About

Our Story – A little info on Toadusew Creative Concepts

Our Mission

Toadusew Creative Concepts was born of a passion to provide fresh and comprehensive designs that will challenge quilters of all levels to exceed their own expectations. Our designs, while honoring tradition, are infused with rich color and a contemporary flair, providing a bold new statement for today’s quilting community. We pride ourselves in creating designs that will inspire the inner quilter in all of us.

How We Got Started

We began sewing together in 2005 and designed a few projects for local charities and really enjoyed the way we worked together. In the summer of 2006 a fabric company that had seen one of our designs commissioned us to put together some patterns for a new product line they were working on. We really had no idea what we were doing, or getting ourselves into, but decided it was a great opportunity. We figured we might fall flat on our faces, but we knew we’d have a great time in the process so we formalized our creative partnership into a legal partnership named Toadusew Creative Concepts in September 2006.

The most frequently asked question we get is how we came up with the name Toadusew. This story reflects a lot about our personalities and how we typically work. We met through the local quilt shop that Colleen managed, where we became good friends and spent every Tuesday afternoon sewing together. Colleen patiently mentored Chloe who wanted perfect points, but was unwilling at the time to take a little extra care in her sewing. After trying every trick in the book Chloe eventually relented to Colleen’s suggestions and was amazed at how much better her finished project was. Colleen’s guidance engineered the perfect result every time, to which Colleen would patiently nod and say “Told you so.” When it came time to formalize the creative partnership into a “real” business, we thought Toadusew would give folks the same chuckle it gives us.

What Makes Our Patterns Special

There is no right or wrong way to make a quilt, however our patterns always aim to provide a quilter with detailed instructions that will allow them to achieve a flawless result without frustration and aggravation. Our job isn’t just to make pretty quilts, but perhaps even more importantly, provide quilters with all the tools they need to succeed and create a beautiful quilt as well as truly enjoy the process of making it. We know we’ve done our job well when we get a note from a quilter who loved the journey of making the quilt as much as the finished project.

Not all quilters have access to classes and people to mentor their craft. Because of this we created Toadtips which we include with many of our patterns and on our website. Our toadtips cover some basic elements of quilting as well as address some techniques that are specific to the project. New quilters love them and seasoned quilters and teachers say they really add something to the classes they teach that feature one of our patterns.