Shelly Pagliai - Quilting for Hire: Start Your Own Longarm or Custom Quiltmaking Business; Vision, Business Plan, Tools & Supplies, Branding, Marketing & More

Publisher: Amy Barrett-Daffin

Creative Director: Gailen Runge

Acquisitions Editor: Roxane Cerda

Managing Editor: Liz Aneloski

Editor: Katie Van Amburg

Technical Editor: Debbie Rodgers

Cover/Book Designer: April Mostek

Production Coordinator: Tim Manibusan

Production Editor: Alice Mace Nakanishi

Illustrator: Casey Dukes

Production Assistant: Gabriel Martinez

Published by C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1456, Lafayette, CA 94549

dedication

TO GRANDPA HYDE You always wanted me to be a businesswoman, but I wanted to be an artist. Somehow, Ive managed to do both. I hope youre proud of me.

TO DADDY Thanks for always encouraging me to be an artist. Ill always love you most.

TO MY COWBOY I would never have gotten this far or done this much without your help, love, support, and encouragement. All I can say is thank you and I love you, even though its not enough. And no, I have no idea what were having for supper.

acknowledgments

You never get through something like this all alone, and I sure have my share of kind folks to thank for helping me. Thank you to

My Cowboy, for everything.

Victoria Findlay Wolfe, for trusting me, encouraging me, and keeping me from being lazy.

Edie McGinnis, for saving me from myself.

Karen McTavish, Melanie Miller-Thurnau, Laurie Love, Becky Collis, Karyn Dornemann, Ida Larsen, Angela Steiner, Melinda Masten, and Keith Morrissey, for being so kind and patient and answering all sorts of questions for me.

Dan Terrell, former owner of Nolting Manufacturing, for selling me my first longarm machine, and the current support staff of Nolting, who take good care of Ivy and keep us up and running.

All the folks at C&T Publishing, especially my design team.

foreword

I met Shelly in the late summer of 2009. I was part of a Pay-It-Forward challenge on my blog. You had to make something for the next person whose name was on the list, and I got Shelly. I followed her blog, read about her Cowboy, and made her a table runner from cutting up my old duvet cover! I had posted on my blog that I would be going to Houston for the International Quilt Festival, and she responded, asking if we should meet in Houstonshe and the Cowboy would also be going to see her quilt hanging in the show. I was quick to say yes! I remember calling her from the floor of Festival trying to locate her in the sea of people. She said, Im with my Cowboy, youll spot him first, and sure enough, there they were. We chatted, laughed, and connected from that moment on.

Around that time, I had put out a call for quilters to make pieced house blocks for a community quilt project I was working on for homeless families transitioning back into homes in the New York City area. I was going to make a few quilts to donate to them and Shelly said, Well, I just got a longarm machine, I could quilt some of them to practice. Those quilts came back quilted so beautifully, and she certainly got to practice! I ended up making about 75 quilts, many quilted by Shelly and other longarmers donating their time. Those first quilts were auctioned off and raised around $30,000 for the organization. That call turned into about a 3,000-quilt drive, and every family moving into new housing through the program received a new quilt. This experience included my passion for making, sharing, and giving. It connected me to Shelly and other quilters in the quilting world, and I found my community. Since those first collaborations together, Shelly and I have never looked back. AND TOGETHER, OUR WORK HAS GROWN OVER THE YEARS INTO BUSINESSES, ALONG WITH THE STEADY COLLABORATION PROCESS WE BOTH LOVE.

HISTORICALLY, FOR MANY WOMEN, QUILTING HAS BEEN NOT ONLY A HOBBY BUT ALSO A BUSINESS from mail-order patterns to kit quilts to hiring hand quilters to finish the quilts. So it makes perfect sense for longarming to be an exciting business choicefor all people! I remember feeling scared about letting someone quilt for me, then getting the quilt back and learning so much from the way it was quilted. I could look for a detail that I could emulate on my next quilt. Each time Id make a quilt, Id try some new design. Shortly after my first book was published, I purchased a longarm for myself, and later another longarm, and I had so much fun learning how to manage the machines. Yet, I quickly found that my patience for longarming was not to be part of my business plan. More than once, I quilted halfway through a quilt, then ended up taking it off the frame and sending it to Shelly to finish. I traveled too much to be able to keep up, but I knew longarm quilting was where Shelly was focusing her business. It was a perfect fit.

Ive watched Shelly and her business grow, and I am constantly blown away by her work. The conversations I have with Shelly often include the questions: What can we try now? What does this need? What do you think it should look like? I have found the duality of working together to be much more compelling than working alone, and I like that it continues to add another part of the story to the quilt. I recall us having a weeklong conversation of about ten different ideas I had for quilting on my Cascade quilt from my book Modern Quilt Magic. I felt bad because I thought I must have completely overwhelmed Shelly with information. Yet, I got back a quilt that incorporated everything I had given herand it is to die for! Other times, I call her in the middle of constructing a quilt, and I point out to her where Im focusing my attention. We talk about what else we could do with the quilting to get the final result Im looking formaybe its not in the construction, maybe it is in the quilting. Oftentimes it is in the quilting.

I know we did it well when we get comments on our collaboration quilts: Great quilt! But that quilting is phenomenal!

That. That is the experience Shelly brings to the table.

I feel lucky to have worked with Shelly over these past eleven to twelve years, to have her to bounce ideas off as we both built our successful businesses. Over the years, we have discussed together how our businesses ebb and flow. We brainstorm and share ideas to figure out whats next.

Shelly is very aware of her market and her brand, and she has learned how to best schedule work that fits her life and keeps her customers happy. This experience of balance is the key wisdom you will get from this book. Shelly will guide you through the basics of a quilting business and get you thinking about questions you may not have thought of, so you can keep a full schedule of quilts booked out months ahead for your success. Getting help with taxes and bookkeeping or wholesale ordering all help to fulfill your business goals.

Shellys humor and knowledgesomething I love about herwill keep you in good hands as you read through the book. This guide is something that Shelly and I wish we had had when we started our businesses! Lucky you!

Im also happy that longarmers are here to stay. That means I can sell my two machines and focus on making the quilt tops I love to make! I can make quilts together with you fabulous future longarm stars and continue new collaborations with Shelly for a long time to come.