The Rev Craft Biz Podcast

Episode 079 Kristin Barrus was just recently awarded her doctorate, and the focus of her studies were entrepreneurial quilt makers. I was honored to be one of her interview subjects a couple of years ago, and it was wonderful to talk to her about what came from all her research. I can’t begin to summarize it, other than to say it’s fascinating. It’s both surprising and not surprising to hear that...

In this episode my Cheryl Brickey of MeadowMist Designs joins the podcast. When not designing quilts, and running a really fun and successful Curated Pattern Bundles project, Cheryl works writing patents for an industrial fabric design company. We talk about the building blocks of pattern writing, design inspiration, and what, if anything, pattern designers can do to protect their intellectual pro...

In this episode Marianne Fons joins to talk about teaching quilting on public TV with her Quilty partner Liz Porter, long before the internet and youtube! It was great to be able to ask her about what the business landscape looked like when direct mail was how you reached your customers. Surprisingly, some aspects of business haven’t changed at all, and we talked about the importance of the right...

In this episode Kathie Beltz joins us to talk about all things to do with judging quilts for quilt shows. She covers the things to pay attention to if you hope to be considered for a prize, and I got to ask about criteria for bindings, which is something I’ve had notes on when I’ve entered competitions! One of the things she points out is that, while design definitely matters, many of the criteria...

In this episode my friend Lauren Goche joins the pod. She’s not in the craft industry, she’s a realtor – but as an entrepreneur who has built her own business, she has faced similar challenges around burnout, hustle culture, and hiring help. She’s a fierce advocate for women and a community builder in my neighborhood, so I’m happy to bring some of her wisdom here to share. We talk about the growin...

Christa Watson join the pod in this episode, and we talk about the long journey to “overnight success.” She spent a lot of years thinking she had to get older to be “allowed” to do more with her business, and eventually became a hard working advocate for HERSELF, while being a kind resource for others. We talk about how she has used that power to negotiate better contracts for herself in both book...

#073 - Timna joins the podcast again to talk about some of the things she’s done to help ease the burnout she was feeling a couple of years ago. She re-evaluated how she does her teaching, and modified the WHERE to give her schedule some much needed space. We also talk about the value of playing with artistic media that is not fabric-related to shake out new ideas, and to just have some fun. It ca...

Kristy Lea visits the pod again, and this time we dig into what it takes to run and participate in collaborative design projects. We discuss the differences in doing free block projects for strategic email list growth, and patterns for sale projects - and Kristy and I have collaborated on both kinds in the past couple of years. There’s a lot of organization to get them up and running, and Kristy r...

# 071 - Daisy Aschehoug returns the the podcast to talk about working for the big quilt shows, and the wide variations in compensation they offer. As you well know, my biggest concern is always to challenge any model that relies on the underpaid labor of women for its success. There are so many levers to pull in terms of paying people well (or at least fairly), and we talk about the pros and cons...

#070 - Maddie Kertay returns to the podcast for a discussion about trade shows. Hot on the heels of Quilts Inc shutting down the long-running Houston Quilt Market, H&H, which has been running a spring trade show for a couple of years, announced that they will add a Fall event in Houston to their line up. What does this mean for industry professionals? Strategy! Maddie and I discuss how to spend yo...

#069 - Holly Marsh My friend and fellow biz owner and artist Holly Marsh returns to the podcast for a great discussion about using AI. There is no doubt that AI is here to stay, but how much of it is actually useful or time-saving in YOUR business. And given the planetary resource costs of keeping data centers running, not to mention the time to train AI to understand what you want, is it worth it...

#068 - Carolina Moore comes back to the podcast to discuss all things having to do with email strategy. We cover email providers, lead magnets, how to interpret analytics, and what goes on under the hood of the internet with respect to deliverability, unsubscribes, and junk mail. We also talk about the bane of small businesses everywhere, the dreaded credit card charge-back, and why it’s ALWAYS ki...

#067: Lindsie Bergevin joins us to talk about the Quilter’s Planner, and how it’s changed over the years based on both customer feedback and the ever-changing manufacturing landscape. We discuss how important good design is, and that it’s not always obvious because good design just really works. We also talk about the difficulties of being charge of all the aspects of your business, and how self c...

Episode 066 It was great having Andi Barney on the pod to talk about turning her passion for vintage machines into one of the most unique businesses in our industry, that of teaching people sewing machine maintenance. Not only does she teach people how to take care of their own, but she now runs a program to train people as machine techs - something we’ll always need as long as we’re sewing! Our c...

Episode 065 Heather Givans runs Crimson Tate, a quilt store, but it’s really a supportive community that lives inside a building. Heather brings her former high school art teacher and camp counsellor chops to the community she serves at the store. Heather is a life-long learner and I love her endless curiosity about things (listen to the pod to hear about how studying languages led her to teaching...

Episode 064 Libs and I fired up this conversation a few weeks before we hung out in person at the European Patchwork Meeting in September. She was just finishing up the work that she exhibited (what a WOW show) and we talked a lot about managing the balance between the art we make for the soul, and art we make for the biz. I can tell you that after hanging out in person for a week, I’ve added Libs...

Episode 063 It was SO great to sit down with Chawne Kimber and talk about her quilts. I was a huge fan of her work before I met her, and through the years of our friendship, my appreciation for both her and the work she makes has only deepened. Much of her work has a deep intentionality in the materials and their origin, and Chawne integrates that with the meaning of the pieces. She’s also got the...

I first met Latifah as she helmed the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild about 15 years ago, and it’s been an honor to remain connected over the years, and to see her business and statute in the industry develop. We talk about how being a traveling educator gave her an inside look at so many quilts shops, and how that information formed her pattern + ruler/template strategy. Latifah used her backgroun...

Stephanie Rohr first crossed my radar a few years ago, when a NY Times article detailed that her first book, Feminist Cross Stitch, got pulled from Michaels for having profanity in its pages. I immediately bought the book (solidarity!) and thought what a cool woman, I hope to meet her some day! Well friends, that day happened and it was such a great convo. We talk about both the support and reacti...

I recently attended the Carrefour European Patchwork Meeting (EPM) in Alsace, France. I shared lodging with Daisy Aschehoug and Libs Elliott, both veteran attendees and exhibitors. Libs was on the jury for the show, and was also exhibiting an all new solo show, a series of quilts made with generative code. I got to help hang that show and it was magnificent. One evening, I put the microphone in th...

#060: Tara Faughnan takes us on her quilting journey, through fabric design and a passion for traditional quilting blocks. She was recently the keynote speaker at QuiltCon 2025, and the attendees got to see her exploration of her maximalist traditional quilts in a lovely solo exhibition. Tara talks about finding the rhythm in her color palettes, which I find to be very distinctive! We talked about...

#059 - Samantha Hoyt was a joy to talk to - two Sams collide to talk about all the things, and let me tell you, we discovered we have a lot in common. Sam is past the point of being anything other than authentically who she is (which is passionate about sewing, taking care of the planet, and a lot of other big hearted things), and as it turns out, that’s what brings people back to her sewing retre...

#058 - Karlee Porter is a life-long artist, always going in her own direction. So it makes sense that when she turned to quilting, especially long-arm quilting, she took to doing it her way - and teaches other to follow their own inspiration too. We talked about important industry things - like pricing according to the complexity of the pattern, and how to navigate (and not participate in) the gat...

#057 - I was so excited to talk with HollyAnne Knight because I see her as such a powerhouse of positivity and inclusivity within the industry. She calls all her people Rock Stars, and upholds them as such in the community she creates, in her shop in Duluth, Georgia, and her online education platforms. I feel like she’s a natural born teacher, and part of her teaching approach is to make everythin...

#056: Jo Wollschlaeger talks challenges on the pod! She takes on a lot of the challenges in the modern quilting world, like the Pantone Color of the Year Challenge, or any of the various challenges for the MQG’s yearly QuiltCon show. And she’s good at them too, most recently winning a ribbon at QC 2025 for a quilt that started as a Pantone Challenge for the color Peach Fuzz. She really challenged...