Season 6 Recap - Our Longest Season yet!

Six seasons. Over a hundred episodes. Three years of real talk about building a quilting business on the side — and Tori and Andi are not done yet.

In this Season 6 finale, the co-hosts take a walk down memory lane through what turned out to be their longest season yet — 21 episodes packed with guests, trade show adventures, solo experiments, and more than a few lessons learned the hard way.

They recap the full guest lineup from Season 6: a cross-promotion episode with Brandy Maslowski of Quilter on Fire, mindset and weight loss coaching with Dara Tomasson, a masterclass on summits and email marketing from Jamie Bright, a return visit with Theresa Benson (The AI Quilter) on navigating AI ethically in 2026, self-publishing powerhouse Kathryn LeBlanc, Monika and her Canadian subscription box business Quilt the North, mosaic appliqué artist Cindy of Patterns on the Prairie, and pattern designer Brooke Stambersky of Brooke's Bitchin' Stitches. They also revisit their h+h Americas thread — from booth planning and brochures to the show floor rapid fire episode to the full panel debrief — and reflect on the solo episode format they experimented with this season.

Andi shares a sneak peek at her upcoming book, Quilting on Video, and the hosts close out with honest thoughts on a "Top 40 Quilting Podcasts" nod — and why they're taking it with a grain of salt. 

Need some more help starting a YouTube channel? Grab Andi's No-Fear Filming Checklist here.

Season 7 is coming in August or September. Until then, there are over 100 episodes waiting for you.

Chapters
00:00 Celebrating Three Years of Quilting on the Side
03:04 Highlights from Season Six Guests
06:31 Exploring AI in Quilting with Teresa
08:01 Kathryn LeBlanc: The Multi-Passionate Quilter
09:47 Navigating the Canadian Quilting Business with Monica
10:58 Building a Business Without Social Media: Joyce's Story
12:33 Andi's Journey into YouTube and Book Writing
13:19 Brooke's Bitchin' Stitches: Balancing Business and Life
14:49 H and H Rapid Fire: Insights from the Trade Show
17:37 Diverse Perspectives from the H and H Panel Discussion
20:01 Recapping Season Six and Looking Ahead to Season Seven

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Co-Hosts:

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

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

Transcript

Andi (00:06.754)
Welcome to another episode of Quilting on the Side. We are so glad that you have been here for season six. Six seasons, Tori, three whole years of this crazy project. How are you feeling?

Tori McElwain (00:22.348)
And I think it's been intense. This season has been our longest season. This will be our twenty first episode. so yeah, our longest season after I should've looked up how many years we've been in how how long have we been doing this? Three years now? Two years?

Andi (00:39.234)
Yeah, I think we started in twenty twenty four.

Tori McElwain (00:42.306)
That's right, twenty twenty four. So it's been it's been a ride. How are you feeling, Andy?

Andi (00:45.846)
Yeah. I'm I'm feeling pretty good about it. It's you know, we continue to get people saying that they're they really enjoyed the podcast and it's it's become a known entity, which is always that little ego boost is wonderful. And I think we've really put out some good information for people. So that that's really what makes it worthwhile is people.

connecting with the topics that we're sharing. So that's great.

Tori McElwain (01:20.172)
And our guests have had some wonderful guests this season. We've been able to keep a steady flow of of new and returning interviews, guests coming on and they share their stories and their thoughts and their experiences and that's just so inspiring.

Andi (01:30.808)
Mm-hmm.

Andi (01:37.544)
Yeah.

Andi (01:42.102)
Yeah, that's true. And season six kicked off with a bang when we had a collaboration with Brandy Maslowski from Quilter on Fire. That was a highlight.

Tori McElwain (01:56.142)
That was definitely a highlight having that we tried something new with Brandy. We recorded an episode that hopefully spoke to both audiences that we could both share on each podcast. And that was that was really fun. And Brandy is such a wonderful human being. It was wonderful to Dr. Her.

Andi (02:12.716)
Yeah, for sure. And then we had Dara on, Dara Thomason. She is a life coach for quilters. She runs a weight loss program and she always has such wonderful advice to keep us grounded in our business and realize that, you know, life has its ups and downs and and it she gives you really good tools for going with the flow.

Tori McElwain (02:35.148)
Definitely. I love her approach on working on your mindset first and then what follows that is the weight loss. So I love that that she goes into like all your feelings and how are you navigating life and then what follows that is a healthier life and I love that. There was always fun.

Andi (02:42.467)
Yeah.

Andi (02:52.342)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And we met someone new this season who I had heard about in the online space. Jamie Bright gave us like a mini master class on summits and email marketing. It was wonderful.

Tori McElwain (03:10.22)
It was so cool to talk to Jamie. I've been watching her a little bit on everything that she's been doing and it was so fascinating to have her on and hear about the other side, the part that you don't get to see. And then her I love the fact that she came with so much information about summits because we had so many questions about this was I I'm not gonna say new, but it was it's been a big a big thing in twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six to participate in summits. It's been a huge list builder.

and a way for you to grow your business and grow the the word of mouth about you relationship marketing and all of that. So it was really cool to have Jamie on and hear about her experience and hear her advice on preparing for some. Honestly, that's probably one of our our most informative episodes when it comes to the guests we had on. We had some really cool guests, but I think that because she came with such a master class kind of pr preparation, that that was a really great learning episode.

Andi (04:07.358)
Yeah, exactly. And just like you were saying, if people take a step back and kind of analyze what she talked about as a guest, she did a wonderful job of cross promoting, telling her own story while drawing out some of your business aspects, my you know, quote unquote product, you know, with my half rectangle triangle. So it was

Tori McElwain (04:35.768)
Quote there. There's no quote there, Andy. You got a wonderful product. But yeah, you're right. With a give and take.

Andi (04:36.982)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, she she beyond the information she gave, she also provided a wonderful example of a top-notch podcast guest. So, and that's not to disparage anyone else because everyone does a wonderful job. but she's definitely one of my favorite people. and then we had another fabulous returning guest, our conversation with Teresa, the AI quilter.

Tori McElwain (05:10.4)
Yes, I love hearing about what she has been hearing about. So because she is on the forefront of quilting AI and and quilting and AI, I think that she hears the brunt of both the good and the bad and having her on for the second time now that more and more people are trying AI, more and more people are hearing about the impacts of AI and how to use it ethically. I think it was a really important conversation for twenty twenty six for sure.

Andi (05:39.926)
Yeah, AI has been such a big topic and it really does bring out strong emotions in people. So the more we can acknowledge those intense feelings and you know, try to chart a a path forward is is gonna be important. So I look forward to future conversations with Teresa as well.

Tori McElwain (06:01.784)
So our next guest I had to miss. So I'd love to hear your your thoughts and what stuck with you from Katherine LeBlanc, who is a self publishing author and she does so much more. So let us know, Andy, what's stuck with you?

Andi (06:14.53)
Yeah. Yeah. Catherine is another one of those people that I'm sure we've both run across in online groups. She's a force in the quilting industry. As you said, she's written a lot of books, and yeah, we just had a great conversation. I'm just amazed at how much she does. She carries a big load. And

You know, that's that's great. Everybody finds their own path and their own mix of things. She had really put effort into magazine designs this year. I think she had, you know, over a dozen patterns coming out in various publications and so she's she's been really busy with that. So it was fun to talk to someone who is multipassionate and is managing to

juggle so many things because I think a lot of us you know worry that that we do have a lot of interest and we're trying to figure out how to get a profitable mix there. So it was fun to talk to her. And then we had one of an our next guest was Monica from Penny Spool penny spool threads, penny spool quilts. Yeah, yeah.

Tori McElwain (07:35.884)
I mean spull quilts, yeah.

Andi (07:38.644)
And that was really interesting finding out how she is navigating the world as a Canadian quilter because we tend to be very US centric, unfortunately. We do have a lot of Canadian friends. We have, you know, quilters from Europe and Australia and everybody across the world, but it was really interesting to get her perspective on building a business with some of the trade issues that we're seeing in the world right now.

Tori McElwain (08:06.648)
Definitely listening to how she launched her subscription box was really cool. we did have a couple of Canadians this season. We had Brandy, who is a Canadian, we had Monica, and even in our last episode about H H, we had Caitlin, who is also Canadian but living in the US. So it was a really it was a really interesting conversation with Monica who is appealing to Canadian quilters, specifically with her quilt The North Box.

Andi (08:23.182)
Mm-hmm.

Tori McElwain (08:33.774)
and hearing about how she's growing it, how she's working out, all the kinks and we talked about how Catherine took on a lot and so did Monica, like having a s subscription box where she's keeping it around three hundred boxes per quarter that she's cranking out. it was just super impressive to hear how she how that journey went and everything that's going on behind the scenes with her.

Andi (08:55.586)
Yeah, it just is such an interesting business concept. You know, we t have over the years we have talked to a lot of long arm quilters and of course pattern designers, but it really shows you the variety when we talk to people that have written fiction, who are doing subscription boxes. There's so many ways to show up in the quilting world, and I think that's fantastic.

After Monica, we had the chance to talk to Cindy, who is one of our early podcast followers. And so that was fun. Over the years, we've developed that relationship as she shows up for some of our Patreon events. And we've gotten to know more about her and how she's building her her business around a special technique.

Tori McElwain (09:49.388)
Yeah, so we got to meet her at H and H. That was really cool to see her in person. And she's yeah, she's doing a lot of it sounds like she's doing a lot of pattern design and getting her name out there about her mosaic applique, right? And so that was that was really interesting to hear her story and how she's developed that.

Andi (09:57.816)
Mm-hmm.

Andi (10:07.084)
Yeah, and she's done a wonderful job of brand partnership because her applique uses a special fusible. And so she's been able to develop those relationships and get that product tie in with her pattern design. So congratulations to Cindy of Patterns on the Prairie.

Tori McElwain (10:27.458)
And then I was able to share Joyce's story. So Joyce likes to stay behind the scenes. but she was so gracious to answer, we went out to lunch and she answered questions for me, and then I sent her a questionnaire and I was able to kind of tell her story and share the advice that she has to give for other pattern designers on how to grow a business without using social media. Because Joyce was actually locked out of her Instagram when I met her, like two years ago, I wanna say. and so now she's been able to grow a successful pattern design business.

Andi (10:31.638)
Mm.

Tori McElwain (10:57.442)
Without social media at all, and it was really cool to be able to share her story.

Andi (11:03.724)
Yeah, yeah, it really was. lots of lessons learned in that as well. and you mentioned you told her story without her being there. We've experimented with a few solo episodes, just because of the the fact that we're doing this on the side, you know, where it's just one piece of our busy lives and sometimes schedules don't mess. So I appreciate the

chance for me to tell my YouTube story because that's something that I am going all in on here in twenty twenty six and beyond. So that was fun.

Tori McElwain (11:43.597)
Did you share about your book?

Andi (11:45.41)
Well, y I did in the episode and I wasn't gonna do a full promo here, but yes, I am putting the finishing touches on my book, Quilting on Video, so that I can share the lessons learned with other people and help them grow and monetize their YouTube channel.

Tori McElwain (12:00.834)
Yes, so look out for that 'cause that's coming soon. Listeners, you wanna get on Andy's email list, you wanna follow her on YouTube, you wanna or subscribe to her on YouTube, follow her on Instagram, do all the things so you can see when Andy releases this book 'cause it's going to be great.

Andi (12:03.66)
Very soon.

Andi (12:14.258)
I hope it is helpful to people. and then we had another fun guest that we got to meet in person in H H, but Brooke of Brooke's Bitch and Stitches. What a great conversation.

Tori McElwain (12:29.218)
Yeah, she's such a warm human being and I I loved her willingness to share all the details behind the scene, exactly how she started her business with the Jeep quilt, which was something that she brought in. All the pieces of her life just seemed like it came in and helped her build up this business that really fits with her lifestyle and really fits on the side of working full time.

And she's doing it successfully and she's doing it in a way where it protects her time and her energy. And I really admire that about Brooke and how she was able to share all of that.

Andi (13:04.258)
Yeah, yeah. It was just a wonderful so many lessons learned in that conversation from approaching quilt shops and, you know, just taking an idea and and developing it fully with her s home state series and then her her Jeep patterns that definitely fit a niche. just lots of fun stuff from

Brooke. So please go back and listen to that episode. I'm sure you'll find tidbits the more the more you listen to it, the that's the thing about these podcast episodes. It's always a good experience to revisit and reflect and catch all those various lessons.

Tori McElwain (13:51.266)
Definitely. We always hear more like the second time around. But Andy, our next guest had several, and that was your H and H Rapid Fire. When you went all around the show at H. Do you remember anything that stood out the most about your guests that you talked to during the show?

Andi (13:59.822)
Mm.

Andi (14:09.494)
my gosh, it was so much fun. And when I was at H H, I actually found it easier to approach people to talk to them rather than to try and pitch my own stuff. So it was a a great conversation starter. And just so many people doing so many great things. I got to reconnect with

people that I've met before and I was able to reach out and talk to new people, you know, big what I consider some of the superstars that I've seen for years and years, like Laura from Slice of Pie and Kristo Botson. but even talking to Barbie with her longarm panagraph business, to Beverly from Flamingo Toes was just

kind of a serendipitous conversation as I was walking by, just so many wonderful people in the quilt industry.

Tori McElwain (15:10.562)
Yeah, what's fun is that Slice of Pies booth was stagnant from mine at H and H and I like fangirling from far away. I even went up to talk to the designer next to which I believe was her mom. And I was so nervous that I didn't even say hi to her. I was just like and she'd step back so I could talk to her mom and I like, my gosh, hi like But yeah, it was really cool to see some of the big someone called them celebrities and I love that. Like Ibrities, like celebrities. That was so much fun to like hear that term and

Andi (15:25.515)
Yeah.

Andi (15:34.862)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Tori McElwain (15:40.096)
and apply it to who who was there, which is it was really cool. And I love the fact that you got to talk to so many people and so have so many different perspectives on the quilting industry. It's a really cool episode.

Andi (15:52.46)
Yeah, yeah, those are always fun. And then we did our follow-up episode that was really interesting to see from the variety of businesses that we all have and how we each approached this big trade show because I shared my perspective as a product-based business. You know, I have my ruler that I wanted to.

share with people. You come from the marketing coaching realm. And then we had our other friends, Brooke, who has a line of patterns, Laureen from Tourmaline and Time, she's a pattern designer. She's got some fun stuff coming up. And Caitlin, who is a tech editor in your SPI. So yeah, it was a great panel discussion.

Tori McElwain (16:48.002)
Definitely. I think that's sharing not only pattern designers that are going, which many of our audience are pattern designers and teachers, but also hearing the the outside perspective, those that support the industry. So me with my marketing and Caitlin with her tech editing. Now she does do tech editing outside of SVI. If you are looking for a pattern tech editor and you're a quilter, she is amazing. But she also does it inside SVI. And just hearing how each of us planned it, planned for it.

And then what we did while we were there. And then the follow-up, which we don't always get to hear about, which so many people have questions on. And I did a little town hall where I had about 15 people come and I kind of went because I it we had so much interest, I did a little slideshow. So I had like a I think it was about 15 minutes of just like little slides about like this is what I did at the show. So they knew what my experience was at the show. So like I taught and then I like had the booth and stuff, and then how much I spent and all of that.

And then they had so many questions. So it was so cool to be able to invite those that were that were from different industries, different perspectives to come in and have that deeper conversation about their experiences. Cause me and you have been talking about H H like the entire season, I feel like, because it is such a big event for the industry, especially if you're in the midst of growing and you're trying to reach more, more partners, more collaboration, more.

bit and more of those like distributor businesses and even trying to find people to help you with your business such as like what I do and what Caitlin does. And I really hope that our listeners got a lot from the trickle of H H and the specific episodes about the trade show because those can be applied not only to other trade shows so such as H H is coming again in the spring. I mean yeah it is coming again in the spring. It's also opening a new show in the fall in Texas. And then we also have a brand new Rhodes

Crossroads in California, which is going to be a quilt specific trade show. And I hope it gives people an idea of what they can do there, but also a little bit at shows like QuiltCon and how you can like set up a booth and do little things like not little things, but things like that where you're more in person because most of what we talk about is online because a lot of our side businesses tends to be digital. So that was I think that was a really cool thread that we had throughout this entire season.

Andi (18:59.35)
Yeah.

Andi (19:11.776)
Yeah, and speaking of that, we've recapped all of our guests and we've mentioned a few of those other episodes. But as you said, planning for H H was a running theme through all of our episodes. And I want to highlight a few of our other conversations that will be useful to people growing their business, like you said, for many of these other in-person events. we had an episode eight was on

booth planning and brochures, some of those physical items, the the tangible assets that you need. we talked about approaching quilt shops and kind of that partnership between pattern design and quilt shop owners and how we can work together to benefit everybody. So that's really important. And then we had our media kit episode 14 that I think

I've I've heard some really good feedback that people thought that was useful. So yeah, if you are wanting to reach out, if you're wanting to promote your brand, having that media kit and having those assets all in a central location, I think was the the key piece from that episode.

Tori McElwain (20:28.182)
Yeah, that was really cool to see. I saw a comment on Facebook where someone was sharing our episode about crafter pitch and about how that helped with preparing for guilds and for approaching shops. So that was that was really cool to see. It was like, Hey look, she found it useful. It's so awesome.

Andi (20:42.454)
Yeah, that's us. As I said at the beginning, we are making an impact. So that's always the kind of the reason that I keep showing up is because I just want to be a cheerleader. I I've, you know, taken my steps into the industry and I I think there's room for a lot more people to share their their creative creative juices and share share their work with the world.

Tori McElwain (21:11.81)
So next season we're gonna be closing down the podcast for the summer. We're going to be running interviews though through the summer, so you'll be able to hear what happens in season seven. my gosh, season seven. So we'll probably be back in August. Is that what we're planning?

Andi (21:24.833)
Yeah.

Andi (21:30.732)
Yeah, August, September. I don't know that we've set a premiere date, but definitely we will share that out through all of our channels. and one thing that we didn't even highlight was our hundredth episode. We

Tori McElwain (21:47.819)
yes, we get that kind of skated by us, didn't it?

Andi (21:50.58)
Right. We ha back in season five we talked about seventy-five episodes, which seemed like a lot, and now we're over a hundred, which is amazing. And just a little side note, pat on the back, I got an email recently saying that we were named one of the top forty quilting podcasts. So

Tori McElwain (22:13.836)
I saw that, it was the top forty quilting and I was like that's nice, but we're not quilting, so cool.

Andi (22:23.66)
Yeah. And and some of these, you know, I'm sure there's tons of marketing agencies out there that just compile these lists and anytime you can yeah, and it was it reminds me of that Who's Who in America series that they send out to all the high school kids and like you're in the top blah blah blah. Just pay us forty bucks and we'll put your name in the book. So

Tori McElwain (22:48.726)
Yeah, I thought that was funny. it's it's interesting because our name says quilting, so quilting on the side. So a lot of people outside the industry would see that and think, this is a quilting podcast, which we're quilting businesses, so we're adjacent. But it was it was cool to see that we're in the top forty. We're thirty-nine is where we were ranked. I got the same email. And I was like, Okay, that's cool. some of the top ones I was really proud to see like Quilter on Fire was on one of the top, I think top five.

Andi (23:08.539)
Yeah. Yep.

Andi (23:14.51)
Mm-hmm.

Tori McElwain (23:16.99)
and some of the older ones are on there that don't publish anymore. So it's interesting to see that they're still going after even after they've I'm sorry for any squeaking you hear in the background when I talk. That is our dog that we are dog sitting. She's adorable, but she's a little needy.

Andi (23:21.388)
Yeah, yeah.

Andi (23:33.826)
Yeah, yep. yeah, it really is interesting. You were saying that some of the podcasts on that top forty list were no longer publishing. But as with anything on the internet, it lives on, you know, forever. And it's you know, it's kinda like having a book in in the library, you know, things that are published ten, fifteen, fifty years ago are still being found. so hopefully

Our older episodes can carry on and help people launch their craft-based businesses. So,

Tori McElwain (24:11.436)
I think that's true. I think that our the episodes that we've put out and the interviews we've had. I think that there are so many tidbits that can last for a very long time. and it can inspire anyone who's building a craft business on how to build in this industry.

Andi (24:28.002)
Yeah, for sure. So we, as Tori mentioned, we are taking a couple months off, but we have over a hundred episodes that you can go back and listen to. And we hope that that carries you through, gives you some inspiration and support as you build your business. You can find us on Patreon, on YouTube, online. and we hope to see you soon.