Today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast is our second annual community episode. In this very special episode I invite you, the listeners, to recommend great stuff you’re enjoying right now. A few weeks ago I put a call out here on the blog and in my newsletter asking listeners to recommend a book, app, website, tool, notion, or podcast that they would recommend to a creative friend. I heard from so many of you! I put all of your recommendations together in this episode (see them linked below – all Amazon links in this post are affiliate links).

My co-host for the Community Episode again this year is Stacey Trock. Stacey is a crochet designer and she’s also a marketing consultant for the yarn industry. Check her out here. In addition to hearing your recommendations, Stacey and I have some of our own. All together I think you’ll discover lots of neat stuff to check out!

To sweeten things up just a bit I’m excited to have been able to offer three awesome prizes to three people who contributed to this show. I drew the names at random on the air so you’ll have to listen to see who won. The prizes are:

A $100 gift certificate to Sprout Patterns. Sprout is a service that offers sewing patterns that you combine with Spoonflower designs to create customized cut and sew projects. Each project is digitally printed by Spoonflower at their Durham, NC headquarters. We take out all the work of putting a sewing pattern onto fabric and leave you with the fun of creating garments and accessories!

And two Spoonflower welcome packs! These include $35 in Spoondollar credit for the recipient to spend on Spoonflower, a sample of each of fabric plus the wallpaper options and gift wrap, and copy of The Spoonflower Handbook: A DIY Guide to Designing Fabric, Wallpaper & Gift Wrap with 30+ Projects.

Here’s the big list of everything that was recommended on this episode!

Stacey and I recommend:

• The Knitted Cable Sourcebook by Norah Gaughan
• The New Hexagon by Katja Marek
• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
• Work Pause Thrive by Lisen Stromberg + Stacey’s CreativeLive class on How to Take Maternity Leave Without Putting Life on Hold
• Fleece Hat Friends by Mary Rasch

And listeners recommend:

• Sunday Morning Quilts by Cheryl Arkison and Amanda Jean Nyberg (recommended by Amanda Jane Ogden)
• Piecing Makeover by Patty Murphy (recommended by Jesy Anderson)
• Essentialism by Greg McKeown (recommended by Maureen Nevers)

Notions and Tools:

• handmade locking stitchmarkers
• pincushions from Fish Museum and Circus
• using cloth holiday gift bags and project bags for knitting and crochet
• Tulip sewing needles for applique and for embroidery

And listeners recommend:

•  Long Time Gone pattern by Jen Kingwell (recommended by Sarah Ruiz)

Podcasts:

• Recode Decode
• How I Built This
• Wow in the World
• Story Pirates

And listeners recommend:

• The Art of Charm (recommended by Stefanie Tadio)

Apps, Websites, and Newsletters:

• Active Campaign
• WiseStamp
• Tiny Scanner
• Linktree
• AnyList
• Samantha Ettus’ newsletter
• LinkedIn

And listeners recommend:

• How to Get Creative with Barb Owen  (recommended by Ann Scott)
• Makerie UK and Coolirpa on YouTube (recommended by Marlo DeVouge)
• Miss Marker’s Quilts (recommended by Kathryn Hobbs)
• Austin Kleon’s newsletter (recommended by Molly Meng)
• Tabata Stopwatch Pro (recommended by Lois Baldwin)
• Adobe Express (recommended by Tara Curtis)
• iPhone camera grid and Snapseed and an electric tea kettle (recommended by Gale Zucker)

A big thank you to everyone who contributed this year! And if you didn’t get a chance, don’t worry. I’ll do another community episode again next year so you have a whole year to think about something awesome to recommend.

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This episode is sponsored by STITCHES United. Please join us for STITCHES United 2018 at the Hartford Convention Center on March 22-25, 2018. Get ready for an entirely new kind of crafting expo; sewing, quilting, knitting, crochet, and MORE, all under one roof! This show is for multi-crafters—those not defined by one craft or even by one medium—with stimulating classes and shopping for ALL— sewers, quilters, AND knitters, crocheters, weavers, and others interested in all things fabric AND yarn. Exclusively for Craft Industry Alliance listeners, you can get 20% OFF STITCHES United 2018 classes and events by visiting www.STITCHES.events/United and entering the coupon code WHILESHENAPS18 at check-out. You can learn more at www.STITCHES.events/United

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