The focal print from Spirit Animal, Tula Pink’s new line from Free Spirit. The print has been pulled. On April 4 popular fabric designer, Tula Pink, announced on her Facebook page that she was asking FreeSpirit to pull the focal print from her newest collection, Spirit Animal. She had, it seemed, been accused of cultural…
Should God Be a Marketing Tool? A Look at Accuquilt’s “So God Made a Quilter” Video
I saw this video on Accuquilt’s Facebook page last week. It was originally released in January of 2016, but the company is featuring it again in a current marketing campaign. Accuquilt manufactures and sells die cutting tools for quilters. You may recognize the concept from the “So God Made a Farmer” commercial for Ram trucks…
Two Yarn Shops Go Viral In Wake of Political Change
What is it about a post that makes people want to share? That’s a question I thought a lot about last week as I watched two yarn shops go viral. On Tuesday, January 24, four days after the Women’s March, Elizabeth Poe, owner of The Joy of Knitting in Franklin, Tennessee, posted the following message…
Slow Growth and the Internet Gold Rush
Almost a year ago I spoke at Midwest Craft Con and from the stage I asked by a show of hands how many of the 200 or so people in the audience had a day job in addition to their craft business. From where I stood it looked like nearly every hand in the room…
Language Matters: Making Quilting More Inclusive
Language is important. The words we use to describe ourselves end up defining us. Last week I saw these photos taken at International Quilt Festival in Houston. Photos courtesy Bill Volckening. I was struck by the function of the word “husband” to describe the lounge and reached out to Bob Ruggiero, Director of Publications &…
Go Tell It at the Quilt Show Records the Oral Histories of Quilts
Karen Duling and her quilt ‘Catnado’ at QuiltCon 2016. Founded in 1993, the Quilt Alliance is dedicated to documenting, preserving, and sharing quilts and quilt stories. The Asheville, North Carolina non-profit has one full time Executive Director, Amy Milne, and a few part time staff members including Emma Parker, 27, who serves as the Oral…
How Instagram Stories Will Redefine the Platform
Yesterday Instagram launched a new feature that adds significant functionality to the platform: Stories. Stories allow users to post images and videos that disappear after 24 hours. Recording a Story is quick and easy, or you can upload images from your camera roll. Like a Snapchat Story, you can add text, handwriting, drawings, and filters….
Facing Shrinking Ad Dollars Craft Magazines Are Rethinking Everything
Last week’s announcement that one of the longest running quilting magazines, Quilters Newsletter, will be shutting down in October hit the quilting world hard. Hundreds of comments poured in on blogs and Facebook from longtime QNM readers expressing sadness that this beloved publication that has been in print for 47 years was to be no…
Quilters Newsletter Shuttered Amidst Cutbacks at F+W
In an email sent on Thursday, July 14 to contributors, Editorial Director Bill Gardner delivered some difficult news about the fate of the magazine Quilters Newsletter. “Quilters Newsletter has held a very special place in the hearts of quilting enthusiasts for 47 years, and has been a source of inspiration and learning for quilters around…
On Learning New Software
On the left, me and Roxanne a few months before I started this blog. On the right, Roxanne sewing in my studio last week. In the late winter of 2005 I spent eight hours learning how to use blogging software. Those were eight precious hours. They were spread out over two weeks and amounted to…
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
- 8
- Next Page »