Good morning and welcome to create with Heidi. I'm Heidi Kaisand, owner of hen and chicks studio in Conrad, Iowa, and lover of all things creative. Each week here on create with Heidi, we like to cover topics that educate and inspire you about how people are being creative, whether it's quilting, scrapbooking food wall, or just hanging out with others who seem to have their creative Mojo grooving in all the right directions. We are excited to share these things with you. Excuse me each week, we like to start with a quote. I love different quotes. But today, I actually have a checklist. And it is a farm girl checklist. So let's see if we have these things in our back pockets. We've got chapstick, duct tape, baling twine, hammer and nails, boots and gloves, pocket knife, faith and patience and a sense of humor. And I pick this particular checklist today because my guest is Kelly Collins. Good morning, Kelly, how are you today?
Creativity With Kelly
Heidi Kaisand
Kelly Collins
Good morning, Heidi. I'm doing great. How are you?
Heidi Kaisand
I am good. And we've this list is I think perfect for both you and me. Because we certainly have a lot of farm girl packed in between everything else that we're doing, don't we? We sure do it. Absolutely. I think it is amazing. How many and how many different levels you and I Kelly have some have lots of similarities. And when we're both on the farm, there are times where you you have to be everything at all at once, which is amazing. And this little checklist was to me quite humorous, because you've got a baling twine can pretty much fix anything, can't it? Oh, it does between that and duct tape. You're just Humphrey. That's right. So Kelly, why don't you tell us a little bit about where you grew up.
Kelly Collins
I grew up just east of Radcliffe on a small hog cattle operation. During the 80s and the farm crisis, our family raised broiler chickens for years, we are avid foragers. We have a total love for the farm. My father, my father, mother and two sisters, we were just all about living on the farm. And now my husband and I live on a farm outside of El Dora with our three children and raise everyone in our household to love the farm Christ and just be happy people. We are involved in farming a cattle operation. And now I've been blessed to be with my love of quilting. That's right and, and farming this time of year. I always think in the end yesterday I had to be on the road just for a little bit and farmers are just going so fast paced right now. Because the weather is cooperating and it's important to you know, get in the fields and get the field work done and get ready to plant. They just go fast, fast, fast. And work so hard and various and I and then and then there's also the calving season. And and your your family is doing both of that too. You've got cows that are calving and you're doing the farm work all of that. We are yesterday I had to stay home because we didn't have school Thank you Heidi. And we started the day with there was no school so we were checking calves hauling anhydrous tanks taking the loop through the seed was delivered in the middle of that hauling and other anhydrous tank we pulled another calf in the midst of that and making sure dad was taken care of out in the field and we finished the day with four h so it's around about deal absolutely and and there are so many characteristics that I think women get our our OSI built I'm trying to get the word is that you you know that we gain by being those farm wives those, you know farm girls, I didn't grow up on a farm per se. I grew up in a farming community. My dad was very involved in the farming community. But there there's just a lot of hard work ethics. You know, and you know, again, character building types of things that come from being on the farm. So we definitely have that in common amongst amongst many other things.
Heidi Kaisand
One of the other things of course that we have together is our love of quilting. And you do work at hen and chick studio. So that's very exciting. I am very blessed to be here with you. I love every day at hen and chicks studio.
Kelly Collins
I do a little bit of the bookkeeping, keeping the daily balancing in that and then I get to have my love of helping others begin closing picking new projects, all sorts of fun things. Oh yeah, it is. It is a lot of fun. And, and then so farming and working hen and chicks and being a mom of three kids and a wife to a farmer and and your husband does construction as well. We grow right, you've got all of that. You also have another love of creativity. And it is called Mama's farmhouse designs. Correct? It is it is. Over the course of the Coronavirus. Like everyone else we decided to take our love of our crafting and agriculture and my best friend Stephanie and I started a business. And we just kept watching the American farmer. Everything in the grocery store kept going up and up and you know, our prices farmers for beef, and that went down and down. And we just needed a way to prove out the American farmer and how could we do that and we decided we have a shirt. And that was the beginning in the beginning of the pandemic to just promote the Iowa beef farmer. And how could we do that? So we have a great t shirt that says eat American and Iowa beef and wear it and promote agriculture. That is a great place to start.
Heidi Kaisand
Well, we're gonna take a quick commercial break. And when we come back, I want to hear more about the T shirts and things that you do at Mama's farmhouse designs.
Heidi Kaisand
Welcome back to create with Heidi. I'm Heidi Kaisand, owner of hen and chicks studio in Conrad, Iowa. And Today my guest is Kelly Collins. And you know, Kelly wears multiple hats as we've heard. But I want to talk with you more Kelly about Mama's farm house Mama's farmhouse designs. And let's let's have you describe a little bit obviously, since it's radio and we can't show pictures here we'll of course, show some pictures and links to your website. In the in the podcast and everything afterwards. But go ahead and why don't you describe again, what your that what the T shirt was that you started with. And maybe some of the other kinds of T shirts that you sell and other products.
Kelly Collins
We always make sure that we have some form of Iowa American farmer promotion to support agriculture. And we designed the T shirt, kind of with the retro respect of the style right now with everything and we are also working on and have a pork shirt and dairy shirt as well to showcase agriculture through our designs. And isn't saying and so I'm assuming you have everything from sweatshirts to T shirts to children's sizes, adult sizes. We even have down to infant one these now with mama and baby calf grazing out in the pasture. And just adorable little things for anything to promote. There's little tractor t shirts for the little guy or the new one who would rather be farming but is forced to go to school.
Heidi Kaisand
I think we have several kids, both in your family and mine that would be wearing that one, especially the boys.
Kelly Collins
Yeah, we also have leather earrings. That is kind of what started the whole thing to start with way back in the beginning. But now we've progressed to the T shirts and we always make sure that we are at some form of a family farm promoted. event. We just got done with the Iowa beef Expo back in February. We do the i j BBA for the cattle Association. Anything event wise that supports agriculture, we try to be there for the American farmer as well as our families are there functioning in that event as well. So let's keep promoting the farmer. Oh, that is so good. And everybody who is looking for these kinds of T shirts to promote promote Iowa agriculture can go Of course to Mama's farmhouse designs calm and everything is for sale there. And and as the as the agricultural community opens up after I'll say, I don't know that we're post COVID yet but we're getting closer and closer all the time and things are becoming more like you said you were just at the Iowa beef Expo. So do you have events coming up this summer and into you know, into the fall that you're already planning on being at or do you have that you have a schedule for where you'll be if people want to if you're gonna be out and about. We do and we have That schedule that we are posting on our website as we speak and that is updating this weekend we will be in Bloomfield at one of the American Junior Angus Association shows. There is also a mini Hereford show this weekend at that same location, we are going to be at many local county fairs as well. So look for us. We're there. We're not usually you know, out broadcast at the grandstand, but we're usually close to the show pen or the cattle barn. Well, that is wonderful. There's just and you know, we've seen you've had some different things like even at Christmas, you had some fun holiday kinds of T shirts. And so you've got a variety of something for everybody, I think, oh, we are in now we are also an authorized dealer for little Buster farm toys, which every little guys got to have the good old metal farm toy that lasts for generations for the next grandkids to play with. So we also have those as well.
Heidi Kaisand
Oh, that's exciting because Yeah, sometimes the plastic ones don't they get crushed, crushed here then I know we had a couple of those things happen at our house. So great. That is that is awesome. Now when it comes to quilting, tell me how did you get started quilting.
Kelly Collins
I was actually brought up at the foot of the pedal on the bottom of this sewing machine with my grandmother's I just had such a love for it such an early age. I remember making many little doll blankets or such and sitting right watching my grandmother's quilt And my answer very avid quilters. Many four h projects quilting throughout the years. And you are passing that down to your daughter as well. I am my daughter is probably going to outsell her mother very soon. She just has such a love for it and she loves the long arm just as well. Yes, yeah, she did has done very well using the long arm to finish her four h projects and stuff. So Aaron is a C she's a freshman in high school correct? Yes, she has she just turned this team. They grow up way too fast, don't they? Oh, they do? Yes.
Heidi Kaisand
And so at hen and chicks studio you do at the moment have kind of multiple roles you get to help with some of the daily bookkeeping, but you're you really are enjoying and loving getting to help customers I know you you like I think we've actually we've described you as a people pleaser. You love being able to to help them and we love that. I love that part of being able to own hand and check studio is that when somebody walks in the door that we're you know, we're able that's that's our whole job is to help them and to please to please them. And I love that you're that you're enjoying that role as well. Oh, thank you, I absolutely love it. If anybody ever needs help with anything called come in the door. As for me, I will be the first one to get up and help you to start a new project. If if you were going to start a new project for yourself, what kind of quilting might you choose? Like? Do you have a particular style or color? That would be your favorite? I mean, what do you what are you drawn to? I am obsessed with scrappy quill, anything that just kind of is a little pop of color that blends all sorts of things together, there is no specific anything that draws out. But I am also obsessed with the new strip biology patterns that we are carrying in the store. Oh, you and you are in love with this topology rulers. And for anybody who hasn't seen those, there are a series of rulers from creative grids that we sell. They're literally called strip ology. And we even did a strip biology class a few weeks back, which is still available on our website for free to watch. But it's a ruler at this topology is a ruler, it comes in three different sizes that literally can cut slice dice. I mean, it's it's sort of like if we were at the fair, and that pots and pans guy, you know, that's standing at you know, and he's Hawking the pots and pans and he's telling you that these pans can do all of this and that that's what this topology ruler it's like you sort of envisioned that somebody could be hockey net, as if it's this next, the greatest next tool, but it is, oh, it makes your life so much easier. I used it all weekend long working on a store project for you this weekend. Heidi, even the flying geese, cutting pieces made life so much easier just takes the frustration of cutting and gives you just a little more self confidence of what you're doing that you know, it's going to be right on. That's right at the accuracy is amazing. And so yes, the strip ology and I will we should warn customers that if you get Kelly started talking about stripology rollers, we can pretty much guarantee you're walking out of the store with at least one maybe more because it it is when you when you are passionate about something which you are very passionate about the rulers and you use them, which then just makes it even more powerful to have sort of that testimonial that that it's a great ruler. So we, we always, we always are listening intently as you're talking with customers, because you certainly are not a hard salesman, but you just are passionate about what you do. So that's awesome. Yeah, I'd love to be helpful. Yes, well, we're gonna take a quick commercial break, and we'll be back right after this.
Heidi Kaisand
Welcome back to create with Heidi, this is Heidi Kaisand. And I'm here with Kelly Collins, on a staff member at hen and chicks studio and fellow farmer and farm girl and all those kinds of good titles as well. Kelly, one of the things that we were just talking about is the strip biology class that we had in college. That was that was in March, the time is, yeah, and it was in March. So that was a different month. But one of the things that I think we're all so focused on at hen and chicks studio is helping others become more educated and inspired to learn more about the quilting. And so in January, we started what what we're calling our hen house, happy hour connections, classes. They're all free. So we had a needle class. In January, we had a perfect quarter inch seam class in February. In March, we had strip ology understanding the rulers with Gudrun erla. And all of these classes are all still on our website. That's the beauty of this is that none of this information has gone away, it is still there for reference, if you've watched it, and you don't want to go back and watch it again. Or if you haven't watched them, they are available there for you to watch. But I think our goal always is is how can we help the customer? Would you agree?
Kelly Collins
Oh, yes. Always, anyone who calls in when we've been having those classes, someone's calls and says I can't find them. I am more than happy to help you walk through and find that on the Facebook page. I love helping people. If there's any reason that you're frustrated whatsoever, stop in, give me a call, and I'll help you through it.
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audio Yes, and you have done great and, and the day they're always the class always appears first live on Facebook. And in sometimes it can be frustrating for people. If they're if their notifications aren't set up to tell when we go live, they're scrolling on a screen and they can't see like until it actually pops up on their screen. And you have walked several customers through finding those classes and and you've done a great job. And so the beauty is that then it's all recorded. And then we put it on both YouTube and then on our website so that people can watch them. But tomorrow is yet another one of our facebook live classes at 10 o'clock, central time. So if you're not listening in Iowa, and but you are listening to us today that you'll notice is central time. And it is 10 tips for finishing table runners with Terry Atkinson of Atkinson designs. And I am so excited about this. Because Terry is just a wealth of information. And we we love her patterns at the store as well.
Kelly Collins
Realigning text with audio Oh, I have never seen more of a pattern designer that they are so exemplified directions are so well written. Everything just takes the stress out Atkinson's designs was one of my daughter's first patterns.
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioYes, I probably helped push you that way. If I because it anytime a quilter is new, or it does not have a lot of experience. I trust Terry's patterns in a way that I know that when the customer gets home with them. They can read it and feel confident that they know what the next step is. And that's that's critical to success. Oh, it is if you don't start with the right tools, you're going to be so frustrated you're not going to want to succeed. Yes. So for anybody that's listening and wondering about these classes, so first of all, you can simply just show up at 10am on Thursday, April 8 on the hen and chicks studio faceFacebook page and we will be going live with Terry or, and I should say not or and you can go to our website and sign up for the free class. And we will send you a reminder of that the class is going to happen and some special insider information that only our email customers get. That is not said on during the class. So there's there's always a little extra information there for signing up for the class. So that's a that's a good deal. Yes, and and i'm sure we're always focusing on table runners in the store as a simple gift. And she's going to be focusing not only on finishing them, but also some of the patterns that she uses. So we have been busy creating kits. There's there's fabric all over the place isn't there at hand and check.
Kelly Collins
Realigning text with audioOh, there is. So this morning, Jamie and I have been sorting out the table runners and getting everything organized. There's quite a stack. It's rather impressive what we've got going on it is
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioand I think it's going to be very exciting to see all of that come alive as we work with Terry during the class. So first, head to hen and chicks studio.com. Click on the classes tab. There's actually a hen house happy hour section. and sign up for 10 tips for finishing your table runners on Thursday, April 8, so that you'll get the reminder email. There's still time to do that. And then be sure that you are on Facebook Live at 10am Central time. Well Kelly, it has been a great chatting with you today. The time the time goes so fast and we hope that