• Why is your pattern club called the Rawk Club?
• What are stitchin’ pals?
• Are all the designs posted in the store tested first on a real machine?
• Why did you form a digital design club?
• What’s the difference between a Charter member and a regular member?
• Can you subscribe on a monthly basis?
• Why did you start designing?
• How do you plan to compete with other designers?
• How long have you been designing?
• What happens if I don’t like the design I purchased?
• Do you encrypt your designs to run on specific machines?
• Do you encrypt the designs you provide to club members?
• What does your copyright mean?
• How many designs do you intend to post in your store?
• What happens if I’m not a member of the club by the 15th of every month?
• Do you do custom design work?
• If and when patterns are added to an existing set of designs, will I get the new patterns free?
• What happens when my Rawk club membership expires? Is it automatically renewed?

Why is your pattern design club called the Rawk Club?
There’s a story behind the answer. The short version is it grew from a humorous exchange between Deborah and me from her request to make designs that make “my machine rock”. The fun version is something we can discuss off-line.

What are Stitchin Pals?
Stitchin’Pals are just that - digital designs created by me using AutoSketch 9 that are designed to give computerized long-arm quilters user friendly and reliable designs.

Are all the designs posted in the store tested first on a real machine?
Every design is quality tested by Deborah and me on our Statler Stitcher™. I think this is extremely important. No matter how good you are with AutoSketch you can’t judge the interaction between the stitching pattern and the material. Tension causes funny things to happen but can usually be corrected once you see the stitched result.

Why did you form a design club?
It seemed like a good way to begin meeting people in the quilting community. Deborah is the quilter in our family so my challenge was to use the internet resource to connect to a cross section of people interested in collecting quality designs at a very low cost in order to help make all the quilting projects successful are customers tackle successful. 

What’s the difference between a Charter member and a regular member?
A Charter member is someone who elects to join the Rawk Club on or before April 30, 2009. Both receive basically the same club benefits with the following exceptions: 1) Charter members receive a free set of digital designs, 2) their annual membership fee never changes, and 3) Charter memberships have access to fee-based, custom work.

Can you subscribe on a monthly basis?
No. It simply adds to much cost, wasted time and a mindboggling amount of credit card record administration. I’d rather be designing, writing or fly-fishing. 

Why did you start designing?
Deborah.
Then I met Paul Statler… he helped drive me into this maze of digital madness!
And finally it was way for us to pitch-in with others in the fight against autism and Alzheimer’s. Each year a portion of what we earn together is—

- the total sales from our Etcetera store
- Deborah’s quilting services business— www.quiltsxcetera.com
- the sale of Deborah’s signature quilts
- Royalites from the sale of my soon to be published novel, Leaving the Bones Behind.
- My Leadership Consulting Business and related speaking engagements—see www.nextracllc.com if you’re curious. It has nothing to do with quilting!
—donated to the Allen Brain Research Institute in Seattle. We strongly believe in supporting their mission and takes on projects at the leading edge of science – far-reaching projects at the intersection of biology and technology. The results of their work provide FREE, publicly available resources that fuel innovation and discovery for countless researchers and organizations worldwide. It’s no accident that my fictional novel Leaving the Bones Behind pits the will of one man against Alzheimer’s. So the support of your business helps too! And we are so appreciative.

How do you plan to compete with other designers?
I don’t. I have met many inspiring designers and good people and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend their work. We belong to Anne Bright’s Club. We own many of Kim Diamond’s patterns. We frequently visit and purchase designs from others such as Tammy Finkler, and One Song Needle Arts to name just a few. They’re good people and the quality of their designs is excellent.
I am not doing this for any other reason than I enjoy it. Art is a form of expression. If my stitchin’ art works for you—great! Enjoy it. If it doesn’t— please choose your designs from another source. I guarantee my niche will be unique as it continues to evolve and I won’t follow treaded paths. I truly believe you’ll enjoy our journey together if you join my club and add my designs to your collection.

How long have you been designing?
I launched the design effort in September of 2008.
However, as odd as saying that may seem I don’t consider time to be a true disadvantage when it comes to the expression of art. As a former Fortune 500 company executive, I learned about inspired newbie’s. They don’t know what they can’t do or what they can’t accomplish. When I was a lead process design engineer many moons ago, challenged with the startup of half a billion dollar coated paper machine in Columbus Mississippi, my newbie crew with little or no experience met the challenge because their experience didn’t inhibit them from trying new things.
By the way my first novel, Leaving the Bones Behind, will be published later this fall and will be offered on this site and through Amazon.com’s wonderful book distribution system.

What happens if I don’t like the design I purchased?
The first thing to do is contact us. We’ll go forward from there.

Are your designs encrypted to run on specific machines?
Yes, any design purchased in the Etcetera Store is encrypted by using the controller ID number (for Statler Machines), the Serial number (for CompuQuilter machines), and the password for Intelliquilter machines.   

Do you encrypt the designs you provide to club members?
No.

What does your copyright mean?
Copyright is a form of intellectual property which gives the creator of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period – like until 50 years after death -  in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation; after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. For example, in the case of the Mickey Mouse cartoon, the image and name of Mickey Mouse would be the subject of trademark legislation, while the cartoon itself would be subject to copyright. Titles and character names from books or movies may also be trademarked while the works from which they are drawn may qualify for copyright.
What it means is that when you buy a copyrighted design you become a licensee of that copyright and you must abide by the terms of use set forth by the designer in accordance with US copyright law. Willful violation of copyrighted material is likely stealing. You can’t put a Mickey Mouse logo on your quilt without a license (permission) because that violates trademark law. You can’t put an artist’s cartoon showing Mickey Mouse giving Goofy a whack on head without a license (permission) because that violates both copyright and trademark law. To better understand the terms set forth regarding the use of Stitchin’Pal designs, use this LINK.
The bottom line… if you want to modify or in some way distribute a Stitchin’Pal design to a computerized quilting machine user contact us first. YOU MIGHT BE SURPRIZED by the outcome.

How many designs do you intend to post in your store?
That will be guided by the level of inspiration I can apply to the ideas I have. But lots.

What happens if I’m not a member of the club by the 15th of every month?
Then you wait a month to receive your first club set. For example if you subscribe by March 20, 2009, you would receive the April Set on May 1, 2009. This is done because I need to simplify the administration to be able to justify the effort required to make quality, reliable designs available to users for such a low cost.
Do you do custom design work?
Yes, for charter club members.  

If and when patterns add to an existing set of designs, will I get the new patterns free?
No. But, you can take advantage of your club discount.

What happens when my Rawk club membership expires? Is it automatically renewed.
No. You will need to renew your membership annually.