First off, thank you for the fabulous naming ideas. We’ve been throwing them around all morning. Choosing is going to be difficult. Please keep them coming!

I’m writing this follow up post to answer a couple of big questions that came up in the comments:

1. Kathy, can the tips be from another source and still count? For example, I’m currently using some tips that I got from other sources that are really helpful and I would like to submit those.

I think the most important thing is that the tip is something that you do yourself and it’s written using your own words describing exactly how you do it. Twists you may have added or a unique take on a traditional technique.

Most of the things we’ve each learned about sewing come from another source be it a grandmother, sewing friend, reference book, online source, or a blog.

On a legal front, copyright does not extend to techniques or ideas. It does apply to the words people have written to describe or teach something. This is a really big distinction to make. How you thread a needle or tie a knot is not protected by copyright. It’s a sewing technique. The write up you did of that technique or the video you made is copyright protected. That is your original work. Your copyright protection begins the second you publish your work.

You absolutely can not begin with someone else’s words and change it slightly to ‘make it yours’. That would be considered a derivative work and the original copyright holder is the only one who can make derivatives of their original work. This is probably the biggest thing I see going on in the blog world right now. Published tutorials being taken, slightly re-worked and then re-published by somebody else as their own original work. You just can’t do that.

I’m not going to go on a big public rant about that issue but buy me a drink the next time you see me and I’ll give you an earful!

The one concern I have about the tipster idea is getting into an issue where someone feels their work was taken by another. I will most definitely take those complaints seriously and address them if they come up.

2. I usually post my tips in my blog, is it okay to send you something we’ve already posted?

Absolutely. In fact, it indicates you probably have a very nice picture to go with the tip which makes my job a LOT easier.

3. Is this so you can write a book that we don’t get credit for?

The question was posted by Anonymous which disappoints me. I try and be transparent here and I would definitely take that type of question straight up, no need to ask covertly. It’s a bit snarky too but I’m in a very good mood today so I can hopefully answer it in a thoughtful way.

As I stated in my last post: I’m paying $25 and giving the tipster credit along with a link to their shop/blog/website. The tips will be published in a weekly Pink Chalk Fabrics newsletter and here on the blog.

I thought the sewing tips idea was a very good deal for both sides. I’ve had the idea of doing a weekly sewing tips post for years. I’ve been dragging my feet on starting because I knew I couldn’t personally come up with one a week and produce it to the level required to share it with the world. It then occurred to me that I could hire someone to do the weekly tips. And that led to the idea of making the opportunity available to anyone in the world.

As a business owner I feel I have a responsibility to pay a fair price for content that comes from other sources. I also feel very strongly about making sure people get credit for their work. I think my offer is fair. Only the market response will tell me whether it is or not.

I hadn’t thought about a book (I’m still trying to figure out if I’ll have enough tips to get the first month’s worth of newsletters out!) I think a book is a great idea though. If people are concerned about future use of their tips I can promise this: I would get permission from contributors before re-purposing content for a use beyond what I’ve stated.

And in case anyone is wondering: I’m hoping that my business can grow and thrive to a point where I can step back and write my own book. So to answer the question posed by Anonymous: I don’t need other people’s content to publish a book, I have enough of my own original ideas thank you very much.

More questions? Leave them in the comments. I can take it. Really. I’ll update this post as needed.

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

I’ve always been a firm believer that the business success I have the potential to achieve is up to me. That a colleague or competitor’s success does not and can not negatively effect my own. In fact, if we join together and share our knowledge there are opportunities beyond anything each of us could reach individually.

I was recently on the receiving end of some extremely generous knowledge sharing. I attended Deb Lutrell’s Boot Camp for Shop Owners in Quitman, Texas. Stitchin’ Heaven is a premier example of a quilt shop operating on all cylinders. In business for over 10 years, Stitchin’ Heaven is a strong brick & mortar destination shop, a thriving online business, and delivers a Block of the Month operation that still has me in awe.

The bottom line is that Deb Lutrell is one smart business woman. Confident, successful, and genuinely excited about teaching other shop owner’s how she does business. She loves the quilting industry, her customers and her colleagues. She teaches both the detailed nuts and bolts of how Stitchin’ Heaven operates and her philosophy that drives the business. Did I get my money’s worth? Absolutely, and then a whole lot more.

Being a sole owner of a creative business sometimes leaves me feeling very alone. Going to boot camp reminded me that I need to continue to nourish and cultivate the supportive network of individuals I’ve met and continue to meet within the quilting industry and outside of it.

I left boot camp feeling energized and confident about what I need to do to grow and move my business in the direction I envision. It reminded me that I get to define the business so it fits with my personal life philosophy and goals. To stop worrying about what everyone else is doing. I need to say that again just to make it sink in: stop worrying about what everyone else is doing. Truly words to live by. To reflect on and embrace what makes me unique. To enjoy every last moment of the journey. To be fearless and brave.

That’s a lot of stuff for a 3 day class! Deb’s next boot camp is June, 2011. She also teaches sessions at Quilt Market (go whether you’re a shop owner or designer, you’ll learn lots).

Niki writes the Stitchin’ Heaven blog. She did a short interview with me and now I’m a Stitchin’ Heaven Friday Feature!

I also just have to say that I loved being in Texas even in July. The hospitality was amazing. I got to eat green chili enchiladas, hush puppies and fried okra. Yum.

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

Whew! The blog is working again and the upgrade was relatively painless. Like jumping off the high dive for the first time. Just a little bit of water up my nose.

I was on WordPress 2.6 and upgraded to 2.9.2. The big incentive was my obsession with getting threaded comments functionality. It’s just so practical and fun and conversational. I can now REALLY answer questions in the comments and you can actually see the answers connected right below the question asked (and my picture shows up next to my comment so you know I’m responding, yes!). You can even join in too! F A B U L O U S. A better way to talk about sewing!

I can’t tell you how I’ve struggled with the comment issue for the past several years. I’ve always answered questions with personal e-mails to the commenter. While I love that connection I always felt like I should be doing it in the comments. Sometimes I was successful and sometimes I wasn’t. In the mean time, I also had comments I just wanted to acknowledge and say ‘Yeah, right on!’ I would save them in my inbox planning to give a thoughtful response.

The result: hundreds of comments, all read, waiting for me to go back and give a quick e-mail response to, stress over watching the pile build, guilt, and more guilt over watching the pile build. Well, no more!

I’m beyond apologizing, I recognize I need to deal with the issue because it certainly is not taking care of itself. To that end… moving forward I will respond to all comments in the comments. A conversation, yay! I’m actually going to turn off receiving the comments into my e-mail inbox, I will just visit the blog dashboard and respond.

A few more opinions about the technical side of the blog thing (please feel free to skip unless you’re a techie blog geek like me and find all this stuff absolutely fascinating):

- In case you’re wondering, I do just about all my own technical work. Of course, you probably could figure that out because if I’d paid someone to do this latest upgrade there would already be a pretty picture in the header right now and fancy fonts in the side bar.

- I originally chose a self-hosted WordPress blog 4 years ago! Yikes! Will I blog for the rest of my life? Hmmm. I HIGHLY recommend this solution if your blog is in any way related to your business aspirations. In a nutshell:

1) Over time your blog content will take on value, you should OWN the URL that all that content resides on. Don’t like your web host? Your web host goes under? Your blog service doesn’t provide the functionality you need to grow your business? Who cares, you own the URL and can move your highly valuable content anywhere you want.

2)   WordPress ROCKS! It’s open source software and the functionality is growing exponentially on a daily basis. There is a plug in (free user contributed add-ons) for absolutely everything you could ever imagine wanting to do a on a blog. And these days, the plug ins are looking very much like fully functioning website templates including e-commerce, photo galleries and drop down menus.

- What’s a WordPress Theme? It’s the other part of having a WordPress blog. WordPress is the software that organizes the technical workings of the blog and manages the database interface. The Theme is the pretty stuff. The code that creates the user interface your readers see. My latest theme is Headway. It cost me $70 for a lifetime license (do a google search to get 20% off if you end up purchasing this theme.) I’m not an affiliate just so you know.

- Why did I purchase a theme instead of selecting one of the gazillion free themes available? OK, the free themes are fantastic. I have used MistyLook for the last two years and I have LOVED this free theme. Sadish Bala, the very talented author, has a forum and answered many of the questions I had when customizing things to get the look I wanted. The problem: Sadish is not upgrading MistyLook to take advantage of new features available in WordPress (yes, I wanted those threaded comments!). A common problem with all free themes. Of course it is, who in their right mind would upgrade a free offering for the rest of their life. I decided to go with a paid theme that has a chance of being supported and upgraded for years and years to come.

From my research, there are two paid themes battling it out in the marketplace right now: Headway and Thesis. I chose Headway because it provides a very easy user interface for customizing the basic things I’m interested in: fonts, colors and page formats. It also has a gazillion other features and in planning ahead I’m hoping a robust framework will support all the ideas I have for the evolution of this blog.

- In my last post, Kristin asked if the threaded comments was a feature of WordPress or the theme itself. Threaded comments were incorporated into version 2.7 of WordPress (available as a plug in for prior releases). The problem was that not all themes would support the feature. MistyLook did not which is why I did both a WordPress upgrade and installed a new theme.

- Questions? Let em fly, I’ll answer with my new fancy threaded comments feature

I finished the Cog + Wheel quilt. It’s fabulous! Will share all that in my next post.

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

Susan and I took a little field trip this morning to Sportsman Business Park on Bainbridge Island to visit the future home of Pink Chalk Fabrics. We had a good time and realized we definitely need to get out more during the day!

When I first walked into this space I knew it was the one. As a good business person I kept my poker face in tact, pointed out the drawbacks, asked serious questions about the costs, and continued to look at extremely inferior locations. But I knew this was it. It’s always good to be thorough and as non-emotional as possible when it comes to these things, but, yes, inside I knew Suite 205 already had Pink Chalk Fabrics on the sign.

I love the aesthetics of the pitched ceiling, the clearstory windows above the entry door and the indirect North facing natural light. I think it’s so important to have a beautiful and peaceful place to work. I don’t have to clean the bathrooms myself either (yay!).

And to answer some questions before they get asked: no plans for onsite retail, we’ll continue to be an online only shop.  I do look forward to offering free pick up for all my local peeps. Maybe classes in the future? I’d like to begin teaching again and I think that would fun. And definitely some type of road trip worthy annual warehouse clearance sale!

I’m proud of myself for creating this business and having the good fortune to work every day with Susan and Jacqui (and now Diana, yay!), all amazingly inspiring women who love to sew as much as I do. I’m looking forward to this next part of the adventure. It makes me a little nervous and very excited. Sometimes when we’re on the verge of the next big step it’s easy to pull back and hesitate. Hit the hold button. I’m taking a deep breath and moving forward, trusting myself to make big decisions and accepting the mistakes I’ll make along the way. The timing is right and I’m confident good things are to come. Thank you to all of you fabulous Pink Chalk Fabrics customers for making this possible. You’re the best!

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

I purchased this necklace for myself from Nancy Hom of Sunlan Designs, an amazingly talented silversmith and jewelry artist. It’s a cuckoo bird and I LOVE it so much. I’ve got to figure out a way to see her work again soon!

A Christmas gift for Caitlin. Sam Trout is a very cool looking artist making very cool looking shirts. I love the complexity of layers in this design and how the cherry blossom wraps around to the back.

Another purchase for myself from Jessie Keating of Tiny House. I don’t think it’s possible to own too many of these little notebooks. This design makes me smile every time I pull it out of my purse.  Jessie was adorable. One of the most fabulous things about participating in the bazaar was soaking in all the youthful energy of so many young and talented makers.

Made by my friend Nikki Wheeler. She had a beautiful booth filled to the brim with her gorgeous small art. I discovered Nikki’s art via Kristin La Flamme’s blog and the Twelve By Twelve Project they both participate in. Once I realized Nikki lived close to me I contacted her and we were able to meet. She is constantly experimenting and working in themes. I find her approach incredibly inspiring. Believe! is one of my ‘words’ around the holidays. I plan to frame this one.

Love, love, love these inchie card sets she was selling. I’m including them with snail mail gift certificates for the shop.

OK, that’s a wrap on the Indie Banditas Bazaar. You can check out Part I and Part II if you missed them. Things are finally back to normal after the Thanksgiving Sale. I always forget how crazy it gets thus the long pause between Part II and Part III. I did a tissue fitting and cut out my Amy Butler Liverpool Tunic over the weekend. I’m going to try and sew a bit each evening to complete it by the end of the week. I’m hoping writing that out loud will make it happen!

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

Exhilarating, inspiring, serendipitous, joyful, and exhausting. I’m feeling thankful that I followed through on participating in the Indie Banditas Bazaar this past weekend on Bainbridge Island. I had that last minute stress of knowing I didn’t have enough finished goods for sale and wondering if I’d be too embarrassed to even set up my table.

Fortunately, the pragmatist I’m married to said ‘take your patterns and fabric scraps and have a fun time.’ Well, that’s exactly what I did and the show exceeded every imaginable expectation. I had a few surprises that still have me smiling.

This was a large show for a single venue on Bainbridge Island, over 80 vendors. All top quality handcrafted makers. The energy in the room was a joy to be immersed in. Katie Butler is the one-woman dynamo behind making this idea a reality. This is the 3rd show to take place with more to come. I look forward to watching, participating in, and cheering along her vision.

The top photo is Debra, myself and Robin. These gals are from Vancouver BC (yes, that would be Canada). I asked how they ended up at the show and they told me they came down to see me. I’m still not buying it but I sure had a great time visiting with them. Debra’s Mail Sack was Fab-u-lous! We had a wonderfully long chat and I could have hung out with them all weekend.

I don’t know if I express this enough but I absolutely LOVE to talk about sewing. OK, you probably already knew that but I need to tell you that in the most sincere way possible. I like to know what you’re making, how you made it and what inspires you. The true essence of what motivates me in my work each day is that you are all creating things that bring happiness and joy. Things for yourself, things for your mom, things for sale, things for your next door neighbor, things for children in crisis, things for your child’s school fundraiser.

Well, the show really reminded me of this in such a powerful way that I’m still a bit crazy over it. I had the delight of meeting customers in person that I’ve only known through e-mail, seeing friends that became my friends via this blog, wonderful sewists that lurk and were almost too shy to even say hello, young 8 year old girls that told me about the doll clothes they were making by hand. Goodness, it reminded me how much love and passion goes into this craft we all adore and how connected it makes us.

I’m feeling extremely revitalized and full of ideas. I absolutely must get my next pattern out and the show has left me focused on the task. I’m going to keep all my conversations with the beautiful women I met this weekend fresh in my mind and stay the course. Thank you for coming out and stopping by!

OK, this post just wouldn’t be complete without a little nuts and bolts about the show. What sold and what didn’t get touched. What I tried out that was new and worked and what I tried out that didn’t work:

- I really like the round table. I did this at last year’s show. I can sit behind it but jump up and hug people easily. A must have for me. I need easy access to the peeps. I had originally planned to take a larger table and use my brand new tablecloth. Late Thursday night I changed my mind and cut a 58″ length of Amy Butler laminated cotton (it measures 58″ selvage to selvage making a nice big square) to cover my round table. I didn’t even cut off the selvages but now I might and just leave it on that table which normally sits in my living room.

- I purchased some wire grid display units from Store Supply Warehouse. I experimented with different hardware too. These are the real deal. Definitely worth the money. Functional, attractive, and easy to customize. I didn’t realize how tall 6′ actually is in person (I know that sounds silly but you know what I mean), a very practical height. My favorite hardware were the 10″ peg hooks (scrap bags), 2″ peg hooks (patterns) and the 5 J Hook Waterfall drop arm (you can see the tote bags hanging on them). I noticed the same grid units in several of the more experienced vendor booths.

- I have a credit card processor for the online shop. When I take phone orders from wholesale customers I enter the transactions online. At last year’s craft show I took credit cards by writing the numbers by hand on physical credit card slips that they then signed. Yuck, error prone and it takes a bit of time to write the number, the expiration date and the customer’s name down. I investigated various automated solutions and they were all too expensive given I only plan to do these shows several times a year. Good old mechanical technology to the rescue. I purchased a manual credit card imprinter off eBay for $8.95. I wrote ‘Pink Chalk Studio’ on the slips by hand in advance and entered the charges online when I got home.

- What didn’t sell: my $27 tote bags. I don’t remember anyone even taking them off and trying one on! Should have done the mini-wallets again. Customers were looking for gifts in the under $20 range.

- What did sell: my $6 scrap bags. These were a very good deal. We took all the bolt ends from the last year and put them into plastic bags by weight. The total yardage was between 1.25 and 1.5 yards. I sold 85 of those.

- I took my patterns and samples of my patterns and sold quite a few. I also took samples of my Quilting Arts Gifts 2009 and Quilt Scene projects and sold all the magazines I took. I took some of the newer patterns from other designers that had recently arrived. I sold a few of these but I think it took away from the display being about ‘Pink Chalk’. I was constantly saying ‘well, these are my patterns’ and ‘these are other people’s patterns’. I’m convinced for these shows that the display should speak for itself and not need an explanation.

Tomorrow I’ll share some of the fantastic vendors I discovered at the show!

Please tell me what you’re successfully selling at craft shows these days!

***

The Thanksgiving Weekend Sale Extravaganza runs through Monday at midnight (November 30). I’ve generally pulled back on doing much shop talk here on the blog. I’m getting a bit fatigued with all the marketing I’m bombarded with on a daily basis and I don’t want my blog to be about that too. I send out a weekly newsletter highlighting new fabrics, sale announcements and occasional discount codes. I will mention sales here on the blog but not necessarily the discount codes. If you want to volunteer to receive Pink Chalk Fabrics marketing once per week then you can sign up for the newsletter here.

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

Candy Glendening is a fiber artist I met 3 years ago when she volunteered to test the Note Taker, my first sewing pattern. I’ve enjoyed watching Candy’s artistic journey unfold, one of her latest creations are these fabulous 3-d houses titled Home is Where the Art Is.

She recently launched a new website and is celebrating with an amazing give away, you have till November 25 to enter.

Besides wanting you to go over there and give her your crafty go-girl support, the techie side of me is totally impressed with her website. I’ve been doing some research lately on a new blog theme (yeah, I realize my banner’s about to celebrate it’s 2nd birthday!). When people ask me for advice about setting up a blog I always recommend WordPress. Besides being open source and free, it absolutely rocks in terms of the endless widgets and functionality it offers. If I can think of a feature I want on my blog I know I can find a WordPress plug in that will do it for me.

The latest iteration of WordPress blog themes support an integrated blog, e-commerce, website format. Candy’s new site is an example. I absolutely LOVE the gallery. I just think this is so cool. Power to the little people, technology we can grow on!

Congrats my friend!!!

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

The Indie Banditas Bazaar is happening here on Bainbridge Island, WA on the Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving Weekend (November 27th & 28th). It runs from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm both days. The venue is Woodward Middle School located on Sportsman Club Road (yay for lots of space!)

I’m very excited to be participating again. My brain has been overflowing with creative ideas lately. It’s nice to have a deadline for getting some items made.

You can preview the vendors on the Indie Banditas blog.

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

I devour a wide range of business related media. If it’s available to be read or listened to sign me up. Here are a couple of my online favorites right now:

• Modish BIZtips – this is a new to me blog that I’ve been following for a couple of months now. It features articles by Jena Coray, the publisher of the blog, and several additional contributors with expertise in specific areas of business. I like the creative business focus.

• Seth Godin – I’m a total Seth Godin groupie. Me and a million other people (he has 129,000 subscribers on Google Reader alone). I read his blog every morning with a fresh cup of coffee in my hand. His humor combined with insightful commentary on marketing and business never fails to ignite creative ideas I can put to use in my own business. I’ve read and/or listened to many of Seth’s books. My favorite being Purple Cow. I like his attitude most of all, he takes no advertising on his blog and always tells it as he sees it.

• The Professional Quilter – Morna McEver Golletz is the very passionate Publisher and Editor of this content-rich magazine. While it has ‘Quilter’ in the name I have found it to keep me up to date on every facet of the industry which extends to fabric, patterns, designers, any business that somehow touches the quilting industry. I have taken two telecourses. The most recent being Boost Quilt Business Profits with Internet Marketing. I never participate real time, I always download the class after the fact and listen to it on my own schedule. I highly recommend signing up for the free newsletter (there’s a sign up box on the front page of the website), Morna always has interesting tips to share.

Please share your own favorites!

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

I arrived home last night from Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. Quite the whirlwind trip. I’ll be sharing pictures all week of the fabulous booths and wonderful people I had the opportunity to meet.

I also brought back a ton of incredible new patterns and fabric samples which I’ll be giving away. A single drawing next Monday. If you leave a comment on any post this week (leave one on each post for more chances to win) you’ll be eligible.

I made these samples out of silk dupioni for the Brewer Booth. I’m going to leave you with that while I go get caught up on all the work I didn’t do for 4 days!

Gather Up Pillow, free pattern coming soon to a blog near you:

And what would samples be without a Mail Sack:

Update 5/18/09:

I should have mentioned the pencil sharpener button in the original post. Isn’t that cool?! I saw it on a pencil roll that Holly posted to the Friends of Pink Chalk Studio Flickr Group. I googled for them online and found eBay seller Stelyn Arts that I purchased them from. Yes, they came from the UK, I REALLY needed those buttons. I highly recommend the seller.

To answer some of the questions in the comments on sewing with silk:

Sewing with silk is so easy and fun. I’ve used it a lot in the past but had to back off a bit for pattern writing. Not exactly something you’d want to feature on the cover of a pattern intended for sale in a quilt shop. When Brewer asked me to make some samples for market I was ecstatic. They wanted to highlight the availability of silk dupioni to their wholesale customers with samples from patterns they also distribute. They let me select colors and sent me the yardage.

I generally back the silk with interfacing if the seam is going to have any stress on it. For the pillow design I interfaced the center gathered column because it would have raveled beyond recognition when pulling the basting stitches. I then used a foundation piecing technique for the whole thing. I’ll talk more about that when I post the pattern.

I love how silk adds richness and texture to the patchwork project. I also mixed silk, wool, corduroy and quilting cotton on the patchwork pillow I made for my ASG challenge. I used silk taffeta on that project and backed the silk squares with interfacing before piecing.

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale