By Maxine Rosenthal & Joy Pelzmann
C&T Publishing; $22.95

Following up on the success of their earlier One-Block Wonder books, Maxine Rosenthal and Joy Pelzmann tackle adding graphic elements to their hexagon blocks. The previous books showcased techniques for hexagonal and octagonal kaleidoscope blocks from a single fabric and then adding cubes as a design element and additional fabrics. In this book, you’ll add triangles, including interlocking ad hollow triangles, and you’ll create illusions and add appliqué. The book includes 10 projects to reinforce the techniques. I loved the chapter on what to do with the leftover kaleidoscopes from your projects. One-Block Wonders fans enjoy.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.

Beautiful Alphabet Appliqué
Zena Thorpe
American Quilter’s Society; $22.95

If you’ve seen any of Zena Thorpe’s quilts, you know what a master with the needle she is. Her quilts have won numerous top awards and she was inducted in the Master Quilters Guild, part of the National Quilting Association. Zena has long been fascinated with illuminated letters originally produced by monastic scribes and the letters began to find their way into her work. In 2008 she began showing “Illuminated Alphabet,” which features the 26 letters of the alphabet plus four corner appliqué blocks. You can recreate her quilt or use the letters to create individual wall hangings words of your choosing.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.

Crush It: Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion
Gary Vaynerchuk
HarperStudio; $19.95

Gary Vaynerchuk wrote this book for anyone who has a hobby and wants to make a living at it. (Sounds like a lot of quilters and fiber artists I know!) Using the power of the Internet, Gary turned his passion for wine into his personal brand. Here are just four of the many lessons from the book: 1. Identify and live your passion. (OK, quilters and fiber artists have this one down.) 2. Create a system for using all the social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter. 3. Be transparent and live your passion. 4. Be willing to adapt and change. This is an easy read and you’ll come away with several ideas that you can put to use to grow your business today.

If you’d like to add this to your library or purchase it as a gift, here’s a link.

I spent several days last week with my mastermind group, part of the Smart Women’s Institute of Entrepreneurial Learning. This was a decision on my part to play bigger in 2010. I decided if I wanted to grow my business to the next level, I would have to take a big step and play with bigger people. And the people in my group are big players. That’s part of why a mastermind is, as Martha says, a good thing. People who want to play big often have bigger ideas. I came away from this group with one big idea that I never considered – and it was right in front of me the whole time. If you think about it in sports terms, if you are a tennis player, you want to play with someone who is better than you are, so that you improve your game. It does take courage to take that leap. If you remember, one of my words for the year is challenge, and this will do just that for me. And, my group reminded me not to get so wrapped up in my challenges that I forget the joy (my other word for 2010) as I move forward.

Here are some tips to help you take the leap and think bigger this year.

1. Take action. Is there something big you want to do but haven’t taken the plunge? What are the big things on your goals list? This could be entering your quilt in a big quilt show, sending your patterns to a large distributor, contacting the local gallery about a show or getting your teaching proposals to a major show promoter. You won’t be able to get bigger if you don’t take action. So, put aside the “what ifs” and go for it. You can’t win if you don’t play.

2. And, speaking of action, be bold and daring. Remember our goal is to think bigger. Don’t take safe action, take action that scares you a bit. I have the following quote from Eleanor Roosevelt on a magnet on my refrigerator where I can see it every morning: Do one thing every day that scares you.

3.  Act as if. I learned this many years ago. Act as if the situation is as you want it. Exude confidence and success. You’ll be surprised at how often when you “act as if,” you get “as if.”

4. Toot your own horn. Many times women are reluctant to share their successes. I know, many of us were raised that way. It’s time to put aside that attitude and pick up that horn. If you don’t blow your own horn, who will?

5. Schedule time to grow. This can be with a mastermind, such as mine, or networking with a small group of like-minded quilt, art or business professionals. It can also be setting aside time to read, learn new things to either build your business skills or work on your mindset. Here’s a book I like that will help you utilize the power of thinking big: The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Good luck with your big, bold action as you move forward. Personal and professional growth happen when we are willing to take that leap and think big.

The International Association of Professional Quilters offers resources and networking opportunities for you to create a success from your quilting business. Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership here.

We are about to start a New Year. I’m excited about some of the things I have planned. I’m working with a coach to expand the business, and I have some new business programs planned for later in the year. As I look ahead, I can see that I have a lot to accomplish, and I need to stay focused to do that. A lot of you know one of my favorite planning resources is Your Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler, and following her process helps me focus. You can read some of the questions she asks on a previous blog post.

I wanted to share three and a half tips to keep in mind as you start the New Year.

1. Set time for yourself in your calendar. I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t take enough time for her or himself. This fall I had knee surgery and was sidelined from my yoga class. I plan to get back in class this winter. And, I want to also set aside time each afternoon for a little self care. It’s important to find a little time here and there to care for ourselves. We’ll feel happier and stronger inside and this will in turn make us happier and stronger business people. One good reference on self care is The Art of Extreme Self Care by Cheryl Richardson.

2. Remember to allow adequate time for marketing. For many, the production is the fun part and the marketing takes a back seat. I’ve had more than one person tell me that she spends two to four times as many hours marketing herself and her product as she does producing the product. Marketing is an ongoing process; you are always marketing. I love this quote from actress Carrie Fisher, “There is no point at which you can say, “Well, I’m successful now. I might as well take a nap.” This keeps me focused on marketing my product.

3. Keep on top of your financials. I know, most people do not enjoy bookkeeping, and if you can hire someone to take it over, that’s great. But watch your numbers. You need to know what’s coming in and what’s going out. What is your ROI (return on investment) for your activities? Your business can’t grow if you aren’t aware of the financials.

3.5 Remember why you got into business. For many of us, it was our love of quilting or fiber arts and wanting to share our gifts with other quilters. Sure, we work hard at it, and we are rewarded. When times get tough, step back and remember what got you in the business. Maybe use some of that self-care time to make something for yourself. Another quote I like is from Thomas A. Edison. “I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.”

The International Association of Professional Quilters offers resources and networking opportunities for you to create a success from your quilting business. Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership here.

I got back on Sunday evening from Las Vegas where I attended Ali Brown‘s SHINE conference. I went with specific goals in mind and certainly made headway on them.

One of my goals was to start to create a plan for 2010. Before I can do that, though, I need to take a look at where I am now and how I got there. One of my favorite resources for this is Your Best Year Yet by Jinny S. Ditzler.  I’ve been using this little book for years. It offers a framework to define your personal values, identify the various roles you play and create goals for those roles. Here are some of Jinny’s questions plus a couple of my own:

1. What did I accomplish?
2. What were my biggest disappointments?
3. What did I learn?
4. How do I limit myself and how can I stop?
5. What are my goals for next year?
6. Where do I need to education or support to get there?
7. How can I make sure I achieve my top goals?

I find one of the most empowering aspects of Jinny’s system is the look at the successes of the year. It let’s you focus on my successes not get weighed down by what didn’t work. It also lets you get off the treadmill of working on my business to see if you really are on course.

So take some time this week to start planning for 2010 by looking back at 2009. Ask and answer these questions. Let me know how this system works for you.

Do you have systems in your business? Maybe you haven’t given much thought to what systems can do for you. Here are just three benefits: They can give you more time to be creative. You’ll have time to work on your business rather than just in your business. And, they will let you grow your business.

If you are like most of our readers, you’re a small business owner or solopreneur. At some point you’ll discover you can’t do it all. That’s the time to get started with systems, if you haven’t already.

How do you go about creating systems? I’m actually in the process of creating systems for some of the processes I do. My goal is to hire someone to handle some of our processes so I can devote my time to creating new products. To that end, I am writing down step-by-step how each process is handled. Yes, it is taking me extra time, but I know in the end it will pay off.

Here are just three ideas that you might try for your business:

Handling Fabric. After our last teleclass on organizing, one of our listeners contacted me about how she would start the year with her fabric organized and then the studio would quickly become unmanageable. It was something she repeated on a frequent basis. I suggested she write down her process for storing her fabric, i.e, develop a system for storing her fabric, and then hire a high school girl to come in a couple of times a week to get it back in order. This lets this quilter focus on what we could call her genius or brilliance.

Teaching or Media Requests. Do you scramble looking for all the materials to send when you get a request to teach or promote your business? Create a system to keep all those materials easily accessible. You could create folders on your computer or in your physical file cabinet to include photos, short and long bio, résumé, your brochure, anything that you are ever asked for. By keeping everything in one place, it will be easy to find. That means less stress looking for it or less time having to recreate something you find shortly thereafter.

Online Marketing. Are you sending out e-zines or updating your blog? Do you need to update your Facebook page or Tweet? Do you use a shopping cart and autoresponders? I have a couple of suggestions here. Create a schedule for doing this. For example, on Friday set aside several hours to write your newsletter, a few blog posts, and updates to Facebook and tweets. Many of these can be scheduled ahead of time. An assistant or virtual assistant can also be valuable setting up and maintaining these for you. That allows you time to work on activities that add to the bottom line of your business.

And, a big plus for creating and working the systems is you have lots of energy. And, when you have more energy, you’ll work at a higher level in your brilliance.

What ideas do you have for systems?

The Professional Quilter includes articles to help you create success with your quilt business. If your subscription is not current and you need to renew, or you want to start a new subscription, here’s a link to our order page

I’m really excited to announce that The Professional Quilter is becoming part of the International Association of Professional Quilters.

Over the last few years most of you have noticed that we’ve harnessed the power of the Internet to offer more information to help you, the serious quilter, create business success. We publish this e-zine with business tips, tools and techniques to help you build your business. We regularly sponsor teleclasses and longer teleseminars all geared to guide you as you grow your business.

As I talked with subscribers and participants in our programs and looked at what we offered, I knew the best way to help you uplevel your business was to package these products together, along with some other goodies. Members of the IAPQ will receive:

• The Professional Quilter, our quarterly business journal;
• access to monthly teleclasses with experts both in and outside the quilt world;
• access to a monthly tele-networking/ mastermind event;
• a free consultation with an intellectual property attorney;
• an IAPQ lapel pin designed by our art director, Kim Bartko;
• discounts on our books and other resources;
• and more.

The actual value of these benefits easily exceeds $700; the value of these benefits to you is priceless as you build and grow your business. You can see complete details of the benefits on our redesigned Web site.

If you are a subscriber to The Professional Quilter, I know that you are interested in how your current subscription converts to IAPQ membership. Effective immediately, we will no longer accept single subscriptions. The regular price of the IAPQ membership is $137. Through December 31, 2009, we are offering an introductory price of $97 for the first year. We will never offer a special at this rate again. When you convert your subscription online and input the expiration date shown on your address label, you will be credited for the amount remaining on your subscription, in most cases $7.49 an issue. Details are on the Join Page on our site.

I know that networking with other professional quilters is important. Please join me on our new IAPQ Facebook group page where you can interact with like-minded quilters. Here’s the quick link.

I look forward to helping you uplevel your quilt business. Our mission at the IAPQ is to provide the resources to educate and empower you to create your own success in our industry. Whether you’ve been in business for years or you’re just starting out, you’ll find the resources you need to create your own success at the IAPQ.

Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership here.