How Much Information is Too Much?

The Noon and Night pattern is 18 pages. I don’t know if that is excessive or not. This is another one of those situations where no matter what I do, I won’t be able to please everyone. If I give the instructions and accompanying illustrations for the left half of the block and then say, “Work these instructions in reverse for the right half of the block,” a person with spatial perception impairment, like me, may struggle to figure out what to do. In terms of pattern writing, adding a set of instructions for both sides of the block didn’t involve much extra work. The illustrations were done. It was a simple matter, in Illustrator, to mirror image them. However, doing so doubled the number of pages in that section of the pattern. On the other hand, If I make the pattern too long, people might complain that printing it uses too much ink and paper.

I also realized that I have almost three pages of narrative and pictures about the provenance of this block. Does anyone else care about that? I think that all of you—my blog readers—do, but does it belong in a pattern? Personally, I love to hear about the inspiration behind a design. I like to know what design challenges the maker had to overcome. Those tidbits add to the enjoyment of the project for me, but perhaps most quilters just want the nuts and bolts information.

Back in the days of print-only pattern publishing, some of these questions never came up. The goal back then was to present as much information as possible in the smallest amount of space. Those constraints were both good and bad. Space limitations forced pattern writers to jettison extraneous or redundant material. However, sometimes critical pieces of information were left out. (Hello, embroidery pattern writers!)

If I am honest with myself, I think part of me misses the days of publishing Twists and Turns. I like to write. I like to educate. I like to share what’s going on inside the design part of my brain—circus tent though it may be some days. The nice part about digital patterns is that makers can decide to print all or only part of the pattern. I think what I need to do is rearrange the pattern layout slightly. I’m going to leave the narrative/history section in, but I’ll set the pattern up so that the quilter can skip over that part and get right to the materials and cutting information.

I know, I am probably overthinking this. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

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I am developing an appreciation for Moda Grunge (it’s a fabric). Grunge falls into that eminently useful fabric category known as “blenders.” Blender fabrics that do just that—they blend together parts of a quilt design and enable many different fabrics to play well together. Grunge reads a lot like a solid, but it’s got contrasting color elements to it that give additional depth and texture:

I snuck a few fat quarters of Grunge into the Broken Wheel design. I might also use a Grunge wide-back for the backing fabric on that one. That top is so close to being done. I really need to be careful about balance, though; I have a tendency to put my head down and get so involved in a project that other tasks—like meals and laundry—languish for lack of attention. The problem I am having right now is that I have more designs leaking out of my brain than I have time to make.

[Margaret said to me one time that she thought the crock pot was a fabulous invention, because it meant you could put dinner on to cook and go quilt for the rest of the day. I concur.]

I made a big dinner last night so we would have leftovers today. That will free up enough time, I hope, for me to finish the Broken Wheel top. Once it’s put together, I might give you a sneak peek.

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The husband made an interesting observation the other day. He and I keep very different schedules. We always have. Sometimes we wonder how we ever managed to find each other in college, because I am a lark and he is a night owl. I had physics at 8 a.m. and his first class started after lunch. We’re a bit more in sync now simply because he has to get up and go to work, but that shifts depending on the time of year.

I’ve had a horrible time sleeping this winter. I am not awake because of anxiety or too much caffeine; I’m just not sleeping well. I am stuck on a schedule where I wake up at 3 or 3:30 and I am asleep by 7:00 or 7:30. (No, I am not crazy about going to bed that early, but I’ve fallen asleep reading a couple of times and had my iPad hit me in the face.) He noted the other day that when we go back to daylight savings time, I’ll be back on my normal schedule. I so wish we would just pick a system and stick with it all year. The older I get, the less I am able to adapt to the time change.