Episode 29 Building a Quilt Book Proposal with Amanda Niederhauser

Posted on by Carina Gardner

Amanda Niederhauser returns as our guest star on today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast. She and Carina take a look at Amanda’s quilting book, “Playful Precut Quilts,” and take a deep dive into what Amanda did to get the book published. Playful Precut Quilts is a “how to” book that gives step-by-step instructions on how to make quilts with pre-cut fabrics. You’ll want to check out the YouTube video on this one so that you can see Amanda’s beautiful book! 

But first, here is the link to the YouTube exclusive Trunk Show that Carina and Amanda talk about at the beginning of the episode! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b3cUMC-t9w 

During the discussion on getting the book published, Amanda talks about how important it is to be able to handle rejection. Prior to Playful Precut Quilts, she had submitted many book ideas to several publishers and was rejected every time. Amanda also walks us through the proposal process: for a quilting book, this meant that she had to design every quilt and include it in the proposal. The proposal also includes data on the author’s experience, their social media presence, and projections on the size of the potential target audience for the book. The proposal for Amanda’s book took several months. Her experience with prior proposals meant that the proposal for Playful Precut Quilts incorporated all she had learned from her prior attempts.

Amanda walks us through the busy schedule of making 13 full quilts in six months to meet her deadlines after her publisher accepted her proposal. Turns out that when you make a book about quilts, you have to make the quilts that are featured in it for photos and marketing! Not gonna lie. Carina is in awe of all that production. The publishing process also required her to write all of the patterns and design the illustrations for the book. We also hear about the back and forth between the various departments within the publisher (graphics, layouts, copy) and Amanda as they got the book ready for final publication. What a great behind-the-scenes look at publishing in the crafting industry!

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Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY 
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About Carina Gardner:
Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
 
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
 
Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com
Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp

About Today’s Guest

Amanda Neiderhauser is a quilter, a fabric designer for Riley Blake, and an author. You can find her work in the following places:

Instagram: jedicraftgirl

Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/JediCraftGirl (patterns)

Amanda’s book, “Playful Precut Quilts,” published by C&T Publishing, is available on Amazon, in quilt shops, and wherever books are sold. 

Episode 26 Collage Quilting with Emily Taylor

Posted on by Carina Gardner

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina is joined by business owner and expert collage quilter Emily Taylor. Emily designed many fabric collections for Riley Blake Designs and started a company called that allowed people to design their own quilting patterns online and gives some insight into how a business failure propelled her to strike out into the new territory of collage quilting.

Emily Taylor makes the most beautiful collage quilts. If you have never heard about collage quilting, Emily breaks down what she does and how you can learn how to collage quilt too! She launched her company, Collage Quilter, in 2018. She also teaches for quilt guilds and events around the country. Her background also includes many years as a mural painter.

You’ll want to check this one out on the YouTube channel because Emily walks us through what makes a quilt a collage quilt and shows us some of her beautiful, intricate quilt. Emily also shares a pre-printed foundation panel, which guides fabric selection and placement in the collage. Emily loves to use printed fabric because it makes every collage quilt unique. Emily also applies general principles of art to the production of collage quilts. Emily also shares strategies for buying the right kinds of fabric for producing collage quilts. 

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Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY 
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About Carina Gardner:
Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
 
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
 
Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com
Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp

About Today’s Guest

Emily Taylor is the founder and owner of Collage Quilter, a company dedicated to helping quilters learn how to create beautiful, unique collage quilts. Emily’s background includes working as a mural painter and as a fabric designer. 

Find Emily online at http://www.collagequilter.com or in Facebook groups called “Collage Quilter Academy” and “Collage Quilter.”

Emily Taylor’s first quilting workshop will take place in Midway, Utah in June 2022 and is already sold out. Nice work, Emily! 

Episode 25 All Things Silhouette with Terri Johnson

Posted on by Carina Gardner

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina is joined by Terri Johnson, an event planner who runs one of the biggest Silhouette events, “All Things Silhouette.”  Terri tells us about how she got started as a crafter. It began when she was young in sewing classes but really kicked into high gear when she had children of her own and wanted to sew clothing for them. Her passion led to working as a seamstress at a sewing store. This led to her ownership of her own sewing store for many years. 

Several years ago, she discovered that Silhouette machines can be used to create fabric appliqués and her expertise in the Silhouette space took off from there. Based on the demos they were doing in her sewing shop, they began selling Silhouette machines like crazy to the point that Silhouette’s Vice President of Sales came to visit her to find out how her methods were so effective. Eventually her work with Silhouette education and retreats led her to close her sewing shop to focus full time on Silhouette. Terri walks us through what it was like to plan and host her first-even Silhouette conference and that it was a bit like Field of Dreams, “if you build it they will come.” Carina points out that Terri has been really great at seeing an opportunity that aligns with her passions and then turning that opportunity into something memorable for the wider community. For Terri, the key to the success of her events is the quality of the educators that they bring to the conference. 

Terri walks through some of the challenges that her conferences have faced during the pandemic and tells us the ways they have continued to be successful with a pivot to an online-only model. Many people actually prefer the virtual event! As Terri looks to the future, she is in the process of deciding whether to do live events again (it sounds like she’ll do one live event and one virtual event!).

Terri tells us about some of her courses and programs, including a curriculum that allows someone to become a certified Silhouette instructor. She also has a monthly club for Silhouette projects called the “All Things Silhouette Club.”

Terri can be found at http://www.terrijohnsoncreates.com. 


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Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY 
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About Carina Gardner:
Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
 
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
 
Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com
Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp

About Today’s Guest

Terri Johnson is a seamstress, Silhouette expert, business owner, and cancer survivor. She is passionate about helping people unlock their creative potential with their Silhouette machines. You can find more information about Terri’s conferences, courses, and licensing products at her website, http://terrijohnsoncreates.com. 

Episode 21 From Painting to Calligraphy with Melissa Esplin

Posted on by Carina Gardner

Carina is joined by artist and calligraphy expert Melissa Esplin on today’s episode of Make + Design. Melissa tells us about how she got into creative arts and how she tried to bridge the gap between fine art and graphic design as an undergrad and how that created tension between two halves of a department that simultaneously was jealous of and looked down on the other half of the department.

 Melissa shares the hilarious story of her Senior project for her Bachelors of Fine Arts in which they almost didn’t give her the “Fine” in the degree because her final project was done in Illustrator instead of a more traditional medium like oil paint. Carina shares a “what price art” moment from when she was pregnant for the first time and painted in a way that concerned her doctor. What could that possibly mean? LOL. 

Melissa walks through her post-college journey and how it led her to a love of calligraphy after she was inspired by a book she inherited that had belonged to her great-great grandfather. Melissa talks about how important it was for her as an artist to make ugly stuff in the beginning as she learned her craft and improved. She tells the journey of monetizing her art by taking a risk with starting her own calligraphy instruction site. Carina and Melissa dig into what it takes to run a successful online business and strategies for driving traffic to a website. They also talk about the importance of mental health and self care like exercise. 

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Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY 

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About Carina Gardner:

Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.

Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.

Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com

Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp

About Today’s Guest

Melissa Esplin is a calligraphy expert and entrepreneur who has taught thousands of people to become calligraphy artists over the last decade. She holds a B.F.A. from Brigham Young University and is an avid cyclist. 

Find Melissa on her site at https://www.calligraphy.org/ and on Instagram at melissapher. 

Episode 19 Free Motion Quilting with Dara Tomasson

Posted on by Carina Gardner

On today’s episode of the Make and Design Podcast, Carina is joined by Dara Tomasson, a resident of beautiful Vancouver Island and professional long-arm quilter. Dara is also an author and has a new book called “Doodle School” about how to free-motion quilt.

Dara also talks about her passion for working as a life coach for quilters. She helps them to lose weight and build confidence. Find out how Dara’s “tall-girl problems” led her into sewing, quilting, and, eventually, long-arm quilting. Dara gives her recommendations and ideas on different kinds of long-arm quilts. Dara and Carina explore the ways that long-arm quilting is a unique art form. You’ll want to check out the YouTube video on this one as well so that you can see Dana’s beautiful quilting. Towards the end of the conversation, Dara tells us about her new life-coaching business and how she got into it. She expresses so much joy in talking about how she helps women lose weight and helps them fulfill their dreams.

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Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY 

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About Carina Gardner:

Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.

Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.

Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com

Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp

About Today’s Guest

Dara Tomasson is a life-coach,  professional long-arm quilter, and author. Dara can be found on Instagram at daratomasson. 

Episode 16 How To Find Your Art Style with Jeanie Dickinson

Posted on by Carina Gardner

On today’s episode of Make and Design, Carina is joined by artist and designer Jeanie Dickinson, who is also a member of Carina’s Design Suite. Jeanie takes us on a deep dive into her creative process and what she did to develop her very own style, including the moment when she realized that she had her own style. She shares with us how important it was for her to find a mentor and how that impacted and accelerated the development of her style.

 Jeanie and Carina describe Jeanie’s style and Jeanie gives two great tips on how you can develop your own style. This one is worth checking out on the YouTube channel as well because Jeanie shows off some of her adorable, whimsical art. Find out how journaling has helped Jeanie practice more and refine her art style. Jeanie and carina also talk about how having a BIG WHY can keep you motivated as an artist. Jeanie finishes up by telling us about a couple of resources and classes that have helped her improve over the years. 

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Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY 

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About Carina Gardner:

Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.

Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.

Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com

Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp

Episode 14 BONUS YOUTUBE Quilt Trunk Show with Amanda

Posted on by Carina Gardner

Amanda and I did a trunk show for you! This bonus episode was filmed in my studio! If you are looking for some great inspiration, here it is! 

Find Amanda on instagram at www.instagram.com/jedicraftgirl 

Find out more at http://www.carinagardner.com 

Want to become a designer? Check out Carina’s next Design Bootcamp at http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp. 

Episode 12 Our Philosophy for Getting Started with Social Media with My Sister Kim Friedmann

Posted on by Carina Gardner

Carina’s sister and Etsy guru SuiKim Friedmann joins the Make and Design Podcast today to discuss how to get started with social media. Carina starts by telling a “from the mouth of babes” story about advice her husband once received from a seven-year-old that applies perfectly to social media.

Kim and Carina discuss the pros and cons of various social media platforms and give advice on the factors that will help you choose which platform is best for you. Are you looking for community or a place to easily share information? Find out what will work and what may not when it comes to social! 

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Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY 
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About Carina Gardner:
Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
 
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
 
Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com
Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcam

About Today’s Guest

SuiKim Friedmann is an Etsy guru, coach, and blogger who shares her wisdom on how to build a dynamite Etsy shop at www.suikim.com and on Instagram at suikimfriedmann. Please note that Kim’s website has changed since this episode was originally recorded!

Episode 10 Mod Meow Fabric with Amanda Niederhauser

Posted on by Carina Gardner

On today’s episode of the Make and Design Podcast, Riley Blake fabric designer and quilter Amanda Neiderhauser stops by to give us all the details on her latest fabric line, Mod Meow! She and Carina also laugh about how they met for the first time (spoiler alert: there was 80s music and dancing involved). Amanda shares a bit of her inspiration as she describes her bengal cat, Mufasa. Amanda’s line is inspired by Mid-Century color palettes. Amanda also tells us about Riley Blake’s future plans to release multi-designer low volume lines and to do a cross-designer red line. Amanda’s contributions all feature adorable cats! Amanda’s passion for her work and for quilting shines brightly! 

Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY 

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About Carina Gardner:

Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.

Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.

Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com

Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp

About Today’s Guest

Amanda Neiderhauser is a quilter and fabric designer for Riley Blake. You can find her work in the following places:

Instagram: jedicraftgirl

Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/JediCraftGirl (patterns)

Episode 8 Juggling Kids and Summer with My Sister SuiKim Friedmann

Posted on by Carina Gardner

Carina is joined by her sister and Etsy guru SuiKim Friedmann on today’s episode of the Make and Design Podcast. Carina and Kim get real about the struggles of parenting while running a business during the busy summer months while kids are out of school. Kim took the advice from her last visit to the podcast and freed up some additional time by hiring someone to help her with her workflow. Carina runs through her typical daily routine during the summer. Find out how the sisters break up their day to make sure that they get work done for their businesses while still spending quality time with the kiddos. Carina gives another recommendation for the book “When” by Daniel H. Pink.

Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY 

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About Carina Gardner:

Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.

Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.

Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com

Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp

About Today’s Guest

SuiKim Friedmann is an Etsy guru, coach, and blogger who shares her wisdom on how to build a dynamite Etsy shop at www.suikim.com. Her old website, www.kimcrafts.com, will redirect you to the new one!