I came home the other night and there was a UPS box at the front door. Not an uncommon occurrence at my house as my husband is addicted to buying tennis shoes and other vital goods he can't live without on Ebay. But as I picked it up I knew it felt too heavy to be shoes and one glance at the shipping label and I knew it was my new book, here a whole month early!!!
It takes about two years from start to finish to complete one of these books and get it onto bookstore shelves. By the time you finally receive your first advance copies you've inevitably moved on to the next project.
For me the whole process loses some of it's intrigue by the time I finish the last illustrations. That's the fun part! Editing and proofing layouts doesn't do much for me ( sorry Madge!). However, when you see the completed book you can see how important all of those small decisions and adjustments are in creating a beautiful book.
This book is just about he same size as my first one but for me it was much more fulfilling to write and illustrate because the subject of bedding has really been neglected by the industry. It was a chance to really show my own unique designs and creativity as well as standard industry designs.
It is hard to say which are my favorite to draw but I do love all of the draped beds and canopy designs. I had always wanted a canopy bed as a young girl but I never got one. As one of seven siblings I spent my early years as the cohabitant of numerous sets of supremely ugly bunk beds. I did try to always get the bottom bunk so I could tuck sheets into the top mattress to form a tent of sorts for my lower bedchambers.
I'm crazy for pillows and I drew well over 500 individual designs for the book. I was truly amazed at how many combinations I came up with. For every design that makes it into the book there are probably just as many that don't.
My self imposed rules for a designs inclusion in the books are:
The design must exist in real life, be easily constructed as shown using standard workroom techniques, and it's design must be driven by pattern or construction and not by fabric choice.
There are pages and pages of individual element images and pages containing full bedding ensembles. These pages include designs that are not shown in the individual drawing pages.
There are lots of interesting applications of hardware for bedding.
Hundreds of pillow case and pillow sham designs.
And all of my illustrations ( over 1200 designs) are included on this CD-ROM attached to the back cover of the book. They are done in black and white line format so you can use them free of the distraction of color.
(Check out my new fabric pattern, Birds & Branches, on the inside covers! So Exciting!!!! Yes, those are my new fabrics underneath the books - more about that later....)
Minutes Matter will begin producing bedding modules of all of the illustrations in this book as soon as they complete the Jackie Von Tobel Window Treatment modules. I'll keep you posted as to the release date of the first module.
The Design Directory of Bedding is due for release on October 2 or you can pre-order via Gibbs-Smith or Amazon.com. I put everything I had into this one and I hope you enjoy it at much as The Design Directory of Window Treatments.
As soon as I get my promotional copies in a couple of weeks I will hold a raffle for a signed copy.
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