Turning Art History into Quilt Patterns: A Conversation with Eva Saunders
Release Date: 05/08/2026
From Hollywood Animation to Quilting: Kristy Kay's Colorful Career Change
Craft To Career
Kristy Kay of With Love by Kristy is a new fabric designer for Moda Fabrics, but she has been in the art world for a long time. For over a decade, she worked in animation and visual development on films including Hotel Transylvania 2, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, and Smurfs: The Lost Village. As a student of art and color, Kristy understands the emotions that color can bring out. Most recently, she teamed up to create fabric collections inspired by the celebrated artist Mary Blair. In this episode, Kristy shares how she moved from creating for Hollywood to quilting...
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Barbie Mills on Pantograph Design, Longarm Quilting, and Growing a Quilting Business
Craft To Career
What if you could see how a pantograph will look on your quilt before you ever load it on the frame? Barbie Mills, longarm quilter and pantograph designer behind The Quilting Mill, joins the podcast to share how she built her business and the tool she created to help quilters choose their quilting with confidence. Barbie has loved sewing since she was a little girl and made her first quilt as a teenager. She studied Family and Consumer Science in college and taught in public schools for seven years before turning her love of quilting into a full time business. In 2012, she began longarm...
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Why Your Email Promos Aren't Selling (Live Coaching Call with Allison Austin of The Kitschy Creative)
Craft To Career
Why Your Email Promos Aren't Selling (Live Coaching Call with Allison Austin of The Kitschy Creative) If you've ever sent a promotional email and gotten silence, or worse, a wave of unsubscribes, this episode is for you. It started with a post in a Facebook group for quilt pattern writers. Allison Austin of The Kitschy Creative shared that despite emailing consistently every week, rotating between tips, personal updates, promos, and blog roundups, her promo emails were getting zero sales and multiple unsubscribes. I asked if she'd be open to working through it together, live, on the podcast....
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The Little Green Bean: A Decade of Pivots, Mentors, and Growth
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What happens when you build a business, then rebuild it, then rebuild it again? In this episode, we sit down with Missy Luukkonen of The Little Green Bean to talk about a decade of growth that looked nothing like a straight line. Missy started out leaving a retail job to create gnomes and burlap products, and has since evolved her business into selling quilt patterns and running a digital membership. Along the way, she's leaned on mentors at every stage, made bold pivots when something wasn't working, and built a business that reflects who she actually is, not just what was trending. We talk...
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From Idea to Industry Staple: How SewTites Built a Product for Quilters
Craft To Career
Quilting is centuries old, so how does a brand-new product become a must-have in an industry that's already full of tools and traditions? In this episode, we sit down with the team behind Sew Tites to find out. SewTites makes magnetic cutting mats and rulers designed to keep fabric steady while cutting, and to make cutting far less painful for quilters with arthritis or hand pain. It's a simple idea on the surface, but one that's become hugely popular in a short amount of time, and the company has more products already out and even more in development. We talk about: How SewTites got started,...
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What Pattern Writers Should Know About Selling with QBPN, with Ruth Erdei
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If you sell digital quilt patterns, you've probably wondered whether a marketplace is worth it, and what actually goes on behind the scenes to make one work. Ruth Erdei joins the podcast to talk about Quilting Books Patterns & Notions (QBPN), the family business she co-owns, and why she believes so strongly in transparency as a business model. Ruth is a serial entrepreneur, designer, and creative business strategist with more than 20 years of experience building businesses across the craft, creative, and e-commerce industries. Her background spans custom cosplay, crochet, digital products,...
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Eli McCann on Writing "Stitched": Quilting, Comedy, and the Drama of a Sewing Circle
Craft To Career
Eli McCann on Writing "Stitched": Quilting, Comedy, and the Drama of a Sewing Circle What happens when a group of older women who quilt together also happen to be full of secrets, rivalries, and sharp opinions? Author Eli McCann joins the podcast to talk about his debut novel, Stitched, a comedic look at a fictional quilting group and all the drama that unfolds within it. Eli is a lawyer by profession and writes a humor column for the Salt Lake Tribune. Stitched is his first novel, and the idea came straight from his own family. His mom has quilted for years and been part of the...
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Building a Self-Sustaining Quilting Business with Jamie Bright
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This week I'm joined by Jamie Bright of Craft a Dream, and what a treat this conversation is. Jamie is a sharp businesswoman with a real gift for marketing, and her path into quilting is not the one you might expect. Jamie did not start out in the quilting world at all. She built her business knowledge in a completely different field first, and then quilting found its way to her. With that foundation already in place, she grew a vibrant, self-sustaining business in the quilting industry, and she's generous about sharing how she did it. In our chat, Jamie opens up about growing her email list,...
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Joshua Dunn on Memory Quilts, Space, and a Quiltmaker Magazine Feature
Craft To Career
About Joshua Joshua Dunn is the quilter and designer behind Lifting and Stitching. Based in North Carolina, he creates modern quilts inspired by the cosmos, where memory, color, and story meet. His first pattern, A Trip Around the Universe, drew on the James Webb Telescope's Cosmic Cliffs image, and his work has been featured in quilt shows. His pattern Snapshot, a memory quilt, appears in the Summer 2026 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine alongside a designer spotlight. In this episode The memory quilt in Quiltmaker Magazine, and the story behind it How quilting keeps Joshua connected to his...
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How Mim Jenkinson Built a Million Dollar Sticker Business
Craft To Career
Mim Jenkinson sells stickers, and she has grown that into a business earning over $1 million a year. In this episode of Craft To Career, Mim opens up about what she sells, how her business has grown year after year, and the choices that made the biggest difference. She talks about the role her courses and membership play in her success, and how learning from people who are a few steps ahead of her has shaped her growth. Mim also shares a recent shift in how she builds her email list. For years she relied on seminars, and she has since moved to a new model that has worked better for sales. If...
info_outlineWhat if the funding to grow your quilting business was already sitting in your local community, waiting for someone like you to apply for it?
In this episode of the Craft To Career Podcast, I’m talking with Eva Saunders of Gingerly Quilt Co. about the unique way she has grown her quilting business: by applying for and receiving local grants for small creative businesses.
These grants have helped Eva develop online quilting courses, invest in her ideas, and grow Gingerly Quilt Co. without relying only on pattern sales. Her story is such a good reminder that there are creative ways to fund a quilting business, and sometimes the resources you need may be closer than you think.
Eva has also created a beautiful and memorable niche as a quilt pattern designer. With her background and love for art history, she designs quilts inspired by famous works of art and artistic movements. From a Starry Night quilt inspired by Van Gogh to Art Deco quilt patterns, Eva brings fine art into quilting in a way that feels fresh, meaningful, and completely her own.
In this episode, we will talk about:
How Eva discovered grant opportunities in her local community
What the grant application process looked like for her creative business
Why niching down into art history quilts helped her stand out as a pattern designer
How she turns famous artwork into quiltable designs
The unique construction methods behind her art quilts
How turning quilt patterns into online quilting courses opened up new revenue streams
What it looks like to build a quilting business around your personal interests and expertise
Listen to this episode if you:
Are a quilt pattern designer looking for new ways to fund your business
Have wondered if grants for small creative businesses could help you grow
Want to create more unique and memorable quilt patterns
Are interested in art quilts, art history quilts, or fine-art-inspired quilting
Feel like you need help finding a niche that feels true to you
Want to learn how online quilting courses can become another revenue stream
Eva’s story is full of practical insight and creative inspiration. Whether you are dreaming of applying for a grant, creating a course, or developing a niche pattern design style of your own, this conversation will give you so much to think about.
About Eva Saunders
Eva Saunders is the quilt pattern designer behind Gingerly Quilt Co. Her work blends quilting, art history, and creative construction methods to create patterns that feel like works of art. Through Gingerly Quilt Co., Eva creates art-inspired quilt patterns and online quilting courses that help quilters bring famous artwork and beautiful design movements into their own quilts.