Beyond Distributors & Social Media: How One Quilt Pattern Designer Built a Successful Business

What do you do when distributors keep saying no and social media isn't getting your patterns in front of the right people? In this solo episode, Tori shares the story of Joyce - a pattern designer and client who built a growing pattern business by going straight to quilt shops with smart research, personalized outreach, and a willingness to put the actual product in people's hands.

Tori walks through Joyce's step-by-step approach: how she researched shops by studying what they featured (not just what they sold), wrote short introductory emails that led with value instead of credentials, sent full pattern sample packs rather than just cover photos, and built real relationships with shop owners at trade shows and in person. Tori also breaks down the three tiers of pricing — retail, wholesale, and distributor - and why understanding the math matters before you pitch.

This episode is especially for newer pattern designers in their first couple of years who are hearing "not yet" from distributors or struggling to gain traction on social media. If that's you, this is a reminder that there's a proven path forward — and it starts with doing the homework most people skip.

This is the first of our new solo episodes! If you like this format, click the Fan Mail button below and let us know.

Companion Blog post — Tori's written companion post with Joyce's email templates and outreach tips.

Connect with Joyce at JMinnis Designs: https://www.jminnisdesigns.com/ 

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Solo Episodes
02:00 Marketing Strategies for Pattern Designers
03:57 Joyce's Journey: Overcoming Challenges
06:16 Research: The Key to Success
10:35 Crafting Effective Outreach Emails
16:40 Building Relationships and Personalization
19:55 Understanding Pricing Strategies

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Co-Hosts:

Tori McElwain @heytori.tech & https://www.heytori.tech/

Andi Stanfield @truebluequilts & https://truebluequilts.com/ 

Transcript

Tori McElwain (00:30.382)
Hello and welcome to another episode of Quilting on the Side. So today's episode is just me, just Tori. We're trying a new format where me and Andi are gonna record solo episodes. We are down to the wire here for H and H and our schedules aren't meshing to the point where we can get an episode together. So we decided to try something a little bit different where we both have experience on different topics. So we're gonna kind of riff on separate topics.

And if you like these solo episodes, we'd love to hear your feedback. So there is a button right below that says send us fan mail or send us a text message. I can't remember exactly, but you can click on that and let us know how you're liking this format of solo episodes. So my topic today, I wanted to bring up something that I've been kind of sitting on for a while. And it is a story about a friend and client named Joyce.

So today's topic, I want to talk about marketing and I want to talk about how do you get specifically patterns for pattern designers? How do you get the word out if the distributors are saying no and social media doesn't seem to quite work for you yet. So this episode is specifically for newer pattern designers, probably in your first couple of years of being a pattern designer.

And I hope that it can help you visualize a way forward if you can't get into a distributor right now or if you're struggling on social media or both of those. So Joyce has been an inspiration. I met Joyce originally while I was offering free strategy sessions for my very first H &H. We actually got together because she got locked out of her Instagram. So she was asking me questions about social media and how she can get

how she can get her account back and if she did, if I would be interested in helping her run it. So that was the initial conversation. These strategy sessions were, I believe it was a free hour my first year and we ended up talking for I think closer to two hours just because we had so much to talk about. So Joyce, I've been in touch with Joyce and she also hired me. As I said, she is a client. She hired me to help her with her website later on down the road and I've been in touch with her since.

Tori McElwain (02:54.104)
So one thing I wanted to share is how she's successfully grown her business outside of initially being upset, being accepted into distributors and she got locked out of her Instagram. So there was no social media presence. Okay. So if you find yourself in the same boat where distributors aren't answering and you really dislike social media,

How do you grow a successful pattern business if these doors are close to you? Okay, so let me tell you what Joyce did so and I have an accompanying blog post for you I figured this type of this advice would be really handy Written down, so I'm gonna link the blog post below so that you can see it More written out, but many of us when we start pattern designing We hear about distributors, and it's like okay, so if I want a more successful pattern

design business, need to get in with distributors. you may hear other advice like when you're approaching distributors, you need more than one pattern. So you need more patterns or your cover design, it won't sell. So you have to change up all of your pattern covers or maybe you're hearing more and more that you're not ready for distributors yet.

Now I'm going to tell you that there are pattern designers who are very successful in this business that only have one pattern accepted into distributors. So even if you have one pattern, if it's selling well, if you think it's going to hit the mark, you can always approach a distributor and see what their opinion is. Because even if it's a no, it's still feedback on how you can improve for the next go round. And when I say it's a no, it's probably more like a no for now.

because the market changes and your patterns may not be hitting the mark this time, but maybe next year, maybe the year after maybe in a few months, you never know. Okay. So Joyce was hearing a lot of the same thing. She heard that she doesn't have enough patterns. She heard that her covers may need a redesign that they wouldn't sell well, but her projects themselves wouldn't sell well. And Joyce, many of her many other patterns probably would have stopped.

Tori McElwain (05:15.966)
after hearing that a few different times, but Joyce did not, because she knew that she had projects that quilters would love. How did she know that? Because everyone that she shared them with loved them. So she's like, I have something here. But there's a little bit more that she did to make sure that she had something really good when she was ready to start selling. So the first thing she did was to do research.

Now a lot of pattern designers that I have met and interviewed on quilting on the side, they tend to start with inspiration. They don't tend to start with research. So it was interesting to hear that Joyce starts with research. So she goes and looks at different shops. She looks at different YouTube channels. She looks at different blogs and she looks to see what are popular. She's trying to get a feeling for the trend of the times.

so that she can take inspiration by what's popular now and build patterns off of that idea. So she's not directly clapping. As you know, if you're an artist or creative, we all see patterns and inspiration everywhere. And then we close everything down, turn everything off, and then we create. And what comes out is that beautiful art. It's a beautiful pattern. And that's how Joyce seems to approach it from what she's told me.

So for this blog post, I forgot to say, but for this blog post, I actually met with Joyce for lunch and we were going over how she started growing and how her business has been taking off lately and what steps she took to help have this happen. And then I asked her if she would be willing to fill out a questionnaire and give me a little more detail. So that's where a lot of this information is coming from. It's coming from a one-on-one, just chat over lunch. And then I sent her a formal...

questionnaire for her to fill out. So that's where this blog post is coming from. I have a few other ideas on maybe a series of blog posts. So we'll see how that happens. But for today, I just want to tell you about Joyce, what she did and how we can move beyond distributors and social media. So she did also tell me a few of the specific stores that she looked at. So you may be surprised to know that she didn't just look into distributors at first. She was also looking at the bigger online shops that other people buy their patents from.

Tori McElwain (07:42.402)
So you can think like catalog shops that are maybe primarily online or just online. And she looked there as well. So, and she didn't just look at what they sold. So not just in general, but what was being featured. And she was looking for common themes. Are they small projects? Are they, you know, throws? Are they king size quilts? Are they, what are they? What are they featuring? Are they bags? they, are they, what are they?

So she's really looking at not just what they sold, but what they featured. And she looked at what was the most popular. So popular videos, popular blog posts, and you can kind of see most blog posts will show you the view, like how many views it got, how many likes it got, how many comments it got. If you can't see the views, you can always notice how many comments a post got and kind of get an idea of which one was more popular or is more popular. She also took a second to look at fabric and style so that she could

pick what she liked, but that kind of went along with the trends of today, right? So she's looking at what's trending both in popular videos, popular blogs, what's being featured, but also looking at their fabrics and the styles that they're highlighting. And she even went deeper to look at the level of difficulty a lot of the customers in certain places were seeing. So.

Like we all know that if you're looking for like a Judy Niemeyer or Judele Niemeyer pattern, those are going to be FPP and they're going to be more difficult. So think about that kind of level. So if we go on to an online shop and we notice that a lot of their featured patterns are geared towards beginners, she may want to approach that that shop with more for beginner patterns. If she sees a shop that's specializing in Judy Niemeyer patterns.

she may want something that is complimentary to that style. Of course, we're not going to be copying, right? We want something maybe complimentary or if she notices that there are a ton of those complicated patterns and a good amount of the basic maybe beginner that kind of steps, steps, stones to those more pop complicated ones, then that could be an avenue for you as well. So not saying that Joyce did that, but saying that is another way you can kind of look.

Tori McElwain (10:03.08)
what is going on in a shop and where you can fill a hole. And then she also looked at the vibe. So we've talked about that a lot. Actually this season is checking the shop that you want to pitch to and really looking at their vibe. So did her brand align with their brand, right? And seeing if they're going to make a good match. So she didn't reach out to every single shop that she researched. She

picked and chose the best ones. Okay, and then once she figured out which ones that she wanted to approach, she tailored her email to those people and generally her pitch. So she also met with them in person at a show like H &H. She also went into her local ones, her local shops and did the same thing where she pitched. So once she identified those good matches, she

wrote short but focused introductory emails. Now I looked at these emails because I'm like, how did you write these emails? Because that is something that I get asked a lot as a digital marketing coach and with my clients reaching out to distributors, to shops, how do we write an email that's going to capture our shop's attention? And really you want to introduce yourself, but you want to do it briefly.

lead with the value you can give for their customer so you can show that you understand who their customer is and how you can help serve them. And then you want to include a call to action and keep it very simple. Usually from what I've seen from heart emails was just a straight up, you interested? Would you like to see my patterns? It was a very simple, like, yes, no. And it made it very quick and easy for a shop to respond.

Now in the blog post, actually, I asked her for her emails because I'm like, can we please have your emails? Because I think this is going to be a great starting point for many pattern designers. So she did give us those and I tailored them and made them into like a template rather than just copying her email so that you can come in and give it your voice. Okay. The third thing she did is she sent that pattern package. So she offered two ways that she would offer to send one was digital.

Tori McElwain (12:28.078)
One was physical, right? And whichever one they chose, that is what she sent. And she sent the whole pattern. She sent the whole pattern. It's a preview of her work. So she would send, I'm going to say, oh, you know what? think, yeah, I wrote it down. So she sent about four to five of her top selling patterns. And she let them know that she has more than this, but these are the top sellers. And she did include the full patterns, not just the covers.

Now what this shows the shop is hopefully when they see the quality of the product, they'll want to purchase it. If they're holding the actual pattern, it's a lot easier for someone just as a human to understand the value when they have it in their hands. So having the physical product, the physical printed pattern in their hands is much more

impactful than just sending the cover photo. That's the advice I've heard in the past is to send a cover photo. That is kind of how I reached out to distributors as well when I was a beginner pattern designer. I didn't hear anything back. So this was really cool to get more in depth from her because I was really asking so many questions of her and I'm so grateful that she was willing to share so much information with us. Okay, so then...

and then the last thing it shows, so when they have the actual pattern, they see your instructions so they can see how detailed they are. They can see the work you put in behind, whether you've done pictures or if you've done graphics, they can see it. And keep in mind, it doesn't have to be fancy, but it would keep it more professional and organized. And then within that email, and especially if they responded, she tried to be more human. So she didn't just keep it cold and professional, right? So she tried to make...

connection there. Some examples that she shared with me was like she would share something interesting or funny like make a funny comment. She would comment about their latest maybe YouTube video that she'd observed. Maybe she would have made a connection to their town or someone that they might know that's in common or even like a sample project. She would also

Tori McElwain (14:50.07)
there was a couple, I wrote it down, I to watch it. I I need to read it. So how her top sellers would work with maybe certain styles or fabric types that they were featuring. And she would keep it, like I said, very short sentence or two, but she would add in just a little bit of a connection point. So it's a conversation. It's not just a back and forth transaction. It's more of a conversation. And then,

The last thing she did was to make sure she personalized everything. So she never sent like a mass email to anyone. She found the right contact person, which can take some time. and she either tried to email them directly or tried to meet them in person at trade shows. And I'm thinking back to our conversations and I'm pretty sure she did and or, so she would try to not only email them, but also meet them in person.

when she could. She did reference the shop's style and their customer. Like I said, this is not a mass email. This is a very curated email for each and every shop or distributor or whoever she was talking to. And then she pitched patterns that only fit what they wanted to offer. And she led with gratitude. There was a lot of thank yous in her email. So thank you for your time. Thank you for responding. Thank you for considering her work.

It was, it was really, it was nice to read because it was kind. It was polite. It was respectful, but her emails also had personality. And I just, loved everything that she wrote down, which is why I got a few of those so that we could have a few templates to help give you a few ideas on how to write those. So what can we kind of summarize here? Right? So first,

research the shops that already sell the type of work that you create. So do the work upfront. Customize everything from your pitch to your pattern samples to everything that you want to showcase. You want to customize it to those shops. Offer a pattern sample pack. Now this is something I hear a lot of debate about and actually I've had a lot of conversations over the past two weeks about free patterns. Now I don't believe

Tori McElwain (17:12.386)
that you need to list a free pattern as a lead magnet. Giving free patterns out strategically is a different story. So sending a free pattern to a distributor that will then maybe fall in love with it and help you sell hundreds is way different than one quilter coming, getting their free pattern and leaving. So there is a stark difference there.

I would seriously consider who you give a free pattern to, but also be willing to give out those free patterns to help them see the quality that they will be purchasing. Okay. And then build some rapport with them. So treat them like a human because we're all humans. We're all humans in this crazy world. Right? So I think that that connection point, especially right now where we have this age of AI, I think that building a real...

conversation around what you're offering can really help. then lastly, personalize everything. Did I already say that? I don't know. It's worth repeating if I did. I said customize, but personalize. Use their name. Use any information that you can find that can help you stand out and let them know that you did the research. You saw how popular some of their YouTube videos are getting. You saw that their blog posts are blowing up about this technique or that pattern or

or this type of, I wanna say like subject. like sometimes in quilting, we have bigger projects that blow up more. We have smaller projects that blow up more. It's kind of a pendulum that swings back and forth where we want bigger projects or do we want smaller projects? So even if you just notice that swing where you notice that they are, you know, their bag patterns are blowing up because everyone's looking for something cute and little to make or their block of the month is blowing up, like making sure you personalize. Okay, so.

Again, very quickly, do some smart research, personalize the outreach, build some relationships. And lastly, this is one part that I wrote down and I didn't cover yet, but is to think about your pricing. So think about your pricing. So for those who are not in with the distributor yet, or who haven't really researched this, there are like three tiers of pricing. And let me know if I'm getting this.

Tori McElwain (19:40.374)
Okay, I think I'm getting this straight. I'm used to talking to someone having a back and forth conversation, so it's kind of interesting to do this by myself. So we have our price.

Tori McElwain (20:01.262)
It's not wholesale. Retail, okay. Okay, so we have our retail price. That is what the general population pays for a pattern. Half of that is wholesale pricing. And typically I hear the numbers a little bit differently, they vary depending, but I believe 30 % instead of 50%, 30 % is more of the distributor pricing. So you have to remember that a distributor

wants to acquire your patterns and sell it at wholesale pricing. So there needs to be enough money for them to make to make it worth it for them. So when I was approaching a distributor about my book, we were going back and forth on pricing because the way that I had to price my book versus the cost of printing and shipping plus them needing to be able to sell at wholesale is still make a profit for their people. It didn't quite work out.

So it's very important to keep in mind how you price your patterns for retail, for wholesale, and for distributor pricing and making sure that whoever you reach out to, you're giving them the appropriate pricing. Okay. I think that's about it for today. I really, really love Joyce's approach. I feel like it was a dip into the old school way of marketing where it's relationship first. It's research.

Like it's smart marketing. It's and it seems so basic but we tend to overthink How we get our patterns out there we tend to lead with social media because it is so visible So when we do our first pattern, we're like, okay the things we have to do we need to make sure that We post it on Instagram or we share it a video on it on YouTube or you know, we have these social media social media checklists

but we don't take it a step further and think about where can I position this pattern where it can hit one too many. And that's going back to your ideal customer, right? Where is your ideal customer hanging out? And those are the quilt shops and the online quilt shops. So to be able to get in with the distributor, it can get you to more quilt shops. But if a distributor says no, you can go straight to the shops.

Tori McElwain (22:22.796)
Yes, it does take time, but think about how much time you spend planning out your social media content. Like how much time do you spend making a reel? Sometimes I spend like an hour making a reel. Instead, if I spent that hour reaching out strategically to shops, I could probably make a lot more money than trying to be strategic with a reel. Okay, so I'm going to end that for today. I want to give a shout out to Joyce.

I want to thank her so much for her willingness to share what she's done and a willingness to share her email templates with us and her willingness to rise other pattern designers with what was working for or what is working for her.