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Confetti Quilts is the dream-come-true of Sandy DeCarlo and Linda Krombeen.We met at church, and with pre-teen and teenage children of the same ages, and other like interests (including Margaritas and backyard pools) we became fast friends.
While working at a church fundraising craft fair, we became enamored of some beautiful machine-quilted Christmas tree skirts and table runners. One of the women who created them offered to teach machine quilting to us and about ten other women. A passion was born!
Our group met every Saturday morning for about six weeks, learning measuring and cutting, color and fabric design, the difference between a half-square triangle and a quarter-square triangle - and most importantly - that the seam ripper was our friend!
After a few trial runs, we took a field trip to the largest quilt store in Michigan for the first of what was to become many fabric-buying sprees. Our first finished pieces were six-block samplers, each square showcasing a different finishing technique.
It wasn't long before our sewing rooms were overflowing with patterns and materials. Soon, we started modifying the patterns we purchased, then creating our own original designs.
Each summer, our families vacation together in Northern Michigan. Our kids and husbands know that we'll spend our time either sunning ourselves while we talk about quilting, sunning ourselves while we sew, or scouting out every quilt shop within 100 miles of our cabins. It was on these vacations we seriously discussed marketing our patterns, and the possibility of actually making money doing what we love.After three consecutive summers of discussions, we decided to get serious. In 2002, we applied for a booth at the International Quilt Market in Houston - and got accepted! With two months to prepare, we took care of a million details, then packed Linda's van with patterns (and our machines, of course) and headed for Texas. What an exhilarating experience!
Today, Confetti Quilts is thriving. Not to the point where we can quilt full-time, but that seems more like a reality every day. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy our patterns. We prefer looking at pictures rather than reading a pattern, which is why they're short on words and long on illustrations. We also include tips that we figured out in creating our patterns, in order to spare you "quilter's agony." (Just remember: Your seam ripper is your friend!)
Let us know how much you like our patterns. E-mail us at sldecarlo@comcast.net and confettiquilts@comcast.net with your suggestions, questions, ideas, comments - anything! We'd love to hear from you.
Sandy & Linda
Confetti Quilts