Kelli
- Jul 11, 2019
- 3 min read

Adventure Awaits You

Updated: Aug 15, 2019

Firsts. They are a favorite of mine.

I love thinking about the different smells, settings and situations surrounding my first adventures. I can clearly remember many of my firsts from my first bike crash to making my first real quilt.

Now there are many firsts that top my list of firsts (read: my kids) but in my creative firsts, nothing has topped my first publication in a magazine.

I remember my friend, Melanie pushed me to publish my first quilt pattern (#sixteencaratsquilt). After I saw it in print, I got an itch to create more. I started designing and playing around with quilt ideas. I was shocked that I came up with soooo many. (Seriously, my quilt idea folder is ridiculous...some will never see the light of day because they are absurd :) )

One day I got an email from the Modern Quilt Guild asking for submission to the QuiltCon Magazine. I sent them my ideas, hit send and then pushed it to the back of my mind so that I wouldn't be crushed when they told me it was no good.

A few weeks ( I honestly think it was over a month) went by and I had a random email. I started reading it.. they didn't want me in the QuiltCon magazine, but in the same breathe..

"We'd love to include your quilt, Adventure Awaits, in an upcoming issue of Modern Patchwork magazine. We are so pleased to have your work included in this publication and hope that you will be, too."

WHAT?!

I was in shock. I remember immediately calling my husband and rambling off how I couldn't believe it and was soooo excited and soooo nervous! I didn't have a clue what I was doing!

Adventure Awaits by Simply MackBeth Design Co.

Fast forward a bit. I got the quilt made, sent off and the painfully hard wait of keeping it a secret and waiting for it to be published began. Then, March 2018 came. My pattern was out in the wild and I went to Barnes and Noble near daily to see if I could find my pattern. It took awhile to get in stock in my area, but eventually I found it and I'm pretty sure I cried and my kids thought I was nuts.

Modern Patchwork March/ April 2018 Issue

This project started a fire in me and kept me designing and it has been something that brings me so much joy and is a relaxing outlet for me. It has become something I can share with my children as well, they can often be found making up their own designs as well... it makes me so proud!

I am excited to announce, that #AdventureAwaitsQuilt is now available in my shop. You can find it here or here.

I made this quilt with my three crazy boys in mind. They are always looking for adventures from sun up to sun down.

That idea sparked the color gradient idea. I also liked putting a twist on traditional. I love a good star block and throwing in the arrow block, mixed with the gradient gave the quilt the modern twist on a traditional classic.

FUN FACT: This was the first quilt I ever used hand binding on. I love how it turned out (although I'm still a huge machine binding fan, because it's faster ;) )