Episodes

Monday May 21, 2018
Episode #121: Shannon Downey
Monday May 21, 2018
Monday May 21, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about art as community organizing with my guest, Shannon Downey.
Shannon Downey is an instigator. Currently, she is the Director of Development for Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Chicago where she raises funds to grow and protect immigrant and refugee rights and power through civic engagement and language access. She’s also adjunct faculty at Columbia College and DePaul University where she teaches Creatives how to build empires that will pay the bills and change the world.
Shannon is best known, though, by her alias – Badass Cross Stitch – where her shenanigans tend to get the most attention. In this role, Shannon is a community organizer disguised as a fiber artist and craftivist. She blends politics, activism, and art into projects that are designed to inspire others to take action, think, discuss, engage with democracy and their community, and find some digital/analog balance to boot! Her work has recently been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Time, and Money to name a few.
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This episode is sponsored by Folkwear Patterns.
Since 1976, Folkwear has provided high-quality sewing patterns based on authentic vintage and folk clothing from around the world. Folkwear’s sewing patterns are loved by home sewists, costumers, re-enactors, and any who loves to sew with creativity.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Monday May 07, 2018
Episode #120: Florence Knapp
Monday May 07, 2018
Monday May 07, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about blogging and writing a book with my guest, Florence Knapp.
Florence is a quilter and dressmaker. For over a decade she has kept a blog, Flossie Teacakes, where she shares her adventures with a needle and thread and the life that goes on around her stitching. During this time she has designed sewing patterns and her work has been featured in various magazines, as well as in a book produced by the V&A Museum.
Florence’s early years were spent in England and Australia, where her childhood homes were filled with vibrant color and intense pattern. As an adult, she found quiltmaking offered the perfect canvas on which to continue to embrace these things, as well as to indulge her love for small-scale precision work through fussy-cutting and English paper piecing. In May 2018 her first book, Flossie Teacakes’ Guide to English Paper Piecing, will be published.
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This episode is sponsored by Ettie & Marion. Ettie and Marion creates truly original fat quarters for the modern quilter. As a small, independent screen-print and fabric design company, Ettie and Marion can release new fabrics as soon as inspiration strikes. See what’s coming next by following @EttieandMarion on Instagram or check out the website at ettieandmarion.com
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Monday Apr 16, 2018
Episode #119: Leslie Tucker Jenison
Monday Apr 16, 2018
Monday Apr 16, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about building a career as a quilter, teacher, and designer with my guest, Leslie Tucker Jenison.
Leslie is an artist who makes contemporary quilts. She creates surface designs with dye and paint, and photography frequently informs her designs, either literally or by way of inspiration. Leslie has been a guest on The Quilt Show, Quilting Arts TV, Fresh Quilting, and more. Leslie’s work has been featured in numerous publications including Quilting Arts, Modern Quilts Unlimited, and Where Women Create: Quilters, as well as numerous books. Her work has been shown internationally and is part of corporate and private collections. She’s also a fabric designer for RJR fabrics.
We talk about shifting careers from being a nurse to being a quilter, studying with experts like Nancy Crow, training yourself to be unafraid of experimentation, and using digital design as a creative avenue. Leslie shares how she began designing commercial fabric for RJR. She also talks about being a curator of quilt shows.
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This episode is sponsored by pattern and book publisher, Indygo Junction. Check out Indygo Junction’s new sew by machine method for Fabriflair! The dimensional paper piecing line includes a fusible stabilizer and six patterns, with designs for both home and fashion. The projects are artful objects that can showcase your favorite designer’s prints. They're also ideal for making as gifts. Visit Indygo Junction’s Youtube Channel to see pattern reviews and tutorials on Fabriflair! Warning: It is Addictive!
Visit Indygo Junction’s website and use code WSN20 for a 20% discount on your entire order.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Monday Apr 02, 2018
Episode #118: Lesley Ware
Monday Apr 02, 2018
Monday Apr 02, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about building a career as a fashion design expert with my guest, Lesley Ware.
Lesley helps young fashionistas of all strips discover their personal style and talents through fun and creativity. Her passion for inspiring young people began when she earned her degree in elementary education and continued when she orchestrated a national program for the Girl Scouts. She has previously written two books on style and fashion design for girls, Sew Fab: Sewing and Style for Young Fashionistas and My Fab Fashion Style File (Laurence King). Her 3rd book, How to Be a Fashion Designer, was released last month published by DK Books.
Lesley teaches at The Parsons School of Design, The Metropolitan Museum, Museum of the City of New York and other arts institutions in New York. Her sewing studio is based in Brooklyn where she is designing a capsule collection based on a recent road trip to Kentucky with her dad.
Lesley interacts with young people every day while teaching sewing at a high school in East New York so I ask her what this age group is thinking about when it comes to sewing and crafts. She has some excellent insights that are applicable to anyone who would like to market to or teach the next generation of sewists.
We also talk about how Lesley's books came to be. Her first book deal is a fascinating story involved both serendipity and preparedness.
Lesley has a unique approach to thinking about the problems presented by fast fashion. She explains how she teaches her students to better understand clothing construction and how she herself shops with an eye toward quality. Lesley is an expert at upcycling and refashioning thrifted finds and describes her fabulous style as "nerdy librarian."
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This episode is sponsored by Camp Stitches.
Exclusively for Craft Industry Alliance listeners, you can get 20% OFF your choice of a Camp STITCHES -- Destination Vermont workshop. The Camp STITCHES experience is like no other. Spend an enchanting weekend, May 31st thru June 4th at the The ESSEX Resort & Spa exploring lace, Fair Isle, dyeing, knit or crochet garment design and Japanese Boro hand stitching and quilting with our stellar line-up of amazing instructors. Reserve your spot now by visiting www.STITCHES.events/CampVermont and entering the coupon code WSPVERMONT18 at check-out.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Monday Mar 19, 2018
Episode #117: Lauren Fairweather
Monday Mar 19, 2018
Monday Mar 19, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about building an audience around your creative passions with my guest, Lauren Fairweather.
Lauren Fairweather is a YouTube content creator, Etsy seller, and independent musician who runs all of her creative businesses from home. This YouTube NextUp winner and mom of one has created videos for many companies including HGTV, SyFy, Simplicity, Intel, and Guitar Center and she recently starred in a video course for YouTube's Creator Academy. When she can get out of the house, Lauren enjoys speaking on panels, selling her handmade work, and performing her original music at online video and nerd-themed conventions around the world.
We talk about getting comfortable being a super fan, building an audience on YouTube, Patreon, and much more.
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This episode is sponsored by Spoonflower. If you’re a creative person who loves to design, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of seeing your art printed onto fabric, or better yet — seeing someone across the globe purchase it and make something amazing.
Spoonflower is the first company to make it possible to digitally print custom fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap with no minimums, and no limitation of colors. Shop from thousands of indie designs, or sell your own designs and earn up to 15% commission on every sale. The best part? As an independent seller you always keep the rights to your work. Craft Industry Alliance podcast listeners can get 15% off your next Spoonflower fabric order. Go to try.spoonflower.com/abby and enter your email address to receive your coupon code.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Monday Mar 05, 2018
Episode #116: Jean Wells
Monday Mar 05, 2018
Monday Mar 05, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about owning a quilt shop and a premier quilt show with my guest, Jean Wells.
Jean is an art quilter who is inspired by nature and the world around her. She’s also the owner of The Stitchin’ Post, a quilt shop in Sisters, Oregon that she’s owned for 43 years, and the founder of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, a world-renowned show that attracts tens of thousands of visitors to Sisters Oregon each July. She’s the author of over two dozen books, is a popular workshop leader and presenter, and the winner of numerous national awards in the quilting industry.
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This episode is sponsored by Rebecca Bryan of Bryan House Quilts.
Bryan House Quilts, is offering a new online workshop, “Playful Color Theory for Quilters”, at the end of March! Head on over to Rebecca’s website bryanhousequilts.com for more details and to sign up for her newsletter. Listeners are welcome to a 20% discount on all Rebecca’s online workshops by using the code abby20 at checkout.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Monday Feb 19, 2018
Episode #115: Mathew Boudreaux
Monday Feb 19, 2018
Monday Feb 19, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about building a career in the sewing industry with my guest, Mathew Boudreaux.
Mathew Boudreaux of Mister Domestic learned to sew as a kid, but never really got into it until he had his daughter Helena, who is now four and a half. He thought it would be a great way to connect with her if he could make her cool clothes.
With a new motivation to up his attention-to-detail, the quality and coolness far exceeded even his own expectations. Once he started posted his projects on social media, the quilting world quickly took notice of his fearless use of color and print, incomprehensibly fast output, carefree enthusiasm and humor, and ability to seek out, acquire and share new skills.
Several years ago Mathew began posting photos of the things he was sewing on Instagram, not knowing that there was an online sewing community. Through the comments on his posts he was introduced to other makers and realized that he could launch a business in the home sewing and quilting industry. He started a blog and YouTube channel and began working with brands like Art Gallery Fabrics, Aurifil, Brother and others to do co-marketing. His brand, Mister Domestic, grew at an accelerated pace as a result. Just a few weeks ago Mathew announced that he's now designing fabric for Art Gallery.
In this interview Mathew talks about his business strategy and the intentional way he thinks about his brand. He talks about how he chose the name Mister Domestic and why he recently got the name trademarked. Matthew has a mission for his brand and a long-term business plan that he's following. His brand is built on joy and positivity and he uses those feelings as an anchor when making decisions about what to do next. He also uses focus groups to help guide him on messaging.
Mathew has kept his day job which requires a significant amount of travel and we talk about how he fits everything into his busy life. He also talks about being a father and being gay and how that's felt as a member of the quilting community.
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This episode is sponsored by Make Modern magazine. Make Modern magazine is a digital magazine especially for modern quilters. Each issue features at least 10 projects with full patterns for quilts, minis, pillows and more. Make Modern is also packed with feature articles on the latest happenings in the modern quilt community and interviews with quilt superstars. Sign up for a free six month trial subscription, exclusive for Craft Industry Alliance listeners at www.makemodern.com.au/whileshenaps, hurry offer ends March 15th 2018.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Monday Feb 05, 2018
Episode #114: Melanie Ham
Monday Feb 05, 2018
Monday Feb 05, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast I'm talking with Melanie Ham about YouTube.
Melanie is a YouTuber and blogger who loves to create and share easy to follow sewing, quilting and crochet video tutorials to empower your creativity. She discovered sewing shortly after graduating with an art degree with emphasis in art history from California State University of Northridge when she found herself with more time on her hands after her husband joined the U.S. Army in 2007. Along the way she picked up crochet because it was easy to travel with and in the fall of 2010 made her first quilt.
What started out as a way to be creative and stay busy turned into an obsession and by 2011 had started a blog and YouTube channel. She now has over 400,000 subscribers on YouTube with over 32 million views and has grown to include premium content on melaniesmakers.com as well. After living in Alaska and Hawaii with the Army, she and her husband Robert, two cute kids, one new rescue puppy and her trusty studio cat now reside back home in Los Angeles where they are both self employed creatives and enjoy spending time with their kids and extended family enjoying southern California's amazing weather.
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This episode is sponsored by Crosscut Sewing. Located in Melrose, MA or online at CrosscutSewingCo.com, Crosscut offers fun and modern fabric for all of your sewing projects. In addition to quilting cotton, Crosscut offers a variety of apparel fabrics like denim, chambray, jersey knit, canvas, corduroy, flannel and more. Use the code WSN18 to save 20% on your next fabric purchase.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Monday Jan 15, 2018
Episode #113: Casey York
Monday Jan 15, 2018
Monday Jan 15, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about quilting and art history with my guest, Casey York.
Casey has sewn for most of her life and has been making quilts for a decade. Initially inspired by the graphic possibilities of appliqué, she has worked in the quilting industry to push the boundaries of this tradition with her graphic, contemporary designs and patterns. Casey received her Ph.D. in art history in 2012 and is known in the quilting industry for her two books, Modern Appliqué Illusions (2014) and The Appliqué Book (2016). Her first line of fabric, Fine|Spun, Volume One, was released by Studio 37 Fabrics (a division of Marcus Textiles) in the summer of 2017. She invites you to visit her website, casey-york.com, to learn more about her work.
We talk about how to get a fabric line with a major manufacturer, the benefits of writing craft books, and how Casey applies her academic background in art history to the artwork she's producing now.
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Today’s show is sponsored by Spoonflower. If you’re a creative person who loves to design, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of seeing your art printed onto fabric, or better yet — seeing someone across the globe purchase it and make something amazing.
Spoonflower is the first company to make it possible to digitally print custom fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap with no minimums, and no limitation of colors. Shop from thousands of indie designs, or sell your own designs and earn up to 15% commission on every sale. The best part? As an independent seller you always keep the rights to your work. While She Naps podcast listeners can get 15% off your next Spoonflower fabric order. Go to try.spoonflower.com/abby and enter your email address to receive your coupon code.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Monday Jan 01, 2018
Episode #112: Carol Soderlund
Monday Jan 01, 2018
Monday Jan 01, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about color and dye with my guest, Carol Soderlund.
An artist and educator for 25 years, Carol’s curiosity about the range of color derived from yellow, red, and blue dyes led to her creation of her Color Mixing system for dyers. Carol encourages the freedom of mixing color by eye with results-based samples to guide the student. A former high school teacher, Carol was nominated for Teacher of the Year in 2013 and again in 2015 by the International Association of Creative Arts Professionals. Carol is co-author of Playful Fabric Printing with Melanie Testa. She has shown her quilts in juried venues across the country, winning awards including Best of Show at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas.
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This episode is sponsored by StitchCraft. Online or at the pretty pink building in Boca Raton – StitchCraft is a one stop shop for the best service and selection for creative quilting, sewing and stitching. Stitchcraft offers Batiks, Tropicals, Kaffe Fassett and thousands of other fabrics plus embroidery, sashiko, wool and punchneedle. Make a resolution this year to hone your skills or learn a new craft and let StitchCraft help. Use the promo code NAPS2018 to save 15% on your next order.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.