow these posts with a quilting friend or your guild. On the right column here, you'll see where you can sign up for free emails to notify you when there is a new blog posts. Enjoy!