Maude of The Retro Quilter shares her creative journey from discovering quilting to becoming a pattern designer. For those who are turning their craft into a career, Maudes fun personality, inspirational story and helpful advice will capture your attention and help you gain courage to reach for your dreams.
Maude of The Retro Quilter
In this episode, Maude shares:
- How she started quilting. In December 2018, she decided to make a t-shirt quilt for her dad and just never stopped. She was hooked!
- Maude shares how she discovered quilt patterns. Her mom asked her to sew a Trip Around the World pattern. She shares what it was like reading a pattern for the first time and how one of her favorite first’s is the Fresh As a Daisy quilt pattern!
- How it happened that she realized that she could design patterns too! We talk about her style and the nook she found. When she wrote her first pattern and how that experience was crushing. After taking The Quilt Pattern Writing Course, she released Boogie Nights.
- We talk about quilt pattern writing She shares her process of coming up with pattern designs. Her Retro Daisy pattern propelled her business and her growth. She also shares about her first quilt a long with this pattern and why it was so fun!
- She shares what her kids think about her business… it’s adorable!
- Maude loves thrifting and anything retro. This is where she gets her inspiration. She also shares a little about her home decor style and the fun things she has in her home!
- She shares about what the hardest parts for her are about coming up with a pattern design. Maude also shares the most rewarding part about being a pattern designer.
- Maude has an eye for color! She talks a bit about color theory and how she loves to play with color!
- How does she know when she is done designing a pattern?
- We talk about comparing ourselves against others, their ideas and their success. It is important that we don’t create while we are in that headspace…why?
- When people ask her what she does for a living, what she says!
- She is a Brand Ambassador- how she did this.
- Maude shares one piece of advice to those wanting to start a quilty career. Don’t strive for perfection.
- What is on the horizon for The Retro Quilter?
SHow Notes
Where can you go to find The Retro Quilter and what she has to offer?
Maudes websiteThe Retro Quilter
Instagram @theretroquilter
Her Podcast- Threads and Therapy
WINNERS for the 100th Episode are:
1 hour Coaching Call – Radha of Sewing Through the Fog as well as Stacey Lee Creative
1 Month Coaching Membership- Amy Mogren of Ritual Quilting Co.
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Transcription
welcome to the craft to Career podcast with Elizabeth Chappell or every week we
dive into how you can turn your craft into a successful career get ready to have the career you’ve always dreamed of
[Music] hello and welcome to episode 101 of the
craft to Career podcast it’s still fun and exciting that I’m in the 100s which
brings me to the fun winners so for the 100th episode
last week I announced that I was going to be doing a free one hour coaching
session with one person and then a free month-long coaching session with
somebody else there were so many amazing reviews from
people who wanted to apply which just the fact that people wanted to apply was
very humbling but then the fact that they left these amazing reviews it was I
just want to thank you all and I wish that I could choose each one of you that
I had enough time to help and Mentor or coach each one of you I did decide to do
three so I’m going to do two people for the one hour coaching call
and then one person for the month-long coaching mentorship so let me go ahead
and announce the winners for the two two people who won the one
hour coaching call I first have Rada of sewing through fog and Stacy Lee
creative so I’m assuming that Stacy Lee Stacy Lee creative so no one knows this
this on the podcast is my first time announcing this sharing this so congratulations I’ll be reaching out to
you you can reach out to me via DM or I will reach out to you Tuesday of next
week and then for the month-long mentorship where we will have a coaching session
each week for four weeks it is Amy mogren of ritual Quilt Company so I am
so excited to be able to work with the three of you and again thank you everybody who participated who left a
review this is definitely something that I will consider offering more of in the future
because I love it and I just am really thankful for each of you leaving a
review and being a part of the podcast and learning and enjoying from the podcast so thank you thank you
this week I have a really fun guest someone who is a friend an alumni and
you’ll hear more about how we met and her story but it is mod of the Retro quilter
so I cannot wait for you to hear more about her story and in fact I was a
guest on her podcast as well which will come out soon so you’ll have to check that out as well but let’s jump in and
let me introduce you to mod
well mod I’m so excited to have you here on the podcast thank you for being here thank you so much for having me
Elizabeth oh it is my pleasure so our history goes
back a couple of years but I was thinking I don’t know and I’d love to hear how well I guess okay a little bit
on your podcast I’ve heard but for this audience can you share how you got into quilting how did you start quilting
um it was actually kind of by accident um let’s see it was Christmas of 2018
and I needed a gift for my dad and I was broke and so I decided to make him a
t-shirt quilt and I thought it can’t be that hard right [Laughter]
um but you know they’re they’re their own beast that’s for sure and that like that’s what got me in and I haven’t
stopped I just haven’t stopped basically yeah okay I’m intrigued about that I’ve never done a t-shirt quilt but I’ve
heard through the grapevine that they’re very difficult and did you use like the interfacing thing no I I didn’t I I did
not know anything I used uh whatever I had which was scissors about five pens and my wigs like I had
no clue um but yeah it’s like because they’re stretched with uh most t-shirts it it’s
something I didn’t consider when I started well right you would and it’s funny
because most people when they not most but a lot of people are like oh quilting yeah the T-shirt quilt I’m like oh I
won’t touch that you know like that’s pretty so now my question is how on
Earth after making that first quilt t-shirt quilt were you like I love this I want to do more
well okay so it was a little bit because you you know you’re building it out and
you’re you’re seeing it come together and then of course after I did that for
for dear old dad I was like well my my stepmother she’s gonna need one too and
then I made the the very smart move into I’m gonna go to the quilt shop and I’m
going to buy actual quilting fabric yes and that made a world of difference
right there and so um yeah just like playing around and
seeing it sort of come together and build it was just it got me hooked okay
yeah so more of the the puzzle of cutting apart these t-shirts and putting
them together and seeing it take form is that what you like yeah yeah it was it was really interesting because like I I
wasn’t even using a pattern for those so I actually remember this is so funny I
made like a little nine patch and I thought I was very clever
how did you bind your first quilt how did that look
um oh my goodness I think I rolled it over and hoped for the best
yeah I had binding problems for quite some time like it took me a while
to to get the binding down so like if you look at these these first quilts
they are warps like totally important for sure I mean I remember the first
quilt I made also it was just squares a pattern you know and I was like I’m
amazing but then the binding I just looked at photos and I was like huh I wish I hadn’t gifted that quilt Just for
kicks like so I could look at it because I showed it to my friend who did quilt and she was like you know there there is a method to this like she’s trying so
nice about it there is a way to do this
so I had to ask all the binding one for you um so then okay how did it go your first
trip to the quilt shop your local quilt shop oh my goodness so I say it’s it was
almost like opening the doors to Narnia you know right like it just was
it was just magical you know all these all these Fabrics that are gorgeous and
you could find them in so many different things like if you want Christmas here it is if you want unicorns there they
are like it was just A Whole New World literally opened up
you know and it just made me want to play and and continue to play I mean
like I just who doesn’t get excited about fabric right exactly not anyone in
our community I mean my kids might beg to differ but
if you’re in this audience you’re in the right place exactly you started with just the nine patch how
did you discover quilt patterns um actually that was my mom so
I did those first two quilts and my mom basically was like okay let’s bring it
in here um and she handed me a trip around the world
pattern and basically was like I’d like it in Cranberry go
so that was it and like that whole process of being like Oh I can actually make
something cohesive was really amazing too so yeah and then
um hooked hooked again you know so how was it reading your first pattern
were there certain things that you’re like what is this what does this mean oh yeah
um I was like what’s quarter inch um seam allowance and things and just
just little things that I didn’t even know until later it was like oh you can buy a quarter inch foot with like a
partition that will help you keep that if I had only known you know like all
these things that I was learning on my own um mostly through trial and error and
then from you know Instagram and YouTube and library books and all the things well okay how did you discover the
quarter inch uh press or foot for her sewing machine
I got I think I got a new um sewing machine that came with it and
I was like what like so before that I had finally just put down some tape and
and kind of macgyvered it um but even that that took a while to even realize like oh I should probably
put some tape down to help me out you know like you just you don’t know until you know yeah I will say for me like I
started quilting in what 2016. Instagram was alive and thriving and I
learned a ton from people’s Instagrams I was like oh and they would show I still remember Pat Sloan had a baby lock
sewing machine with the laser guide and I was like what is that oh I need that
um yeah the tape the presser foot all those things so when did you go out and find your
first pattern of your own accord obviously your mom introduced you to like oh there’s actually quilt patterns then when did you go find your own and
I’m curious what your first pattern is that you like purchased of your own accord oh my goodness
I don’t know exactly what that was because it was like I I basically
discovered the quiltiverse on Instagram and I I think I bought so many patterns
all at once it was just you know a kid in a candy store and I remember uh Libs Elliott then came
June Penelope handmade I was just like I want to make all the things
um but I think it really wasn’t until I found
um the fresh as a daisy quilt by pen and paper patterns that I was like oh the this speaks to me
you know I yeah I made that quilted a number of times so we’ll have to have a
picture of that oh yeah I made it a few times I love that pattern that’s very
fitting for you yeah I can see I can see that resonating with you I’m out of
curiosity what other patterns out there have you seen that you’re like oh that’s that is me
like lately uh just in the history of your quilting experience are there any that come to mind that you’re like oh
this one oh my goodness so um Miss make she did the Looper I love and
recently she did her own makeup that I am just dying uh over
um even lo and behold she just she’s coming out with this granny patch thing
which kind of made me a little bit sad because I was kind of working on something similar to that but hers is
just so darn good that like I can’t help but I I want to make it so bad
um and love so modern Erin she just came
out with radical cassettes and oh my goodness it’s just perfection truly you
know yes it is I’m so happy with yeah well and lo and behold she did like an
80s with the black background in these bright colors I was like oh I can see that also resonating with him so okay
then how did you when like what did it look like in your
mind when you were like wait a minute I could write patterns too like how did that happen
okay so well obviously my style is retro
um and so when I decided to look for for specifically kind of retro patterns out
there I discovered that one there wasn’t too many and the ones that I did find
were at a much higher skill level than I was at um
so I thought oh well that’s a little Nook to be filled and
um so that’s that’s the direction I went in yeah so when did you write your first
pattern uh so I well I took your court oh no
actually sorry let me back up um my first pattern I wrote it was kind
of a not a great experience actually um I had seen a fabric company I won’t
say who and they were looking for quilt pattern designers um they had were reaching out on
Instagram and I had just gone eq8 and I reached out saying like I would love to
check this out maybe help you out but I don’t know how to write a pattern I can put the the blocks in the little squares
and and all the things but they said okay we’ll help you okay great and so I had to really learn
on the Fly and it was really disheartening because I was trying my
best to write a pattern and it was almost like handing in your homework and then
you’re getting it back with like all red marker all over it so I felt
really incompetent and it was just really crushing um so I took that experience and one I
knew I wanted to do it more but I also knew I needed to learn how to do it
properly so that was actually very very soon after that experience
um kind of serendipitously I discovered your pattern writing course and I was
like okay well my answers and so I took your course and then I
wrote my ver my first pattern as the Retro quilter and that is me and I and
and that came out in February of just last year really it feels like so much longer yeah
I know I’m like you’ve been doing this for years wow okay it’s like a year yeah
okay well that’s crazy you’ve had a lot of success in a very short amount of time good job I did not put that all
together thank you so but okay let’s chat about this first experience you had again no names but
it’s not unusual because I experienced that as well I know I work with people
who are learning like first of all there there needs to be room for people to to learn and to make mistakes right
like everyone starts somewhere and so and I felt that when I first started even with people saying like you can’t
write patterns that’s kind of a big thing to do you don’t just jump in and do it which I find very insulting I’m
like all of these people have figured it out I I know I’m a capable person like you can’t say I can’t
um but also no one really shares how to you know it’s like but and
I was searching for you I don’t know I was searching all the blog posts and everything like how to do this and it
was all very surfacy I was like no but I really gotta know like like the meat how do you do this you know oh yeah
even when I would see other uh designers ask me anything I’d be like okay I will
and I would I think all the questions but
um it wasn’t enough because there there ultimately is a lot to learn a lot there
is right well even like with my students you go through the Course once and it’s not like you’re this proficient quilt
pattern writer like you’ve got to jump in and do it a couple of times I mean it’s like learning a new language or
learning anything you know um so your very first pattern that you
released is called that was Boogie Nights and I developed that in your pattern writing course yeah
and that came out kind of February of last year so just over a year ago and it
had curves for your very first pet I still remember I remember you like how do I make this image did you take a
photo and put it in your pattern or did you create the image in Adobe Illustrator uh I did it in eq8 first because I was
learning Adobe in your course so um yeah there might have been a few
tears learning oh yeah um but it was through
um eq8 that I did it initially and I didn’t I was not confident with curves
that like it and which is crazy because that’s all I do right
but yeah that was sort of like the the start of doing all the curves for me too
which I love that kind of what’s the word attitude like bootstraps
you’re like I’m not super confident but I know I want my pattern to have this so I’m going to become confident and like
you do it over and over again and here you are now you do curves all the time like it warms my heart to see that kind
of like I’m gonna do this you know yeah what is that Gusto I know I was like
gumption but that seems like a negative connotation so I don’t know about the right word when we’re gone and done
um so can you share a your process of coming up with a new pattern design so
you had Boogie Nights and then you released retro Daisy no
um March last year I did Stellar that is my free pattern
um it’s the only one I have without curves oh that’s right okay
um yeah that one I love and I’m really proud that there is an inclusive version
for free with that one and then and then it was retro Daisy was after
that so that was spring going into summer of last year yeah and would you say from my
perspective outside looking in I would say that like really was popular and
like that one I think that’s the one that really propelled
my business and my growth for sure um I I don’t know it just took off like
people were liking it and saving it um that weren’t even Quilters you know
cool yeah and from that success I was actually able to do my first quilt along
which was so fun it was it okay tell us why was that so fun
so with my first quilts long okay first off I got some amazing sponsors so the
prizes were great and who doesn’t look great prices right but um but also I really love I mean with
all the things that I tried to do my podcast like all the stuff I try to have a community element to it so within the
quilt along I actually had weekly um meetings I guess and we would just
talk about that week’s um task at hand what problems you had
let’s do a little show and tell kind of thing um how can we help this is what worked
for me blah blah blah and it was great and so and like all those people that participated we still chat
um I just saw one of the girls at quilt con recently and so yeah like we made
friends just by doing that even and that was great that I mean
as a business owner especially where you know our line of business we’re at home
we’re behind the computer screen or the sewing machine that connection is huge it’s very rewarding as a business owner
but it’s it’s also fun I feel like that’s why I do that’s why we do you know we create these patterns but to
have that connection and it’s very valuable for for our customers to connect with you did you host that on
Zoom or where was that held yeah just on zoom and then because my availability is
basically when my kids are in school so I mean that’s not everybody’s availability so it was recorded and then
I would send it out to the folks that had signed up and so even if you weren’t there participating people still felt
like they were included which was really fun that’s really cool yeah that adds a lot of value I like that so okay this is
like Elizabeth’s ADHD brain at my kids now I want to ask about your kids what do your kids think about your business
oh my goodness they are the sweetest little supporters so um
my youngest is six my oldest is eight and actually
um not too long ago my eight-year-old discovered that one of the teachers at his school was going to become a
grandmother and so he was like well my mom has to make a quilt for you she’s
the Retro quilter you know so adorable Mr Wolf she ended up like
buying a clothes um but they they have sewn with me they
love coloring and my color sheets they want to play on eq8 like they’re constantly say Mom can I design a quilt
um the two of them just designed this quilt together it’s very impressive and
then they went so Mom can you make this and I’m looking at it it’s the most intricate thing I’ve
ever seen in my life I’m like that would take me 20 years
oh yeah yeah oh they’re just they’re so sweet and it’s really wonderful to see
like they’re proud of me you know and it’s it’s really heartwarming that’s
adorable I am curious we’ll Circle back when they’re teenagers because uh
they’ll just leave it at that okay so okay I know we chatted well okay
last what January we did the mentorship and I remember you were going to tell me
if I am remembering this right but you would like go to Vintage shops and find dishes and like retro things to try and
inspire you for patterns is this an accurate memory um okay so pretty much if I’m Not sewing
or you know doing my groceries whatever that kind of stuff I I want to be at a thrift store
um I love thrifting I love retro my house is retro I’ve worked in a vintage shop before
um so yeah that is where I get my inspiration I get my inspiration from
like patterns Furniture um even just like Styles mid-century
modern is definitely huge for me but even like um a brutalist style like there’s just
so much so much into it I just think it’s all just so cool but yeah I love
thrifting I love it you know how legit you sound by throwing out those terms
mid-century I don’t even know this other one brutalist what’s that yeah it’s like really I don’t know chunky and boxy and
brutal yeah I know it like sounds good you know what if you created an opt-in a
free opt-in would they just talked about different genres I would want that like
I’m intrigued by that especially as a designer because I’ve seen people like anyways I’m just gonna throw that out
there yeah oh that’s funny
um so one sec let me look here okay so what would you say is the
hardest part for you about coming up with a quilt pattern design
um I think I put a lot of pressure on it being unique enough
um I think that’s just something I have within me in general I like to be different I like to be unique
um and then the other thing is trying to not only use curves now
um like I’ve been trying to come up with something with hsts forever that is retro and it
um that that is a mission I will accomplish one of these days but yeah
okay I’ll be watching it’s funny because I only I feel like all I use is half
Square triangles and I like I had to Branch out but the one pattern that does have curves is my rainbow one which I
feel is kind of retro so yeah exactly right the curves I don’t know retro has
the connotation of curves so it’s hard to incorporate the other way around so
but that’ll happen yeah if we don’t see you in a thrift shop
looking for that inspiration which I do have to say I was so pleasantly
surprised when we had the mentorship and we were on Zoom calls and I I can’t remember if I saw your kitchen or you
shared a poster but like Elvis you have an Elvis something in your house oh an Elvis yeah an Elvis what it’s a bus like
oh like a bust yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so it’s like I don’t know that
was oh that’s one that’s one of my prized possessions I have to keep it away from my children
and Elvis quilt could you would you I don’t know I have I have some other
ideas that are like deliberate like that that I’m toying around with right now I don’t know I
don’t know if I’m that much of an Elvis fan that I would do okay because it is a statement thing to like you know
but that could be really fun that could be really fun though well you could do you could bedazzled that and it would be
so annoying [Laughter]
but I mean point is like you are retro through and through I want to even say
in your kitchen don’t you have like a vintage dining Booth yeah my my house is
is retro so my kitchen um when we first moved in so I live in
like a 50 60s type Bungalow and when we moved in the kitchen
was carpeted oh my yeah growth right gross so we got the black and white
checkered floor put in and there’s a little Nook and I just I happen to find
um orange because I love orange uh a little booth and it’s from like an old
hotel because Niagara Falls there’s like a bunch of old hotels so yeah it’s like
I’ve got my own like little booth and and Pyrex display and things like that
yeah I love it like it’s just so genuine and part of who you are plus I love like
you exude this cool Aura like you’ve got these tattoos and you’ve got this nose ring
and like you’re just you did roller derby and you did hair and your husband is your tattoo artist like all these
things I’m like you’re the coolest person I’ve ever met well thank you because honestly like
I don’t know I don’t I don’t feel like that I don’t feel like I’m like the cool
person I was never like the cool person I just always sort of did what I wanted anyway though you know you know what
blossoming now it’s like Mindy Kaling do you know who she is from the office yeah she talks about that like it’s better to
Blossom when you’re older than when you’re you don’t want to Peak in junior high or high school so yeah but
um I’m pretty fortunate enough that like I I like tattoos and my husband happens
to be a tattoo artist I wish I mean I’ve toyed with the idea even even my
hairdresser now I was like I’m thinking of getting I have this like skin discoloration I was like What if I got a tattoo there just to cover it up she’s
like that’s just not you you’re very elegant and I was like it’s true like I wish so maybe I kind of envy you in this
weird way of like alter Elizabeth would be you you know I just yeah right like I
get that but I don’t know I even feel like I I would love to be way more covered and and
just even head to toe but I just don’t have that in me so it’s kind of funny because to you I’m probably covered but
to me I’m like oh I can be way more covered and I totally Envy the women that could do that but I just don’t have
that in me you know really how come do you feel like yeah well one I’m older
and I just don’t have the pain tolerance and supported anymore um and you know if I
if I don’t employ my husband to do it all then they they can be expensive and
stuff too but it’s it’s a look it’s a look I love it on other women it’s just
I don’t know I kind of want some of my skin yeah you know yeah yeah
it’s cool I like it so okay we talked about the hardest part of Designing a
pattern for you um what is the most rewarding fun part for you for designing a pattern
um I mean seeing it come together like playing
playing is always fun playing with color playing with shapes discovering how
color plays off of each other or how like shapes can make repeating patterns
and things like this so it’s sort of like the discovery of it is always like
I don’t know it keeps me always coming back for more you know yeah I love that feeling which where do you mostly do the
playing is it an eq8 is it in Adobe Illustrator
um I think it depends I I go back and forth so it depends on what my intention
is if I have an idea already um I might go to Adobe
um if I’m just like I’m just gonna sort of mess around and I don’t really know
what I’m after just yet I might go to eq8 because there’s more built-ins to it
um yeah and then like sometimes I get out the good old graph paper and you I need
to do that yeah and just see what I can do because sometimes I’m just like this is gonna take me forever if I try to
Adobe or something first right oh yeah so it still serves a purpose for sure
and you are very good with color I know you’ve toyed with offering like color
theory stuff are you still thinking about doing that I don’t know so I mean
eventually I would really love to do some sort of course I really haven’t
decided on what that looks like um but I do want to eventually do something
like that because I love helping I’m I’m a helper um but my background is with colors so I
used to be a makeup artist I used to do hair so obviously within those things
um and then prior to that was more art background so it’s color theory
through and through um but also like as much as it excites me
when you’re like hearing analogous colors and secondary and tertiary and
things like this you’re just like boring I know I was like so that excites you
okay yeah you know so um I mean like there’s fun ways to play with it but learning the actual Theory
apart is never too exciting to me and I like I even get bored of it it’s the actual playing with
color that excites me so I don’t know yeah yeah that’s it well you have an eye there so it serves
you well so I’m curious when you are designing playing around how do you know
when you are done like okay this is the pattern and I’m gonna move forward with
this it seems so hokey but it’s a feeling I
get a feeling right like you just kind of intuitively know like you got it and
you intuitively know the opposite too when it’s not quite there yet and you’re like there’s something in you that says
no it’s not done you gotta keep tweaking you gotta keep playing whatever it is but it’s it’s a good feeling for me
yeah I feel like for me when I love it you know when I’m like oh my
gosh this is amazing and I want to share it with everybody you know and then there’s other times where I’m like
um do I I think I love it if there’s that doubt there then it’s like nope it’s not done yet you know yeah yeah
that’s a good way to put it too for sure yeah because yeah yeah I’ve just
recently designed one that I love but do you know okay this is well neither here nor there but it kind of it is so I
generally feel very confident with like my business but recently I’ve like
started looking at other people’s patterns I’m like oh I should try that again they’re having success this is like the number one thing I tell people
not to do so I’m like okay you’re in weird head space let’s step back a little bit do you ever go through that too oh my God absolutely I mean
every I think everybody if you have social media you do that at some point
um but the important part is doing what you just did and that’s catching yourself and having the release
realization of oh I don’t need to participate in this I
need to step back catch myself do what I need to do focus on me and not
compare myself to others like I even just mentioned Brittany of lo and behold
she she’s coming out with this new pattern I was I was a little bit sad not
gonna lie that that came out but at the same hand it’s beautiful and I love it
and I’m so happy that that is out in the world and so like it was meant to be and
she was meant to have it out that’s awesome you know so like I’m just gonna put mine on the back burner and leave it
where it lies and you know that just happens it happens sometimes right or if
you’re just like comparing yourself of well so-and-so has got this many followers or this and that that doesn’t
mean anything you might be comparing your beginning to their middle you might
be totally having different Avenues you know like you and I we have different
styles you you like to do things a certain way I like to do things another way you can’t compare apples to oranges
just because they’re you know the same food group exactly well and
for me I know when I’m in the headspace of any of that kind of weirdness it’s
really not a time to be creating anything because it’s not coming from the right place you know when I’m
feeling safe and secure and abundance that’s when to create and so just to
kind of sit with it and let it ride out do the things you can to get in a better place but it’s not the time to be creating because yeah that’s so smart
because I’ve done that and you just dig yourself further oh yeah it comes from
this scarcity and like almost Panic like well I’ve got to come up with something amazing and you know and it’s not it’s
almost like you can see that in the design like oh yeah so okay I’m very curious when people ask
you so what do you do for work how do you answer that uh I just tell them I’m a cool pattern
designer and I love doing it because 9 out of 10 times their reaction
is like wait what no yeah right is that’s a thing and you’re and I yeah
quilting’s the thing that the patterns don’t just appear so uh that’s what I do
right and it’s just it’s fun I kind of like playing with people’s reactions
with that so what’s the best reaction you’ve gotten oh my goodness I think I was at the bank
and somebody was like wait what there’s like quilting there’s like patterns and things like yeah I’m even going to cook
on wait what like just blew this guy’s mind you know and show it in pictures
and he’s like this is incredible I love it I have especially coming from
like this really cool hip you know like oh I usually get oh my grandma does that
you know I’m like uh-huh yeah which is great I love the there’s a place for
everyone in every age but the stereotypes that come with oh yeah you know yeah for sure certain thing
uh so can you share with us touch briefly on you do some brand
ambassadorship for some companies how did that happen
yes so I am a brand ambassador for two
different companies um one is Arrow sewing furniture they
are absolutely fantastic they make um well sewing furniture they make like cutting tables
um sewing chairs cabinets things of the sort and um they actually reached out to me they
were starting a new program like a creators program and they were reaching out to some individuals that they
thought were a good fit so I got very very lucky there um the other one I I’m an ambassador for
is for Aliso irons which I just think are the best um and I reached out to them I just
started a conversation and I asked and thank you so yeah that’s cool so you
have both experiences where somebody reached out to you and where you were like I love this I’m just gonna reach
out and see how it goes and it worked but have you reached out to some people and had them say no just for our listeners who might be feeling oh yeah I
mean um even with Distributors right now I’m like that is my number one goal for this
year is to get picked up by a few Distributors and I’ve been told no but
that does not mean that I’m going to stop yes good good for you so what’s on
the horizon for the Retro quilter what can we expect and look forward to
oh my goodness Okay so there’s there’s a lot in general that I
want to do um I eventually want to design fabric
write a book one day as I mentioned I would like to have some sort of course and Mentor others
um I would like to continue with my podcast and helping others in that direction
um but this is this is like my career choice so I mean obviously like I want
to make money with that as well um so the goals financially there would
be things like making a reliable solid wage
um I would like to hire someone preferably within the industry
um that can you know like someone who who’s been in my position before like a part-time parent or whatever it is
um something of that sort and then like eventually I would really love to be able to like
um give back to some uh Charities and things are even starting my own
um down the line but that’ll all that stuff takes money so but you know I love it you have to first think it to make it
happen and then you put that into the the world and you are a go-getter like I
you will it will happen because you you do it like you get it done so I’m
excited to see this unfold and take shape So yeah thank you well you’ve been a
very big inspiration for me within that because I mean when I first
started quilting I didn’t know that you could make money with it right like I
just thought it was a hobby um and that’s what it started off for me and there’s absolutely nothing wrong
with that um but for me I had to figure out a way to make money
to support myself quilting because it is very expensive to do this
um so um and now it’s just like I can’t imagine doing anything else so you’ve
you’ve definitely given me the inspiration of what’s possible so thank you well thank you and I am on a mission
for that like I want people like you anyone who is a creative who wants to earn money like you can you don’t have
to be a starving artist and you don’t just have to cover your costs you know like you can have a thriving career so
I am excited for you so for our listeners who want to find you where
should they go to find you so you can find me at http://www.theretroquilter.com
and on Instagram at the retroquilter I am also on my podcast which is called
thread in therapy and you can find me on Instagram at the at threat and therapy
podcast and that is also on my website as well it is on Spotify and apple
podcast and other streaming platforms awesome which is a very fun podcast we
did an episode together that I had a lot of fun doing so you should all go and check that out so just to end things if
you were to give one piece of advice to someone who’s starting a creative career what would you suggest or share
okay so um a quilt con I had the pleasure of
listening to Melody Miller of um Ruby Starr she did a lecture and it was
amazing like I literally laughed cried got goosebumps the whole the whole bit
um the topic was your your work isn’t perfect and that’s what makes it good
so and I I just really think this is so true so my advice would be to embrace
not being perfect and just going for it anyway um because when you give yourself
permission and allow yourself to have Grace there is just so much freedom
in that and because otherwise you’re just living up to an illusion of perfection right so if
you let that go you’re really propelling yourself forward and things can start happening
so I just say make like Melody Miller and
um don’t don’t strive for perfection that is beautiful oh man I wish I would
have been at that uh lecture of hers that sounds amazing it was amazing yeah it was it was so good so great I know
even just hearing it I mean I thank you for sharing that I feel like if I wasn’t there at least I got to hear this little
tip it so thank you well thank you so much for being here this was a pleasure thank you so much Elizabeth I appreciate
it thank you mad thank you so much for being here on
the podcast I love hearing your creative journey and how you know woven thrust
your life you’ve done these things that are just creative and beautiful and now
here you are in the quilting Community sharing your talent and love and passion with us and just thank you for sharing
your story your inspiration you are an inspiration for many people who are
thinking of turning their craft into a career so thank you for being here on the podcast next week I will have a
brand new episode of The Craft to Career podcast until then have a lovely week and I will see you back here next Friday
thank you
