
Verna of The Vintage Spool shares her experience and history in the quilting world. She has unique business ideas and creative ways that have brought success in her business in both hosting retreats and teaching. Verna is talented, sincere and has a gift for connecting with people. You won’t want to miss her story and the advice she offers to others on their entrepreneurial journey, as she opens up and shares about her own journey.
Hosting Retreats with Verna Mosquera of The Vintage Spool
In this Craft to Career episode, we chat about :
- What Verna has done in the quilting industry and where she started.
- She shares the story of how she first started teaching.
- Verna worked in a quilt shop and learned so much about the business side, about customer relations, working with fabric reps, creators, teachers and the whys and hows and everything! She observed, gathered, discovered and learned so much about the industry with through this experience.
- While at the shop, she would take courses from different teachers who taught at the quilt shop. She shares two things that were pivotal as far as her design and teaching goes.
- She shares about when she started writing patterns. Her first pattern was a basket pattern and it was very difficult for her.
- Verna had a business partner at the beginning. She shares a bit about this and why she felt breaking away was the better decision.
- The Vintage Spool was born out of necessity when her husband was laid off. A few weeks after opening her business, her husband found a new job, but she was motivated to move forward. She never tool a loan to start the Vintage Spool. She talks about the early days and what it looked like at the beginning.
- She tells of printing her first pattern and talks about the importance of the pillars of laying the ground work for business longevity.
- After creating 12 patterns, she got brave enough to set up a booth at the International Quilt Market. She talks about how she set up that booth, and its location and how she was able to get foot traffic and attention.
- On the 3rd day of Quilt Market, she got the courage up to talk with someone at the booth of her dream fabric company and ask some questions about advice and being a designer. She got shut down, was given a hard no and walked away sad. However, she was able to get an appointment with Free Spirit Fabrics and had the opposite experience. She ended up saying yes to the opportunity they gave her!
- Why after designing fabric for a good while, she felt it was freeing when she stopped.
- We talk about finding her niche and the exploration and experiment that it takes to find out what you are drawn to.
- Teaching- what this could look like for someone who is a designer.
- She shares about her workshops- having people come to her! How she set up retreats, what she did and what made it lucrative. She also shared shares what she has loved about tit and the relationships she has formed with her customers and students and how fulfilling it has been.
- Verna talks about her kids and how important it was that they never felt neglected, overlooked or jealous of her business. She shares what she did from the beginning an over the years to involve her kids. She shares what that looked like. How she shows her kids what she is passionate about.
Where can you Find Out More?
In the podcast, Verna shares a story about her Vintage Valentine Quilt. Here is what that quilt looked like back then:


You can check out the beautiful things that Verna has to offer here:
On her website The Vintage Spool
On Instagram @thevintagespool
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