When Facebook introduced the ability to livestream in March of 2016 it was hard to predict how crafters would make use of it. The opportunity to engage with fans in real time opened up a whole world of creative potential. Demonstrate techniques, go behind-the-scenes at trade shows and conferences, conduct live interviews – the options…
Shruti Dandekar Quilts a Bridge Between India and the US
Shruti Dandekar with her Bernina. The first time Shruti Dandekar touched as sewing machine she was aching. It was October of 2009 and she’d contracted chikungunya, a mosquito born illness that’s not uncommon where she lives in the southern part of Maharashtra, India. “I wasn’t well,” she recalls. “It causes a lot of joint pain…
Ode to the iPhone on Its 10th Anniversary
Today is the 10th anniversary of the release of the first iPhone. I didn’t get an iPhone when it came out back in 2007. In fact I used to really hate cell phones. I was hesitant to get a phone at all, and when I finally got a flip phone I often left it at…
A Cartoon for Quilters: The Story of Mrs. Bobbins
Julia Icenogle in her home studio. One afternoon in 2008, while mingling at the opening reception of an art show where her work was displayed, illustrator Julia Icenogle was approached by the editors of the Kansas City Star. The newspaper was looking to create a blog and they’d decided a web comic would keep readers…
A Perspective on Tula Pink’s ‘Spirit Animal’ and Cultural Appropriation
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…
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