As I am sure you are aware by now,
I PUBLISHED MY VERY FIRST COLORING BOOK!!!
With over 50 different designs to color, I am super proud of this book!
Booyah!
I am proud to announce that it was a huge success:
selling over 150 copies in the first month!
The idea of a coloring book was stewing in my mind
before I did my Graffiti Quilting World tour at the beginning of the summer.
But I just wasn’t quite sure if the
“adult coloring book train” was one
that I wanted to ride.
(Not that I don’t love coloring and stress relief as much as the next adult,
I just had a hard time with the idea of having a coloring book that
I wouldn’t be able to share with all the youngins’ in my life.
As I toured to Canada, England, and Australia
to teach my Graffiti Quilting technique,
I just kept hearing time and time again how much
my students thought my drawings and designs would
work in a coloring book.
(It also helped when those comments followed up with,
“If you made a coloring book I would FOR SURE buy a copy”)
π
So, it seemed as if by the end of the summer, the stars were just starting to align.
I mean,
I already had like a ton of drawings in my sketchbook
that would fit perfectly into a cohesive coloring book.
So in October, I put the project into motion
and the book was in production by the week of Thanksgiving!
I know that sounds like I just threw the book together in a month.
But hey, when you have spent your whole life drawing,
and the last 4 years of your life perfecting a specific style,
putting a book together that encapsulates that is
“just another day in the life”.
Here are a few of the finished pages of the coloring book
(without the watermark, obvs):
Upon finishing the coloring book,
I found that I gained much more than I bargained for.
I learned 2 things:
One: There is just something to be said about buckling down
and just putting in the time to perfect your art- whatever style it may be.
It is one thing to create a single work of art with polish and poise.
It is a whole ‘nother ballgame to create a cohesive series of pieces
that all speak the same visual language.
Two: When you create art, everything is morphing from one thing to the next.
Publishing this coloring book not only expanded the breadth of Graffiti Quilting,
but it paid an homage to Graffiti Quilting’s humble beginnings.
When I first started the Graffiti Quilting style,
I practiced daily in my sketchbook.
(These pages are from 2009, before I started quilting
or even new that quilting machines existed!)
Then, I moved to fabric and thread to further explore and perfect the technique.
The coloring book was the perfect way to bring me back to the roots
of developing my personal style and
what Graffiti Quilting means today.
And that is pretty awesome.
For those of you who have the coloring book,
you’ll notice that it is called
VOLUME 1.
Hopefully this means there is more to come
in my endeavorΒ as a coloring book designer.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
And if you don’t have the coloring book,
I’m just going to leave this right here… π
Be great to each other.
-Karlee
8 thoughts on “Graffiti Quilting You Can Color!”
Karlee, This is probably the wrong place to post this question…but, couldn’t find where else to post…
I’ve been playing with Zentangle designs (pen & ink) for a few years and have always thought they would look great as quilted designs. When I saw yours I was blown away!! I would love to have some of these, but it seems that your designs have been digitized for long arm machines. I have a Janome MC11000 (domestic embroidery/quilting machine) that I use, combining embroidery designs with some FMQ. The formats for domestic embroidery machines are obviously different from the long arm formats, so I don’t think that I can use your designs. I use is the JEF format on my Janome, but I do have Embrilliance software that allows me to convert other domestic formats to JEF.
So, my questions are…can you or do you expect to offer your digital designs in domestic embroidery machine formats (HUGE market!). And, if so, what sizes are your designs (my maximum hoop size is 8 x 8).
Thanks!!
Hi Cindy!
As of right now, I don’t offer the designs for embroidery by default, just because there are so many different hoop sizes, and I need to know the size that you prefer BEFORE I can export the file. BUT, I do have a policy in place that anyone who purchases any of my quilting designs is eligible to also receive them in the size and embroidery filetype they specify, but upon request. In the future, I hope to start adding embroidery designs to my library, but in the meantime, If there are any designs you’ve purchased from my site directly, and you would like them for embroidery, just send me an email with your order number, which designs you need, what file type you need, as well as the size of your hoop. π Or, in your case particularly, you can also export the files yourself, because you have that software that allows you to do that. π
I hope this answers your question. Thank you so much for supporting my work! It means so much to me!
-Karlee
info@karleeporter.com
Hi there
I’m interested in purchasing the volume 1 Graffiti quilting coloring book. I live and work near Clinton, Utah and am wondering if I can purchase the coloring book from you directly?
Is there a store in the Ogden area that sells the above mentioned coloring book? I was hoping to avoid paying the shipping/handling charges since I live and work nearby. Any help is appreciated. Thank you for your time!
Hi Alexis! I live in clinton as well! You are more than welcome to just set up a time to stop by and pick them up! π Use the “contact us” page to send me a personal email and we can set up a time and I will give you my address. π
Your work, both drawings and quilting is exquisite! I use to quilt, but then I was diagnosed with Lupus. From Lupus I have developed neurophay in my feet, legs – still going up, and my hands. It’s very hard some days to touch any thing, but I been blessed with a fantastic husband. Keep up th beautiful work. Maybe someday, good Lord willing I will be able to at least machine sew again.
Thank you so much for such sweet words! I am sorry to hear about your diagnosis. That must be so tough. Hang in there! I hope you’ll be able to sew again, too.
Wow great for you, our creativity must be expressed. Most of us seem to create and strive for perfection, but there is a unique group that brings their work and dream to others. Thank you for sharing your gift.
Thank you Colleen! Your kind words are so sweet! π