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, wool, 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. My quote for today is creativity is experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun. And that is Mary Lou cook. And my guest today is one of our staff members. Jami Willett. Good morning, Jami. Good morning. And don't you think that quote says it all for us? That we at the end of the day, we're having fun. But boy, oh, boy, we're doing all of those things. we're experimenting. We're growing. We're taking risks. We're breaking rules. We're making mistakes. We do all of those things in a day, don't we?
studio-fun
SPEAKERS
Heidi Kaisand, Jami Willett
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioJami Willett
Oh my gosh, yes. And even if it's not with quilting with life, in general, that's what happens. I chuckle because I often when we have long armors in the store, we're teaching that class, say to them, there are no rules. You can make your own rules when you're doing this. So it's kind of fun to be able to step out and break the rules and create your own things from the problems, the creative opportunities instead of problems that we give ourselves.
Heidi Kaisand
Oh, absolutely. When you talk about creative opportunities, it actually makes me think about a project that you you in the last few weeks, you've been making table runners from one of our designers, pattern designers that we like piece tree quilts, we've had Shelley here on the show, so some that may might sound familiar to some of our listeners. And we actually on social media showed the fabric and the pattern and even asked our customers to vote on what you know what we liked, or what they liked in which in which capacity in the pattern and that kind of thing. But when you got to the actual making process, what happened?
Jami Willett
Well, I can think of two instances. One with one of the patterns, I actually don't know what I did, but I cut something short. So then I had to alter the entire pattern by the eighth of an inch, but it all still turned out and it also looks wonderful. So that was one thing and I'm admitting it to now everybody that I did something wrong, but but it's still a human.
Heidi Kaisand
It's and it's still adorable. And nobody, this is the thing. I mean, of course, we're admitting that on air, because we're trying to make a point. But if somebody saw the table runner, there's nothing wrong with it, nobody would think a thing about it, because they're not looking at the pattern. They don't know what the instructions said. They just see something that is cute. And sometimes we have to get our minds over that hurdle of that we did something wrong, because guess what the end result is, is not at all wrong.
Jami Willett
Oh, and I think it as as we're helping our customers that come into the store in helping people create things. That's what one of our biggest, quote unquote lessons that we want them to take away is that no one sees that tiny little thing that you might think is wrong, what people see is something that you created from your heart. And that if you're gifting it to them, that means more than any little Oh, it's so dumb. You have made it, nobody sees it.
Heidi Kaisand
So does well. Let's go back to terrific triangles for a second because that was another great creative opportunity to to take a little risk, you know, break the rules. Again, just describe a little bit of of what you did in that project.
Jami Willett
Well, and and if people want to look at it, Heidi, they could go to our website. Yeah, dude calm because it is pictured on there. And they can go back and watch our video from the actual hen house happy hour episode when we went into a little bit more depth about the creative process we went through, but we asked people for their input of what we should do. And then as I started laying it out, messed around with a lot of different layouts, a lot of different ideas before I came up with what I actually think played best together what I laid it out all together before I sewed any pieces together. So again, in the process of quilting or creating, even if it's cards or other things not just with fabric, you have that chances that you can you can change what it initially is going to be to something else. You want to
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioit is it is really fun. And Jami reference that you can go to our website, we try to make our website extremely interactive. And we're constantly updating and changing things because we want it to be a resource. So, for example, she mentioned hen house happy hour. That is our monthly Facebook Live event that we do on the first Monday of every month. And on February 1. So excuse me, on February 1, we did hand out the happy hour. And we showed a bunch of these table runners. So if you want to go back and look at these table runners that Jami was making, and like she said, we went into a little more depth showed even some images of the process, because it's great to use your camera to take record different variations as you're going through that creative process. And so you can go back to our website and see all of that, as well as there is actually a henhouse happy hour category, where any of the projects that we were talking about in that category, or in that video are in there. So there's there's certainly lots of resources. And we are going to take a quick commercial break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back to create with Heidi, this is Heidi Kaisand from Henan chicks studio. And today, my guest is Jami Willett, another staff member at hen and chicks studio. And, you know, we're having fun talking about all the different kinds of creativity that we have at hen and chicks studio. And a couple of weeks ago, we had a guest speaker, Rhonda Pierce from schmetz needles. And she did a Facebook Live program on our Facebook, all about needles. And I think the only word we could use to describe the program was Wow, don't you think Jami?
Jami Willett
Oh, yeah, who knew was what I think? Wow. Yeah. Wow,
Heidi Kaisand
it was it's an hour long presentation. And it is recorded and up on YouTube, as well as on our website. Again, again, as we were talking about our website, we try to make it very like that just lots of resources that, you know, keep going to our website, there's an inspiration tab. And under the inspiration tab is a drop down menu. And it it has it's called needle no at all. And anybody that has a sewing machine, I think will find that presentation extremely interesting because she really educated us as to the different kinds of needles, and why you would use a different needle, why we should change our needles.
Jami Willett
And the things that even if you're not an avid if you Okay, let's admit a little bit, even if you are an avid quilter that we didn't even know. And if you're not an app, it's clutter. Good thing. No, because a lot of people use their sewing machine or even mending things. Well, did you know that there's different needles for different fabrics when you're mending even?
Heidi Kaisand
Right, right. And we I mean, some of the feedback we got from that program included one woman who said, I've been sewing for 15 years. And I can't believe all the information I didn't know about needles.
Yeah. You know,
Heidi Kaisand
and so it's just there, you know, and Rhonda is such a good presenter. And there are some fabric, excuse me, needle bundles that are part of that program, which are for sale. And so you can, again, all that information is on our website about the PC needles, the nonstick needles, the knit needles and a couple other tools and things that she suggests. But that was a that was a great learning experience. And something that I don't know if a year ago. I don't know if we would even have considered doing that kind of a class. And I think that our our technology and the way we've changed our thought process about how we present information to our customers has changed, that that was an exciting way for us to get that information out to our customers.
Jami Willett
Yes, it was and we are so grateful for everyone that not only participated but for the fact that we can even offer that opportunity to people.
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioYes, yes. And so it was so good that we still love to do classes in person. And here in another week, I guess another week, two weeks, we have a whole stream of opportunities for people to take our long term certification class. Do you want to describe a little bit about what we do in that class, Jami?
Jami Willett
Absolutely. So our long term certification class is well, let's go let's take a step. backwards in case somebody is listening that doesn't understand what a long arm is, it is a long arm machine. It's a quilting machine that enables you to create or to, quote, put your whole quote, pack in. And basically draw over the top of it for a very rough overview of what a long arm quilting machines does, it's a great opportunity for people to finish not only quilts, but table runners, small projects, large projects, all in one clean swoop so to speak, without having to take their domestic machines out and that sort of stuff. Very awesome opportunity that people have. So at our store, here at an antique studio, we do have a long arm machine that we are offering to people for rental, because it is quite an expensive machine to invest in. So in our certification class, that is what we require before you can rent our machine, you come in, and we teach you everything that you need to know about how to run our machine, how to finish your quilt, and the process that you would walk through each time that you would come to do that. Now, Heidi, I think I'm saying this safely for both of us, neither of us profess to be professional,
Heidi Kaisand
we're not, we are not professional lawyers, we leave that to the professionals.
Jami Willett
Exactly. But we are enabling people to come in and learn and finish their craft all on their own. And the nice thing is after you take that certification class here at Hinton, she's doing it, it's often taught by me, you or Heidi, and or both of us, we like to tag team that sometimes too. We are always here to help. And I think the process when you return,
Heidi Kaisand
and I think that's something that that is so important is that, you know, talk about this on all sorts of things, but having a guide, having a shoulder to lean on, whatever you want to call it. But longer I mean, you know, the people, the people that are professionals, they do it every single day. And they you know, that's why they're professionals. Whereas when we rent out the machine, those people we have some that come in, maybe bi monthly. But that might be the soonest that we don't have a lot of people that come in even weekly, they may it might be every other week, or it might be a couple weeks this month, but then they have to go home and quilt so then or you know, piece things before they come back again. So we don't see him for a couple months. And when you come back after a break, it's it's like you need that little refresher course you need a little reminder. And that's what we're there for is so that you always know that somebody is going to say, don't forget left hand command and you know, green Did you know certain that situation later on and right hand command and blues are going to turn the power on?
You know,
Heidi Kaisand
we have those codes of you know,
Jami Willett
we helped them through that process. So that, and don't you think too, as well, even from for myself? Anybody that comes in? It's nice to just know that you have that? Yeah. Work system?
Heidi Kaisand
Yes, absolutely. I would agree. And I think that that you mentioned it, you know, somebody being able to finish their own projects. There's such an accomplishment, you know, not, I think it's important for everybody to understand that you pick out the parts of quilting that you want to do and enjoy. And not every part of the process is right for everybody. Maybe quilting on the long arm is not the step that you you know, want, that's okay, we're not we're not here to decide, you know, that's something you have to decide. But for those who want to do that part of the process, it's a real sense of accomplishment, when they pull that off the long arm and know that they got those layers put together themselves. And that they can say they made the entire quilt themselves. And they're that's that's exciting to see the smiles on their face. When when we when they do that.
Jami Willett
Oh, yeah. And it is a sense of accomplishment. And again, same thing, transfers that we talked about before, where when they take a step back and realize, Hey, I did this and that gift that you're giving or putting it on your bed or what you know, just that pride in the knowing that you did it from your heart. And if there's creative opportunities that happened along the way, it just makes it all the better. Oh yeah, we
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audiocould talk about lots of creative and creative opportunities on the longer that is for sure. That could be a whole nother show. Maybe we'll have to, we'll have to discuss that. Well, we're having fun chatting, Jami. We're gonna take a quick commercial break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back to create with Heidi. This is Heidi Kaisand from Hen and chicks studio in Conrad, Iowa. And today I am talking with Jami Willett, one of our staff members at Hen and chicks studio. And we're talking about all things creative and Today is February 10, which means it is time to ship out the new monthly feathered friends program. Which is so exciting for us. Later this year, we will be celebrating 10 years in business. Well, that's an October. So I decided that it would be fun to celebrate for 10 months. I mean, why not? You know, we need to have a party every month. So we created a subscription program called the feathered friends. And Jami, what do you what, what should we talk about the? Or how can we talk about the three levels that people could come into our program?
Jami Willett
Well, you know, everybody is a tick. Right? Right. Why not be a chick. But we also offer that's our very first level, but we also offer a hen and a rooster as well, so that people can come in and decide for themselves which, quote, unquote, level they want to be a part of any part of it any any one of those handshake, a receiver is so much fun. And I'm going to divert just a little bit Heidi, because last month packages that people received, contained some fabric, yes. And again, but the projects that people created from the fabrics that were a part of this subscription program, in celebration of the 10 year anniversary attendance check studio, have been so much fun to see. So obviously, there's just another bright spot to our day of seeing what people are doing with what they're getting from the subscription program.
Yes, it
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audiois so much fun. So basically, each month depending on which level, everybody gets a newsletter, and the newsletter is filled with a, an exclusive project, and some a recipe and some doodle inspiration and some tips, all sorts of different things that's in the newsletter, that's for everybody. And then each level gets product just at a different amount. So that the chick is more like $10 a month. The for the product that's included in the bundle. Han is 25 and the rooster is 40. Now, Jami is referring to the January package. And if you signed up today, you could actually still get January and February. We still have you know those available. And the fun thing is that it won't be fabric every month. But it's really fun to see what people are doing. In fact, one check. The chicks got five inch squares. And I know you know, Julie, and she took those squares and made new potholders. Apparently, there'd been some comments, I think over the holidays, maybe that she needed new potholders, and that she used the five inch squares of fabric, she got to make new potholders for kitchen, so we got to see that that was fun. Mm hmm. And and we
Jami Willett
go ahead. Oh, yeah. And we just saw somebody put in the different level put together a quilt top and I didn't think something that you just said and it made me smile because these the people that are listening that are already at to Kenner rooster have no idea what they're getting yet. Correct. That is correct. Just going out today. So
Heidi Kaisand
we kind of keep it a surprise and have fun. We Yes, we kind of keep it a surprise. So that maybe who doesn't like happy mail coming in the pack, you know, in the mail. It's so much better than a bill. It's, it's more fun to get happy mail. And so we kind of keep the product part of it a secret. So that until until we know that our main our main subscribers have gotten their packages. And then as we have additional packages available, we start talking about what is in that package so that somebody can see what they're getting. It just kind of keeps we have to have a little suspense of something.
Jami Willett
Yeah. And if I could say anything about it, and again, Heidi, I know we've mentioned it, you've mentioned it before, but further information is available on the website or always encourage people to call the store if they have questions. We're always here to help with you know answering those. Yeah, but it is if I can do anything, if somebody is listening and they're like, Oh, I don't know if I really need to do this. Just the fun of it. And for us the fun of I'm just telling you, you don't want to miss out on some of this stuff because there's some good stuff that's going on in these little bags of goodies. Oh
Heidi Kaisand
Realigning text with audioyeah meal. I'm working. We're working hard with some of our vendors to get some fun products and that kind of thing. So and by all means we do always encourage people to call us and contacts is if they need help. Now we've got just a just another minute left Jami just get you know give me a quick tour if you want to say of what's going on with take home Tuesday and what that is another opportunity for our viewers to be inspired.
Jami Willett
Well take home Tuesday was And out of some things that happened in the fall and we're just leading into the holiday season wanted to inspire people to be creative and have fun. Well, turns out, we've inspired people and we had positive feedback and we're