Business
Mentoring New Designers & Going Viral with Maggie Reno of Snug and Stitch
In this episode of the Craft to Career Podcast, Elizabeth Chappell interviews Maggie Reno, founder of Snuggenstitch, about her journey in the quilting community and her innovative project, the Nocturn...
Mentoring New Designers & Going Viral with Maggie Reno of Snug and Stitch
Business •
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Interactive Transcript
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I am Elizabeth Chappell, a lifelong entrepreneur who finally found my niche.
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After years of new ideas and jumping from business to business, I figured out how to turn
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a craft into a successful career.
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In 2016, I started a monthly subscription box for quilters that little startup has grown
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into a thriving, multiple six figure business that I am so proud of.
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As a published author, designer of fabrics and patterns being sold throughout the world,
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my favorite thing to do is to teach others how to grow a career of their dreams.
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Each week you'll hear from me or from other guests who are creative entrepreneurs.
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So you can learn exactly what to do and what not to do to grow a career that's more rewarding
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and successful than you ever thought possible.
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If you're ready to turn your craft into a career that you love, I am so excited you're here.
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Welcome to the Craft to Career Podcast.
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Today you are going to meet someone who is actually on my team with quilters candy.
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And it's kind of fun to share a little behind the scenes about that because I don't have a lot
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of people on my team for one thing.
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And I think sometimes it's kind of intriguing like who's on your team?
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What do they do?
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And this is someone who has their own business in the quilting community.
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And you would never know that they that they work for me as well.
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So I have Maggie Reno of Snuggenstitch.
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She is a guest on the podcast today.
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And I invited her because she is hosting the nocturnal soul
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stitchery right now with a handful of other business owners who are quilt pattern designers.
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And it is a very, very cool event.
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And she's put a lot of work into this along with Michelle of Compass and Flower.
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The two of them are both graduates of my quilt pattern writing course.
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And they have teamed up with a handful of other amazing designers who also took the
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quilt pattern writing course. And it's beautiful and it's amazing what they're doing.
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And even just talking with Maggie here on this podcast discussion, I am so inspired.
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So I can't wait for you to hear what Maggie has been working on.
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What this event is like, what it's all about.
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I hope that it gives you ideas for your own business.
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And then you'll also get a little kind of behind the scenes peak at what Maggie does for quilters candy.
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And yeah, it's really exciting.
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And at the end of this, we kind of dive into Instagram because Maggie had something really kind of
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exciting happen recently with her Instagram account. So we talk about that as well.
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So let's dive in. Let me introduce you to Maggie Reno of Snuggenstitch.
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And a little reminder for those of you who have not left a review for the podcast,
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if you can take a second, if you're an Apple podcast, you're just going to scroll down to where it says
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ratings and reviews. And you're going to tap, have her many stars one through five.
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And then you can write a review as well.
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So I'm going to read a review here from Terry W. Jones. Terry says,
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my daughter is a beginner entrepreneur. So I told her to listen to Elizabeth's podcast.
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She found it very helpful and encouraging. Love her guests too. People have been following
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and admiring. So it's such a treat to hear their stories about their business journeys.
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Thanks so much for this podcast. Terry, thank you for the review. It really is really crucial
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to have reviews for the podcast. It helps the podcast to thrive and succeed. So if you can just
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take a second to do that. That is my one ask of you. And now let me jump in and introduce you to
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Maggie Reno. Maggie, thank you so much for being here on the podcast. For our listeners, can you just
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do like a brief introduction of who you are in the quilting community? Yeah, so I'm Maggie Reno.
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I run Snuggenstitch, snuggenstitch.com. And that's pretty much my handle everywhere.
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I've been designing pattern since 2021. Well, a little bit before that. 2021 is when I released my
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first pattern and quilting for a long time before that. But just kind of living life and keeping
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busy with my kids. So up until that point, I wasn't really ready to have a business or run anything.
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So 2020, COVID kind of hit. And that's when I was having to sit beside my kids to supervise them
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in online school. And that's when things shifted for me. Or I was like, well, I'm going to get a
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computer and do something too. I'm not going to be bored the whole time. So that's kind of where
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the shift happened for me. And then I've got to ask. So you came into my realm because I think it
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was two years ago now. You took the clip pattern writing course. Yeah. And so that what I mean,
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I don't know what's 2025. So 2023. And I used it out to me because in the community,
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you know, like the, it's like a Facebook group for the listeners. But there's a community where
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people are asking questions and whatnot. And you were very active in that community in answering
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questions specifically for like Adobe, you know, in design and illustrator. So was it in 2020 that
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you learned Adobe? And like, how did you get familiar with that? No. So I actually started learning
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a lot of the software earlier on. I want to say like 2013, 2015ish. I started with Photoshop
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for scrapbooking and kind of went from there into we got Adobe's like preversion to creative cloud.
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Like went into like quickly, it delved into vector design and just getting really excited
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about that in illustrator because I was doing t-shirts for my family for our like family events
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all the time. Like anytime we did like our cousins camp, I would do t-shirts. And so vector design kind
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of came easy to me. I've also got a background in software programming. So I love learning.
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Software. I love delving into it. So I had already been in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign
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for several years at that point. And then I was also in a choir and doing like a large choir,
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150 people in it and doing like our programs for each of the events that we had each of our
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performances. And so there are like 12 page booklets that in a pretty intense. So I was already
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familiar with both the software. So it came quite easy to me to use them. So I have to say too.
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Like you are very business savvy. It's fun. So you and I will chat about you know,
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bouncing business ideas off. And running you share stuff. I'm like, yeah, that's good. So you've
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I admire the way your brain works. We'll say that. I'm a little bit of a problem solver. I think
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like I love to help other people solve their problems. But also like just look and see, you know,
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like here's here's something that's missing or here's something that you know is a problem and
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how can I solve it? And so that's you know, been fun for me. It is a skill set you have. So
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it's really cool to to work with you. So for the listeners since last year, 2024, you have I
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invited you like, Hey, you did such a good job in the community. Could I like bring you on officially
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to come in with the course and help answer questions with the tech and all of that and plan to do
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again this year. So that's been fun to work together. And then tell me the reason I'm really excited
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to have you on here to share about the nocturnal soul stitchery that you have put together. So I guess
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if you can just explain what that is and how you came up with that idea. Okay. So we, well, first
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of all, I kind of have to step back. And let me explain what the nocturnal soul is and then we'll
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step back kind of to where it came from. So nocturnal soul stitchery is a quilt along that I'm hosting with
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in collaboration with Michelle Coralist. She's from Compass and Wildflower. And then we have seven
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designers that have joined us. They're all new pattern designers. And so we've done this really
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awesome Halloween quilt. And how are hosting this event August to October. And to step back and explain
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it a little bit, I have wanted to do another quilt along for a long time. But another thing that I've
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seen and this is partly from being a mentor in the class, but also I think just being in the
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business industry in the quilting world, you see that like it takes a long time to build up and
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kind of grow as a quilt pattern designer and gain the following that you need. Like people, not
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it not even following like just people who are willing to buy your pattern and take that risk on
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a new designer. It's like it's I've been here five years and I'm not a huge designer by any
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stretch of the imagination. But I think for me, when I first started out designing like that's
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you know, overwhelming, scary, and you're putting out your pattern, you're like not sure who's
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going to buy it and buy it and who's going to be interested in it. So it was pretty intimidating.
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And like a lot of it I was just doing you know, on my own, not a lot of mentorship. And I just
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really strongly after especially after being part of your class and seeing a lot of those
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gals who had the skills have amazing incredible talent, not released those patterns. I was like,
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what is holding them back? Like, why are they not doing this? And I know some of them are not doing
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it for the business. They're doing it for themselves. Like they just want to learn how to design
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and that's fine. But there's a whole lot that we're just kind of frozen and stuck. And so seeing
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that the first year and then last year, I was like, okay, I'm ready. So that's when I reached out
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to Michelle and I was like, here's my idea and you know, like it'll be next year. So let's think
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about a Halloween theme. And we played around with a couple different ideas and came up with
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the nocturnal soul. And then we decided, you know, like, let's make it witchy and call it a
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stitchery instead of a cool too long. So that's really where it came from is this desire to like
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help new designers and support them and then turn it into more than just a cool to long for them.
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Like we're planning this event, but we're mentoring them in the business world as well. So that
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they walk away from this ready to build their careers more, but also not as intimidated by it,
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not as scared. So that was really what was the value there for me.
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I mean, it is a huge value add to the people who are doing this. So can you explain how you
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picked who you would work with? Like what was the submission process like? So Michelle and I
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have been friends for quite some time. We kind of started out releasing patterns around the same time.
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I joined her quilt along. She joined mine afterwards. And so we've kind of just had this friendship
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online for a long time. And I met her in person finally last year. So that was really exciting for me.
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And she is one of the kindest nicest quilters. And so I knew in recruiting her to be my co-host
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to like help out with that. I would have somebody, she's a cheerleader. I would have somebody who
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would bring to the table something different from me, but also be able to mentor these gals in a
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kind loving way that I thought was super important. So that's how I recruited her. I just I knew her.
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I felt really good about working with her and so I recruited Michelle. And then this is actually
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the crazy part for me is we decided instead of like let's just recruit people we know to basically
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put out you know an open call to designers. And we decided you know what we want to stick with
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people who have gone through that effort of learning how to design, learning the business skills,
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and need that next step. And so we put out an open call. I sent you kind of a brief
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on the on the quilt along. It was kind of like an end requested that you send it out to
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your alumni of the class. So it was really a simple you know like we're doing a Halloween
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quilt along. Here's the fabric we chose which was art galleries ghostly and haunted. And it was
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a line that we knew was coming out this year. So we we actually had it kind of not a mock up,
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but yeah like a mood board I guess is what I would call it like if this is our idea. We had some
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images to go with it just really inspire people and then just let them know like send a 12 and a
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inch block. And we'll we'll kind of go from there. I hadn't we had no idea what to expect like
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are we going to get enough people are we like what's going to happen. So we had I want to say
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12 to 15 submissions it was not a huge amount. And they were all really incredible submissions.
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So we knew we had to choose seven. And what we did we had already planned the layout of the quilt.
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So we had that all planned and then we had our two blocks in there. And we just played around
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in a doby until we kind of had this quilt mocked up that felt right. And it was it was really hard
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to choose, but also really cool because first of all the talent that came in like all of them blew me away.
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And then on top of that just this story that came together with this quilt like it kind of has
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this feel of like walking into a haunted you know like forest or not forest, but like just a haunted
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field and you like walk into it. And here's all the creepy Halloween stuff and the haunted house kind
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of vibe. And so it really like I I expected more of I don't know more of a traditional quilt I think
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from the beginning from the get go. And it turned into this like something so much more than that
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obviously like the blocks are you know there's English paper piecing or not foundation paper piecing
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and then there's applique and there's curve blocks. We've got ghosts. We've got pumpkins you know
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like we've got a lot of really fun stuff. And some of them are more beginners. Some of them are
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more advanced. So I think it's you know like we were worried about it being intimidating for people
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and you know it being too advanced for a quilt alone. But but again we just were like you know what
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these designs made it be out there. So we're just going to put them out. So. And then just like talking
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the mechanics of this it sound it could sound like to someone who's listening and has no idea what
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the nocturnal nocturnal soul stature is that oh it's a quilt alone but this is so much more. I
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energy and thought I mean it is a planned out you've been working on it I mean since since last year
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it's I want to say last October November is kind of when we started planning. And then January is
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when we received our well January February is when we got our submissions. February is when we
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accepted all the designers and let them know like you're in this is a huge commitment. And then
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from there you know walking them through a lot of this like we've been very organized. I have a
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huge spreadsheet that's you know like here's our schedule here's our you know all of the information
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so it's been really organized in that aspect but there's been hiccups like I'm not going to lie
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it's there's you know sick people and life happens and so there's been a lot go on for all of us
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but it's been absolutely and I think one of the biggest things is preparing so far in advance where
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you know like here's deadlines to meet and you know holding each other to that where we can really
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be that organized and so it's been really good that way I think but yeah it is a huge commitment
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and I really haven't done a lot on my own business because of it so I think next year I'll have
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a lot more to put out. Yes for sure well and then from a business standpoint I am curious actually
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for me but also for the listeners this is no one had to pay to do this so this is a lot of work
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for you to do as a really nice nice nice thing to do. Do you plan to do it again and if so
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will it look the same would it maybe look a little different and maybe it's like someone's just
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given birth to a baby and you're like do you want another child you're like oh not right now so I
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mean maybe I shouldn't ask right now. It is kind of the giving birth part at this point like
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and and it's hard because I think like we I have been so lucky in this we've been working with
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some incredible designers and and I like I don't know working with another group how that would
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turn like you never know right so there is a lot of like commitment to it that is just like do I
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do I dare do this again I definitely see this turning into something what that is I am not sure
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at this point I'm trying to decide and kind of after after we're done I'm going to take a step back
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and like kind of evaluate definitely and think about where I'm going to take it for now it's
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going to be a while I know before anything comes of it but I do want it to be especially the mentorship
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aspect of it where these gals have gotten so much more than just a quilt along out of this I want to
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make sure that carries on and you know one of one of the ideas I've had bouncing around in my head
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is not necessarily being in the quilt along but helping you know other designers take that role
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and mentor somebody else and you know like kind of move it forward and just kind of take on the
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organizational side and help with the mentorship but you know let somebody else take the spotlight and
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be the kind of main designers and hosts of it so that's one thing I've thought about but
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I haven't I haven't really evolved it from there and I think I like part of it is I just need
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to sit down and like take lots of notes on it and kind of decide from from that where I feel like
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it should go so yeah I mean as I'm listening the entrepreneur in me is like this is just so
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valuable like you could definitely do something with this but I also know as an entrepreneur the work
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that goes into it yeah it is just so much work you know but it is a beautiful thing and like we've
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been working on mentoring these gals so you know it's not just like oh here's how to write a pattern
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we've been talking about websites talking about social media talking about photography talking about
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you know yeah getting into the tech editing of your pattern delving into that and you know right now
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we're kind of looking at more of the social media aspect again and just you know helping them
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with their own sites and and then email because as soon as we're done this cool to long now all
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these people that have signed up are on your email list and you know how do you transfer those people
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from email you know like subscribers and keep them on and have them not unsubscribe and have them
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turn into your customers now and so and again like you're not going to have every single person
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love your work and we know that especially with this kind of style of quilt where it's a sampler
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that's not going to turn into a customer for every single one of us necessarily however you know if
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we've we've had over 250 people sign up if we have you know even 250 stick with us that's a
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huge difference for these gals you just you didn't have redesign her right but also just you
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know like okay how do you how do you turn that into now they're your customer not just you know
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they signed up for the event um so we're talking to a lot about that I'm prepping emails kind of
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you know shifting forward and it's been like there's yeah there's a lot of value in in what these
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gals are getting but and it's been a really I think my favorite part of the quilt along like aside from
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it's a great design like I love this quilt um but my favorite part has been watching these gals grow
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in confidence like we've had them some of them have launched their their website some of them
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have sent their first email some of them have you know posted more and are growing and we've had a lot
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of fun successes over the six months for them to really celebrate and I think um I I will say like
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having as many people sign up as we did and and have so far like kind of really blown us all out
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of the water because we're just like that's huge like I was expecting more like 500 you know so
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to be at this point we're we're way far for these gals so I'm excited for them so I'm curious
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what what does the mentorship look like do you guys hop on a zoom call like is it structured months
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in advance or is it like okay this month let's when works for you guys um a lot of it this time hasn't
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been structured I think if I were to do it again it's structured and more but um so structure-wise
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it's been harder because you know working with nine designers and we have won an Ireland and
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you know we're all over the US and so it's been hard to kind of schedule as you can call a lot of
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what we've been doing is just in the Instagram chat and like answering questions that way um but
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then every so often it'll be like okay this is coming up or you know like here's here's kind of a
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topic that we need to discuss and help you guys with and so a lot of times it's like here's a handout
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like I've created you know several different handouts for them over over the course of this and it's
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like here's here's kind of like your photography checklist let's talk about that and so we'll we'll
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chat about it and then um on zoom calls like we've talked about kind of more in depth we've talked
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about websites and things like that where it's like this is more than just you know Instagram chat so
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we'll get into depth but we have not I mean in the six months we've only had a handful of zoom calls
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so it's not been a time so well now I'm putting you on the spot I don't know if you have everyone's
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names but can you share who's participating yeah so we have um actually can I share their handles
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as well yeah yeah that'd be great so we have Andrea Fully Braske she's um at the fabric foundry and
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it's like the underscore fabric underscore foundry just the only one with chickie-ness to her name
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and then Katie Poudille she's at Perennial Crafts Michelle Saunders at Bobbins and Unicorns
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Sarah Crop Landrum she's at Fields of Patchwork Nikola Knot at Vlogan Vers
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Angela Wall at Uly Sarah Designs and Camille Dromie she's at A Journey So Real and then Michelle
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Coralus who's at Compass and Wildflower so that's you know aside from me that's yeah other people
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and and it's been really fun to work with them like they are all extremely talented
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wonderful people and I am so proud of where they've come in their businesses as well as you know
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just their design work in general so I'm excited to see where they go from here so you had
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mentioned to me that Nick of Vlogan Vers have we pronounced like I think it's Vlogan Vers I'm not sure
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I I'm pretty sure that's a sci-fi reference okay yeah she says sci-fi gal and and so cute she's
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just yeah I love her yeah but if you were telling me that there was someone from the US who was
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over visiting in the UK from your group yeah so Camille was in England and and here's the fun part
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so Nick she's in Ireland now she's actually from the UK so Camille was in England in London
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just as her family like as a trip with the family and then she had posted about it and Nick
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message term was like where are you at because I am in London this weekend for an event I think she
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was there for a wedding or something big and and so they found out like they were in the same city
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and we're just like okay let's meet so I love it I know right like I'll come show you guys
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what I like London and Liberty of London is really big on my list and I'll tell you that story
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someday but it's like huge on my list and so I am like super super jealous because like then Nick
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was sending us photos of like oh here's me at Liberty of London and I was like no it's gonna happen
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it it's gonna happen let's put that out in the universe yeah it's definitely it was on my list
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already but this year like it has just flown up and I'm like nope now I have to go so yeah
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I do want to hear that story so I know I know Nick is coming to um quilt market and so I
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I think Angela is gonna be there and I am hoping to be there I need to book tickets but um
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I'm pretty sure we'll be able to meet up at quilt market and get to know them a little bit so I'm
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excited for that as a small business owner we know two things we need a product to sell and we need
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people to buy it but how do we actually get people to buy here is my little secret your biggest
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sales will come every time you send an email to your audience that's right whether this surprises
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you or you already know the power of email marketing one thing is clear you need the right email
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platform and that's why I use float desk float desk is made for small business owners and unlike
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most email providers float desk does not charge you the more your audience grows plus creating
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beautiful easy to read emails has never been easier so if you are looking for a user friendly way
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to collect email addresses and grow your audience try float desk and with code quilters candy
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you will get 50% off your first year experience how easy it is to grow and nurture your audience
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with float desk and I just love the friendship and camaraderie that a group like this it's just
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going to happen you know but when you're yeah growing your business and working on this and
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growing and learning together like it's just there's something about that that just is magical
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yeah the day that we announced it was so sweet the girls all got together and surprise both
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melt michelle and I like I had a bouquet like a giant gorgeous bouquet show up at my house and it
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was just like thank you so much and I was like oh my gosh I was so unexpected and just so sweet but
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yeah it's like a sisterhood of gals now like which is funny because we're all witches kind of being
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like just doing the Halloween thing and having fun so um but yeah it's it's become a lot more than
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just you know a friendship and a lot more than just business partner kind of so it's been
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really good that way I think well and then this is on topic but somewhat different I know recently
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you had a real that went viral and you talked about this with your group but yeah can you speak to
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tell us a little bit like what happened what went viral and what you've learned from it oh my gosh um
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yeah so I'm still laughing about that so I saw on on Facebook and it I like it's called chef
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club club grub or something like that I saw this guy and he was making like fried quesadilla nachos
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thing and I just remember watching it and just being like wait pause what did he just do and it
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literally is like he's he's played at these fried quesadillas right like he's cut them up in
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little triangles fried them plated them and then he pulls out a sheet pan with all the toppings like
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all the heated toppings you would normally put on nachos and just pours it on and it was like
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explain this to me and and I was just like my mind was blown like first of all like I've never seen
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anyone do that before and so I was like is this something that you know like how have I missed this
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and then I kind of went down this rabbit hole but like nachos everybody loves nachos right and so I
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just like well I'm gonna try it because I couldn't find anything about it right and so I was just
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like well I'm gonna try it so I and it's like the dumbest video it's so terribly sour and like
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all is the way like I'm like what is going on and of course it's food so food I I will say like if
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you look at a food bloggers and like people in that industry like to go viral is so different
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for them than for us as cultures this is a niche industry and it's a huge industry still
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quilting but like nothing like food everybody loves food so I literally have on one sheet pan
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I put the nachos and like I didn't even think like oh you could heat up the tortillas or anything
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I was just like mind blown by this heating up the toppings differently that I just put the nachos
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on one pan heated everything up and it's just like all I did was ground beef like with some seasoning
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on it a kind of chili not even heated up because it heats up quickly when it's very thin spread
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right so not even heated up just a kind of chili on it which was Wendy's chili is my favorite
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and then on top of the chili I've a couple different types of shredded cheese popped it in the oven
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and I want to say it's like eight minutes it's all heated up the cheese is like beautifully soft
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melted and then I just pull it out of the oven not even showing so all I film is me pouring these
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toppings from one sheet pan onto the nachos on the chips and like I said poorly lit poorly filmed
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like I had my phone up against a cup of water and then I voiced over it just like I'm not gonna
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you know gatekeep this information and here's what I've done and and within a few days like
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I was like well I'm just gonna share it to my stories my friends need to see this and within a few
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days I kept having people message like you should post this into your feed and I was like oh it's
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not my niche like no way and finally my friends were just like but we need to be able to save it
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and I'm like okay I'll post it so I posted it and within a few hours I was like what is going on
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because this is just going up and up and so it is a 3.7 million views now and I I mean it's been
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it's been over a month since I posted and I'm still getting thousands of views and I'm like this
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is ridiculous and and then amount of people like there's been some really controversial stuff in
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there like then amount of people who do not want to wash two sheet pans has probably surprised me
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the most and I'm like you know there's foil for that right okay okay and then amount of people
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asking for my recipe where I was like um I just made that up so I finally at one point I just
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was like I'm just gonna keep getting asked for this so I just finally posted it on my blog so
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one of the things that I have learned is if you're gonna post anything anything like
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make it easy for them to get the information so that you don't have to spend hours answering
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because if it goes viral you're going to need that so that is huge lesson number one is like
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be prepared like if you're posting food have the recipe if you're posting anything
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quilting related to have the answers there so they can get the answers quickly and you don't
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have to waste your time answering that so yeah it was like before it even hit a million views I
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had a recipe up it was like all right here you go just comment this and you can you can have a
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recipe and it has echoed I think the most shocking thing for me and and this is what surprises me
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non-stop and and the first little bit I was really worried like all these people are following me
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for nachos and I am a quilt pattern designer and this is gonna totally screw up my algorithm this is
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gonna you know destroy all the work I've done or whatever and that's not the case like I even
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posted a like a quick little video like if you're not here for quilting I'm not to type and
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just quilt it you know like this quilting you know is is my thing and you know don't follow me
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for food because I'm not gonna be posting a lot about that but I still like I wake up some days
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and I've got like 20 comments and you know 20 new followers and I'm like okay and I've even had
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people comment like I'm here for the nachos but I found a quilter yay okay interesting hey so
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so that I think really has surprised me is the amount of people that are there for and it's been
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super entertaining for the for the gals in my group and my quilt alone to to have that entertainment
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of like what should you next you should make a nacho quilt and pour cheese onto that and see how
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people react to like we've got great ideas the thing is it would go viral and then you know follow
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that up with how to clean a quilt get oils out of it again I actually love it they keep it coming
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it's funny to me like the engagement is there right that's the huge part of it like I I think and
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it's it's interesting to see like as you have videos um take off what about those videos and
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and sometimes it's that you know like they're engaged with more people are commenting more because
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either you put in a poll or you asked a question or whatever sometimes it's and and this one I
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feel like more than the comments it's been the shares and you know like I've I've got probably like
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10,000 comments I I can't even remember you know but at like 80,000 shares and that's really what's
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pushing it and keeping it going and you know giving it momentum still to this day where I'm like
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I posted that nearly two months ago but it's still going and and that's you know like
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and this is one of the biggest things I've learned is be ready for whatever comes because
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you just never know what's gonna go viral I I think too I put in a lot of effort in making my
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profile something that people will stick around if you know if they find me they find out
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enough about me right away having I switched this year from having my business logo to having a
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photo of me on my profile and switched my profile to be really easy to read and then and about me
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photo tag or pinned and and I think those things have really shifted the growth in following because
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you know somebody can come to my profile and be like oh she's a cool pattern designer this is
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what she's about you know and and here's an example you know another pinned thing I have is one of
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my patterns and here's an example of what she designs and so it's really easy for somebody to make
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that decision I want to follow this person or not really quickly and I think you know even branding
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having a brand like for example I switched during your class in 2023 I actually rebranded
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from Maggie Muggen's designs to Snuggenstitch that was a very very conscious decision pretty
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emotional one actually and really difficult but rebranding was very important for me and that I
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wanted people to find me for being a quilter not just a designer but also I wanted kind of a
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brand that can evolve and and be more than just pattern designs eventually if I wanted
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so having it be Maggie Muggen's where you know that it's cute it's adorable but I can't from your
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brand name tell what you do and and so that was important to me too is that you know like even my
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Instagram handle is different and and ready to bring in people that are stitches not just
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somebody is like oh that's cute and so I think the preparation involved in and having the
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content there that will draw people in is so valuable so I've talked about that a lot with the
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guys like if you don't have content that shows who you are as a brand it's really hard for somebody
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to make that decision to follow you so that that's essential to start and then yeah having the
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preparation would have a recipe online even if you're not and I think one of the things that the
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lessons of that that surprised me the most was and I've been counseled so much like you stay in your
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niche and I'm like well yes but you know that food drew people in like crazy because it is something
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that is more likely to go viral and not that I'm going to post a lot more food stuff I'm not
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but it is a lesson in that you know if it's something that interests you it will probably
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interest other people and so I think that's important to remember as you're posting it's okay to
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sometimes post outside of your niche and you know let things fall as they may but yeah yeah well
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we're not one-dimensional people you know like my life isn't all quilt quilt quilt quilt you know
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and so mixing in some of that helps your audience get to know you a bit more and you know
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potentially find more people yeah I do want to ask to like I have seen and I don't know if the
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average person knows but when something goes viral there are it's a double-edged sword and it
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always seems like man if I could just go viral but there are some mean comments that come out there
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just are the more eyes that are on something the more negativity there's more positive but there's
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also more negative do you have any tips for handling that um I think one of the hardest things and
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and like yeah there has been negative stuff even on Nacho video like I don't know how you
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I made watchers around recording just several people and that's okay like the amount of people
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who are like you know more sheep hands to wash or like no way um that really hasn't bothered me
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and and I think too like I have been doing so much work on myself in the last year as well as
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working on this quilt along health wise and and I my followers some of them know about it
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be my email but like I was diagnosed with lipidema and so that's a fatty tissue disorder which
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is resistant to diet and exercise and so my body has never been you know from the get go from
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puberty on has never been your typical teenage gorgeous body it was different already
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and so yeah going viral for food and and having people you know insult your body and insults
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um even my nationality I'm too white for you know whoever I don't know and gringas make nachos
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wrong which that's okay um but there were a few days where I would just you know like instead of
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just deleting that post which I could have I could just react and be like no I'm done
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it it's good content though and I think you know the people who want to save that and and have
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that deserve it I think there is validity in deleting a post if it's not healthy for you though
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and I think that that's important to recognize like if it was unhealthy for me or if I was being
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attacked in a way that I couldn't handle I would have deleted that just hands down however I've
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just been able to either well there's a couple things first of all I've been deflecting a lot
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where it's like you know oh I can't wash two sheep pans will have you heard of boil you know like
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here's an option then you don't have to wash either sheep pan um so some of it is just using
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humor or kindness to you know like comment back and not being snarky and I'm trying to be really
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careful in how I respond some of them I'm like well that was stupid and I just don't engage with
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that comment and if somebody else does engage with it I come back and just say you know we're all
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entitled to our own opinions it's okay me they're one of you are wrong but like just be kind
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and then I think you know the the ones that have been really negative towards my body I'm like okay
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just it's out and there was one day I woke up and there were like I want to say 30 plus comments
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that were very very hateful to you anyone American and just really quite quite awful and I was like
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oh my gosh what just happened and she was well she I don't know I was probably a bot and but this
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person was just commenting like one after the other onto other people's comments and so I just
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was like do we blocked you know like you're out um and then attacking on on you know being not
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Mexican or not you know not the right race to be the one making that shows or I didn't
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for you didn't fry your nachos first or whatever and I'm like that's just rude I'm going to
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delete that like if if it's just like oh you should have fried your nachos or you should have
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heated them up fine but if you're gonna attack I'm not okay with and so I've deleted like I want
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to say like 50 comments over the over the month and a half but all in all like I have found
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responding with just kindness and like it's okay if you don't like my way do it your way like
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I'm not here to judge or tell you how to make nachos so and some people are just like oh but I
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like that she's crisp crisp on or I like the burnt nachos and I'm like okay but I don't
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right so and and I will say one of the most interesting things about going viral and I don't
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know if you've had this experience the amount of people that that want to defend you and and
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the amount of people that will get in there and getting the comments but also and and this one
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is the one that surprised me the most is sometimes they don't say anything they'll just like a
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comment that you made in your comments and it's like weeks after the fact still right and I'll
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see like oh a friend of mine hopped on and like liked this comment that I made and I was like
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something super super important to know about going viral and especially when it's that heated
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back and forth is that people are watching you they want you to be the good person they want
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I mean some of it they want to see some heated comments right but you know like can have
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have that like laugh or whatever but some of those people are in there to see what kind of person
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they're following and really that like how you answer those questions and answer that negativity
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is going to affect the people that already follow you too and and is going to be seen and so I think
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that's super important to know is how you respond how you handle that is going to be noticed so
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be careful and I'll say to like when I've had posts that have gone drama we'll just say that have
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gone drama I really appreciate the people who aren't publicly engaging but will reach out to me
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privately and be like I'm so sorry for this it just to know that therapy and I appreciate
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people who are publicly standing up for me too but like I get not wanting to get involved in all the
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you know drama so it's just it does it does while it brings out the feistiness of some and maybe
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you feel like oh the whole world hates me or whatever you also find you really have a lot of people in
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your corner who are really supportive and yeah I social media such a weird look and now Michelle
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was super sweet so Michelle's my co-host of this quote along and she was super sweet she's like
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if you need me to get in there and start responding to people I will thank you but you know like
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just having that like knowing somebody has your back but also like having that friend that will
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reach out and be like hey you know are you okay are you are you handling this all right because
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like this is crazy that's super helpful and I think you know valuable in in in this and so in
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the industry in the online world absolutely well for our listeners can you and I'll put a link
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in the show notes and all of that but for the nocturnal soul stitchery where how did they join
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and what would that look like yeah so on our on my website so it's snugginstitch.com slash nocturnal
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if you just go to snugginstitch.com it's on the homepage too there's a link there so super easy
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to get to and on that page there's actually like the fabric requirements kits are available still
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we're getting really low on the ghostly and haunted kits but there are other shops out there I
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know that are selling ghostly and haunted so it's still an option art gallery has been absolutely
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phenomenal in supporting us and they provided the fabric for us so I'm super grateful to them for
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that and then we have we're gonna have a Facebook community just for a lot of like involvement but
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also anyone who has you know like questions about certain parts of it I want them to be able to
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get those answers because it is a more intensive quilt and so I initially I was like well we could
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just do like a Instagram channel or something but it's too big for that so we're gonna have a Facebook
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group and then we're there's a lot of like at the very end of the page there's a lot of frequently
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asked questions just all the answers to them are there and I have not gotten a ton of questions I
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think that most of those are answered that way and so it's been really good really good site to
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get most of your information from and then the sign up is at the top of the page and at the bottom
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and actually tomorrow we're gonna be updating and having the full finished quilt on there because
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it is long-armed and photographed so tomorrow I'm publishing well posting the finished quilt with
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art gallery and then so people can see it and then I'll be updating the website to actually have
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that we have the top up there but now it's been completely quilted so you'll get to see it with
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binding and all and I had a really fun time photo shooting at downtown Seattle and some really
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cool locations so I'm really excited about these photos so I'm excited to see that yeah awesome
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well thank you so much for being here for sharing this amazing quilt-along soul stitchery that
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you've put together and just for sharing your I don't know your energy with others thank you
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and I just have to say like I appreciate you so much and I am so grateful I got to be part of your
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class like I know you're probably still wondering why I took it in the first place when I had Adobe
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there's a lot more to the class than just learning how to design and Adobe and in design there's a
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lot of business skills to be learned there so it is very valuable and I absolutely enjoyed it and I
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loved being a mentor last year I'm looking forward to it again this year so I think if anybody's
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questioning whether or not they should do it it's 100% worth it all of these gals that I'm working
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with are all alumni of your class and would say the same thing I know but it has a lot of value
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and really really helps us make steps that are super important in the quilting industry so thank you
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you do a lot for us that's really sweet well thank you and I really am excited to have you
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on the team again this year helping out so yeah that'll be exciting but yeah thank you so much
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I hope you enjoyed chatting and hearing from Maggie as much as I did she is just such a gem of a person
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and we covered some amazing topics in this podcast interview I mean I loved hearing about the
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growth of her business her kind generous heart the way that she's mentoring and helping others
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that's the kind of energy that I just love and thrive on and believing there's room enough for
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everyone in this community to have success because I really believe it so I hope that you go check
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out their nocturnal soul's dictionary and see I mean even if it's just from a business perspective
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like hmm how are they running this how are they doing this and if you are a quilter or so are
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check out the patterns they're really really good so thank you so much Maggie for being here and
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listeners thank you for being a listener again just a quick reminder to please leave a review for
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the podcast and we'll see you next time with a brand new episode take care
Topics Covered
Elizabeth Chappell
Craft to Career Podcast
quilters subscription box
successful quilting business
Maggie Reno
Snuggenstitch
quilt pattern writing course
Nocturnal Soul Stitchery
Halloween quilt along
creative entrepreneurs
business mentorship
quilt pattern designers
Instagram growth
quilting community
entrepreneurship tips