Alex Anderson on Quilting, Camera Confidence, and Building a Global Community

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I’m honored to have Alex Anderson, past HGTV television host and an author with over 1 million copies of her books sold, on the show today.

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Summary:

I’m honored to have Alex Anderson, past HGTV television host and an author with over 1 million copies of her books sold, on the show today. Alex has worn many hats and I’m excited for you to hear her journey from being a reluctant television personality to becoming a beloved figure in the quilting community. She discusses her initial fears of being on camera, the importance of authenticity in connecting with her audience, and the shift to online teaching during the pandemic. Alex emphasizes the value of overcoming fear, embracing opportunities, and the joy of creating content that resonates with the quilting community. The conversation highlights the value of continuous learning, the joy of connecting with others, and the significance of kindness in feedback all the while navigating the new waves of technology along the way. 

Topics:

  • How Alex first ended up in front of a camera as a quilter as the host of Simply Quilts on HGTV despite all hesitation

  • Practical strategies that Alex uses to remain authentic and confident on camera and deeply connect with her audience

  • The transition from working for a network to running her own platform and the importance of owning your own content

  • Alex’s advice for new educators, teaching online, engaging with an audience, and building confidence

    Episode Resources:

    About Alex:

    Since embracing “the quilt life” more than four decades ago, 2008 Silver Star award-winner Alex Anderson has worn many hats. Her 30 books have sold over 1,000,000 copies, inspiring quilters worldwide. She has designed patterns and fabric, helped to develop innovative products to enhance the quilting experience, and—for 11 years—hosted the popular cable TV show, Simply Quilts. In 2007, with Ricky Tims, she co-founded The Quilt Show.com, the world’s first full-service interactive online video/web TV platform and, soon after, an award-winning quilting lifestyle magazine and most recently has co partnered with RNK distributing to create top end quilting products with Quilters Select. Most of all, however, Alex is a teacher, and her mission remains to educate and encourage both new and experienced quilters, ensuring our beloved tradition passes seamlessly to succeeding generations.

    Connect with Alex:


      Click here to read a raw transcript of this episode

       Lyric Kinard (00:01.198) Hello friends, I am so excited to welcome Alex Anderson to the podcast today. You are a legendary figure in the quilting world, the rock star, a doyen with Quilting on Camera, right? Many of you may recognize Alex former time on Simply Quilts with HGTV and now the host of the quilt show alongside Ricky Timms. And you've done everything, you've got... a stack of books published, fabric lines, decades of teaching experience, and have been one of the people to really shape the quilting industry as we know it. If anybody has experience behind a camera, in front of a camera, it's Alex. So I can't wait to hear about your journey, Alex. Thank you so much for being with us. ALEX (00:52.512) Lyric, thank you so much for having me. And that is quite the introduction. I hope I can live up to it. Lyric Kinard (00:57.976) no problem. You don't have anything to live up to. You're already up. So it's good. I would love to hear the very first part of your journey. How did you first end up in front of a camera as a quilter? ALEX (01:01.07) Thank you. ALEX (01:14.872) So that's kind of an interesting thing because I had zero desire to do that, zero. It was my understanding that Weller Grossman Productions, they were trying to create content for HGTV. They were doing the Carol Duvall show and the... I'm not the accountant higher up than that, but you know, the C, what is it, CFO or whatever, was a quilter, and she said, let's do a quilting show. And everyone's like, wait, okay, but HGTV was desperate for content. And so, and so she asked her sister, who's an avid quilter down in Southern California, who have you seen recently that you think would be good on camera, but is also generic? I was very, and published, and published. So I had just finished my first book, which, I mean, it was my first book, but it's probably the worst thing I've ever written. mean, basically it was, go buy fabric, cut it up and sew. There, yay, quilts for fabric lovers. So when I was down at the Glendale Quilt Show, I was approached by Stephanie Kleinman, and she, Lyric Kinard (02:15.224) Gotta start somewhere. ALEX (02:28.782) pulled me out kind of in a forest gump on a park bench thing and said, this is what's going on. I heard Home and Garden, but she was saying HGTV because it was so new, maybe not even a year into it. And they were very interested in talking to me. So I'm kind of overwhelmed, kind of don't really understand what I'm hearing because I have no interest, all right? And so I went home and It was at this house. The kids were watching TV. John was cooking dinner, attempting to. And I walked in and I go, the strangest things have happened. I have been approached to do this. And then I go, I don't wanna do it. I just wanna be famous like Libby Lehman. That's all I want. I love Libby. And the kids, the TV went off, got their attention. TV. Lyric Kinard (03:17.475) You ALEX (03:28.782) John's, said, again, I don't want to do it. And John goes, why? And I said, a couple reasons. I said, I don't know anything about this. And then he said to me, said, Alex, and I think this is really key for all of you that are listening. He goes, I have never seen you back away from anything. think lyric, so many times people are given opportunities. And yeah, a lot of them aren't going to work out. That's how it goes. But a lot of people, the doors open and they go, you know, I think that's human nature because number two, you don't want to make a jerk out of yourself, right? And John said, when you're an old lady, in the old people's home on the porch teaching people to quilt you will regret not doing this. Okay, the next thing I know I have a plane ticket I'm going down to meet Rob Weller and Gary Grossman and the next thing I know I have a TV show and I and we didn't know what that meant we had 13 shows all right and then Stephanie said Lyric Kinard (04:13.166) That's an excellent way to look. ALEX (04:32.534) to HGTV, why don't we do, was it 26 or whatever, let's do two seasons. And they said, okay, again, desperate, all right? At that point, I think the viewing audience was about six million. I mean, it was baby. And little, the only six million, would you just kill for that, right? Lyric Kinard (04:48.174) Calling six million a baby. Bye. ALEX (04:54.774) And then every season it would get picked up, picked up, picked up, picked up. The quilters embraced it. Totally embraced it. And we'll get down to this in a moment, maybe. The first five years I couldn't even look at the camera without my face breaking out in spasms. Like for real. You know, you know, I don't know if it's happened to you, Lerik, you get in front of a crowd and your leg starts going like this, but you're behind the podium, so nobody sees. It was all going on. So, why... Lyric Kinard (05:25.198) Right? On your face, of course. You know, I can't imagine that anybody would imagine the rock star Alex having camera fright, stage fright. And this is so good for people to hear. ALEX (05:34.734) What was that? ALEX (05:41.228) Yeah, I couldn't, okay, they have to do head shots and stuff. I couldn't even look at a regular camera. That's how traumatized I was. But somehow I outgrew it. Lucky. Okay, Simply Quilts was on 10 years and it got canceled because they were shifting to a different advertising base, right? And I got a call from one of the top dogs who I love, Michael Dingley, and he talked to me for 45. minutes and said it is going to be canceled and every year there were rumors and blah blah blah and I said Michael I just have to warn you people are going to be excuse my language pissed and he goes what are you talking about and I said well it's twofold you've got the mom the the consumer who lives for it in the morning and then you are literally taking food out of quilt shops mouse money because people would run to the store. mean, it got to where the stores were connecting in and blah, blah, blah. And, he said, well, I said, I said, you know, these women have rotary cutters. Okay. So he said, well, can you help us curtail this? And I go, no, why should I? Lyric Kinard (06:59.148) Watch out for the quilters, we have sharp objects. ALEX (07:07.256) Really, you you're firing me. So it ended and then I had a non-compete for a year and then we moved on. So it was nothing I sought out but the big lesson was walk through the door even if your knees are quaking, you can do it. Lyric Kinard (07:24.27) And everybody sees other people at their best, right? And don't realize that we all started out at a pretty low point and created a lot of stuff that was bad before we got good, right? I would love to hear what are some practical things you did? How did you get over the face spasms and the camera shyness? ALEX (07:42.209) Yuh-oh! ALEX (07:51.202) I didn't look at the camera literally. I at the desk, look at me. I don't know how I got out of it, but I would say I'm a slow learner if it took five years. And now I love the camera. You just keep going through it. mean... Lyric Kinard (08:02.55) You kept slugging through it though. ALEX (08:06.702) So what? The audience didn't see it. I was protected by the camera people. They wanted me to become on that show kind of an expert and show things expertise-wise. And then they had the brains to bring in a person to say, Alex, how do you do this? And then I could look at the person. I mean, it was real. It was real. Yeah. Lyric Kinard (08:19.372) Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (08:31.896) That's a good way to manage it. can imagine that somebody who doesn't want to be on camera, that's brilliant. Bring in somebody else to chat with and look at the other person. ALEX (08:43.778) Yeah, and look at both of us looking at the camera. We are just fine. Just fine. Lyric Kinard (08:48.138) Absolutely. So how do you make the connections with your audience through a screen? You have a whole new screen presence now in so many different places. But one of the things that people know about you and love about you is that they feel that they know you, but they've only seen you on a screen. How do you make that happen? What are some practical things that you think or you do in order to be authentic on camera? ALEX (09:20.866) So I'm thinking now I need to talk about my Facebook lives, okay? Because thequiltshow.com with Ricky, I wasn't gonna go back to something, after experiencing the professionalness of HGTV, I didn't want something dumb. And so we kind of went with that. But now I think I've really connected and that all happened with COVID doing my live things and all that. Lyric Kinard (09:25.43) Okay. Lyric Kinard (09:38.83) Mm-hmm. ALEX (09:50.892) because I don't care. If my cat walks across right now, I'll pick, look at my cat, you know, or John, come take care of my hair. Or I don't get it. I'm really honest. On HGTV, you had to be perfect, okay? And part of Ricky, Ricky is part of that. If something funny goes wrong, Lyric Kinard (09:58.616) Yeah ALEX (10:17.452) Okay, who cares? I mean, be authentic. I'm not Katie Couric, for Pete's sake. And so, I think if you're gonna say start doing video and stuff like that, give yourself leeway to be ridiculous. I mean, if you know what you're talking about, that's the first thing. And that was one of the things that HGTV went for, was they wanted a quilter, because they know we have a secret language. I mean, don't... Pretend and talk about things that you don't know don't do that you you know stuff you possess stuff And if somebody asks a question I'll go I don't know if I don't know you know, but you might want to go here here and here Does that answer that question? Lyric Kinard (10:57.622) It does kind of. It's a different thing to be in a professional film studio where you've got professional cameramen and the cameras are far away from you than it is to talk into a camera. How do you, hey, hi. So you're doing Facebook, what are you doing on your Facebook slides? ALEX (11:05.102) Yes. ALEX (11:15.03) Like right here, right now, what we're doing. Lyric Kinard (11:25.27) What are Facebook lives? What are they? ALEX (11:25.998) Yeah. Right when the pandemic started, John, we were driving, we got shut down in LA, so we had to drive home. mean, literally Thursday night, everything shut down. So we drove home and John said, you need to get on and do a live. And I'm like, no, I don't. mean, I really don't. Here was where I was coming from. I don't want to be in people's face too much. I want to be their friend. I don't want to be. Lyric Kinard (11:35.086) Mm-hmm. ALEX (11:55.34) And you're faced too much. You know, I want to teach. I'm a teacher, you know. You're a teacher. And I want to be accessible. So I came home and we started doing, I did one and it was like, hi. You know, and John could figure out all the technical stuff. That's a big deal. All right. And then I would say six weeks into it, was doing Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 10 o'clock Pacific time in the morning, we started doing projects together. Lyric Kinard (12:12.91) Nice. ALEX (12:24.84) So because of thequiltshow.com we have a full store that's online so we would buy something and then online we would make it all together and I think the I don't remember the first one but the funniest one was the CAFE mystery quilt and I was sewing along with everybody and people they bought CAFE bundles all right which I love his stuff and people kept saying But what are we making? And I'm like, I don't know. It's a mystery quilt. And this is a big deal for people. But what size is it going to be? I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. And then the dirty little secret was when mine was about 3 quarters down, I went, my god, that's ugly. How am going to crawl out of this? And I did, because I wasn't going to give up. But it's being authentic. Being authentic. And that's, think, what really gets to people. Lyric Kinard (13:25.226) It's also about what you're talking about being with your people. These are your people. You are not separate from them. You are part of your community and you're serving them and you're doing something together, right? When so many people get imposter syndrome when they're on camera because they think, who am I to be the person up here? And we forget that it's not about us. ALEX (13:30.06) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ALEX (13:36.845) Yes. ALEX (13:53.838) It's about the quilts. It's about learning. And I remember one of the early shows, I was acting on Simply Quilts. And I said, yeah, my little boy. And the producer comes out and goes, what little boy? Because I was acting. I wasn't being authentic. You've got to be yourself. Authenticity is everything. Lyric Kinard (14:11.694) you Lyric Kinard (14:18.284) I think especially since COVID that people relate to that better than the slick Hollywood professional things. We can watch the professionally produced shows and learn something from it, but I think there's more of that community and connection with the imperfection. ALEX (14:37.838) So let me take a Bridget here on something, okay? So when Simply Quilts got canceled, I called Ricky Timbs about something else, doesn't matter, all right? And he had gotten money from Bernina to do a pilot. And he was wondering if I am a one man show or a two man show. And I said, I'll be a two man show, but we gotta see if we work. And we work, okay? We got a producer from HGTV. and then another producer that was friends of that person. And of course, you're, this was in 07, and we were the first made for production for the internet, besides porn, seriously. And so we were really on a new thing. And Beverly, one of those two producers, I was like, you what if I could go back to TV? What if for some reason I got a call and they say, oh, we screwed up, you know? And she said, no, no, no, you are on the right path. And look at where we are now with Netflix, with all of Hulu, it's online. It's very rare I watch my TV. So we were kind of at the right place at the right time. But again, I insisted that the quality was decent. So we had four camera, blah, blah, blah. And now when I'm doing my lives, it's like, OK, again, if the cat knocks over the, you know, whatever. There's a lot of forgiveness with what's happened. ALEX (16:17.056) The other thing, Leric, and I think you might have been part of this tribe too, was as soon as COVID happened, a group of teachers like us were like, we need to get online and we need to figure it out and people will be more forgiving now than two years from now. Were you part of that group that got in immediately? Lyric Kinard (16:40.36) absolutely. We started Global Quilt Connection within months and gathered up whoever was willing to jump in the deep end of the water, right, as far as quilt teaching goes. And we held a live Zoom meet the teacher. We gathered as many guild leaders as we could from around the world. And I am telling you, the presentations we did as teachers during those first several Zooms were so... ALEX (16:51.916) Walk through the Lyric Kinard (17:08.99) They were so bad! But you know what grew out of that? We learned and we grew and now things are amazing. You know, still not Hollywood slick, but the world kind of held together with all of us people with Sharp Projects, right? We stuck together and with this virtual technology, we made things happen, didn't we? ALEX (17:10.448) You're so good. ALEX (17:36.502) So I look at Patricia Bolton who put on Kraft Napa and then she got shut down, right? And I think this happened to a lot of people. I did a couple Kraft Napa's from home. I loved it. I was so surprised at how I loved it because I had all my stuff. I'm in my room. I know where this is. I know where that is. And I think that was a... Lyric Kinard (17:42.711) Mm-hmm. ALEX (18:02.574) wonderful awakening for quilters everywhere. This is gonna work and we're reaching people now worldwide, which is great. Lyric Kinard (18:06.19) All Lyric Kinard (18:13.142) It's amazing. just, I still think it's miraculous all the time when I'm on a live zoom and I'm talking to people from such geographically dispersed places from all over the world, all live, all at the same time. And you're right. are, you know, in-person classes are never gonna go away. Cause we all love getting together, but there are so many wonderful things about ALEX (18:26.222) You ALEX (18:35.884) The bright. Lyric Kinard (18:42.648) being together live via Zoom for a live quilt class or a live craft class or anything hands on, right? Being in your space, you get to use your actual good tools, your good machine instead of the piece of crap that never works once you walk into the room. ALEX (19:00.888) You know, and I, Ricky Timms and I do things very differently. Surprise. And I'll say, well, it's done this way. This is so funny. I this is back in the olden days. And he'd say, well, I do it this way. And I go, no, but it's this way. And he would say, both and. And that's what we're experiencing now. Both and. Lyric Kinard (19:27.054) Those two words together apply to so many things in life, so many things. I would love to switch for just a second to talk about the shift from you working for this corporation to owning your own content, to running it yourself. That's whether you did it on a big scale, but a lot of independent teachers. ALEX (19:30.118) yeah! ALEX (19:48.174) . ALEX (19:52.299) and Lyric Kinard (19:55.19) are wondering, you know, should I go film something for somebody else or should I work it out myself? I mean, it's a both and situation, but I would love to hear your experience. ALEX (20:03.502) It's a both and because, okay, me being here with you, I'm reaching people that I would not normally reach, right? I've got my little group, like you said, but it's both and. And when I get done talking with you today, no doubt I will have learned some things. So the corporation part of HGTV, I was talent. And maybe gum on my shoes may not be as important as talent, but talent is the lowest thing on the totem pole, FYI. When you're in that sort of situation, that was my feeling. Lyric Kinard (20:52.28) That's Hollywood speak for you're the hired extra, you're the face. ALEX (20:55.766) You're the hot, exactly. And whether it's true or not, I don't know. mean, Carol Duvall certainly was not. They listened to her but but she was older than me and she came in and said boom boom boom boom and she got it because they wanted her so Okay, set aside now we go to our own company and there's four owners. It's for the quilt show calm It's Ricky Alex Justin John and it was okay how This is a good thing for even in marriages. How are we going to maneuver four different opinions? Okay, I think it was Ricky, I don't think it was Justin had the passion scale. Zero to 10, all right? Five is, okay, whatever. 10 is. Lyric Kinard (21:55.66) I'm gonna die on this hill. ALEX (21:56.994) I'm gonna die on this hill. And zero is like, who cares? So typically things came in at five. I remember one time we had a guest and Justin pulled us off the set and he goes, I'm a 50. Now you guys just listen to me. Okay, not only was he dying on the hill, the knife's already halfway in. But if you are working with other people in a creative format, you gotta have some system of communication. Lyric Kinard (22:24.126) We use that scale with our group of kids whenever we're together of how much do we want to actually do this thing? Who cares the most and who doesn't care at all? ALEX (22:30.045) do you? ALEX (22:35.842) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that was a good thing. I always was afraid at Simply Quilts we would run out of content. 500 shows later, still more to come. Thequiltshow.com, almost 500 episodes. There's always more. There's always something different. And it's so much fun to look at, although I have to laugh, some of what is new. was old like I am dying over the hoop art right now. Did you ever do hoop art? Lyric Kinard (23:15.118) Yes. It's... ALEX (23:20.268) New part! Lyric Kinard (23:22.254) That's another fear that so many teachers as they're thinking of getting into this have. They're like, I don't have anything that's entirely unique. Other people teach the same thing I do, but I don't think there's anything really new under the sun very often at all. It's variations on a theme and it's the flavor of the popsicle that you're providing, which might be the same, but it might be a different shape or it might be a different flavor, right? ALEX (23:39.83) I would agree. ALEX (23:51.126) Right, right. There's enough. Lyric Kinard (23:51.406) There's enough, there's enough. There is enough for everybody to do this. And even on a TV show, they're not gonna go back and watch every episode. If you've had 500, you can do things that are similar over and over again. ALEX (24:05.632) And everybody has a different twist on it, that's the thing. And everybody teaches it little bit differently, but I'll tell you people a secret. When I went and saw Rob Weller of Weller Grossman Productions after the whole thing was canceled, I loved Rob. And I told him what we were doing and he was intrigued about the whole internet thing. And he says, we just can't figure out how to make money. we are the best nonprofit available to quilters today. But he walked me to the... Lyric Kinard (24:08.671) Exactly. ALEX (24:35.536) elevator and he said I'm gonna tell you one thing Alex and I said what and he said teach teach teach and the door closed and I left Lyric Kinard (24:46.752) It's the gift that you're giving to your people, right? That's what, it's the teacher's heart. We have something, we've tried something, even if we haven't tried it, we just want to give this knowledge, this experience to the people we love. And so it's not selling, it's a gift. ALEX (25:04.364) Now, it's interesting. Also, in the very beginning, before I even wrote a book, I might come up with a concept. And then I would go to my mini group and I would teach my mini group. And then they would say, well, this needs to be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they would help me craft it. So if you're doing something that's new or you're a little uncertain of, go to the church. Go wherever. Get a group of people in and work it out with them. I think, yeah, yeah. Lyric Kinard (25:35.604) absolutely. When I beef, so I was quilting and I knew I wanted to be a teacher before I started teaching. And I went to classes just to look how the teachers organized their class, how they presented their information. I learned so many things that I wanted to emulate and things I did not want to emulate. But I also went to just my quote B and there were ALEX (25:57.888) Exactly, exactly. Lyric Kinard (26:04.738) like six different personalities there. know, one was a perfectionist, but could only do what you told her. She couldn't go astray from the pattern. The other one couldn't follow a pattern to save her life. And another one was an engineering mind. And the other one, you just, if I could reach each one of those people and they were brutally honest with their feedback in such a loving way, you know. ALEX (26:31.766) No, but it's important. Lyric Kinard (26:32.842) It is, it is. You have to figure out different ways to reach people and we do this on screen, right? So I'm thinking, this has got my brain just worrying and worrying. So the corollary to doing that teaching in different ways to people in person, like you have to have a handout, you have to tell them, you have to show them is on screen, you have to think about. what is the best way for your audience to learn this? Is it a close-up? Is it you talking to the camera? Is it a slideshow? Is it an overhead shot? ALEX (27:09.782) And really there's so many wonderful tools out there that are available now. We'll talk about computer learning that are basically pretty dumb dumb. Again, I know you've learned it, but I just go John and he'll come in. I have enough knowledge to be dangerous, you know? And then you get a new computer and then the whole world blows up around you. mean, it just is. Lyric Kinard (27:25.902) You Lyric Kinard (27:35.064) it happens every time there's an update on anything, right? You just click all the buttons. You do it ahead of time, not in the middle of when you're starting your class. ALEX (27:37.614) No. ALEX (27:44.434) I should have done that two weeks ago. That goes, why didn't you practice? Because I thought it worked. But then that's when people, they'll write and they'll go, that is so funny. I mean, they love to see you screw up. They do. Lyric Kinard (27:47.182) Hahaha! Lyric Kinard (28:00.022) Absolutely, right? Ask anybody who makes YouTube content or any kind of classroom content if they see some, if the dogs come rampaging through or the kid does something cute in the background, those are the ones everybody wants to watch. We love the reality. We love the, it comes back to authenticity, doesn't it? Right, I have a question for you. ALEX (28:15.202) That's what it is. ALEX (28:19.255) Yeah, yeah. ALEX (28:23.414) Ahem. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Lyric Kinard (28:29.55) If you could look back to yourself, let's just say at the beginning of COVID, not even 20 years, 30 years ago, right? What advice would you give to yourself about reaching your audience through a camera? ALEX (28:38.466) first. ALEX (28:51.5) That's a good question. Because at that point I wasn't doing this, right? I was on camera at thequiltshow.com. Lyric Kinard (28:57.006) Mm-hmm. ALEX (29:04.629) Say again, be yourself. Be yourself. I'm sorry Lyric, I just, that's a great question, but don't get all freaked out about the details and all that. I have a friend who shall remain nameless. When this all started, I said you need to get on and get on the computer. She couldn't do it because she was too hanked up about being perfect. So she would make DVDs and things like that, because she could get in there and edit them. But this live stuff, And honestly, the live stuff, they would have eaten her up and loved her inside and out. So Lyric, I don't know. I really, truly don't know. Lyric Kinard (29:46.882) What has surprised you, Alex? What has happened since you started doing lives that you did not expect? ALEX (29:54.87) I did not expect the world reach. I did not expect, at one point, I started calling us our guild, our world guild. I did not expect the connectivity. I have a new best friend that I've never met who has a new kitten and I'm the aunt. I can't wait to meet her in upstate New York. Lyric Kinard (30:05.931) You ALEX (30:20.014) And for the most part, people are really kind. And if they're not, you have to say, man, what's going on inside of them right now? It's not you. It's not you. It could never be us. Lyric Kinard (30:30.808) Absolutely. No, but I mean, even this is a thing I've done for a long time is you make up, if somebody's purposefully mean to you, right? If somebody's horrible, I make up really interesting and dramatic stories about all the things that went wrong in their life that day. And it does, it helps you brush it off. Because it really, again, it's not about us. ALEX (31:00.226) Can you, I gotta tell you what my mom said to me way back in the day. She said if somebody was just a poo in whatever setting, she'd say, let's say it's a female. my God. I wonder what her husband has to put up with. All of sudden, she just left you and you're like, oh, I'm so sorry. So Lyric, I'm going to say with me, I have been so lucky and so blessed. And I think a lot of people, I've met this recently, where people like, well, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, and then I'm going to be famous. And for me, it was all organic. It was. Lyric Kinard (31:14.798) You ALEX (31:39.754) wrapping my heart around a craft that I love, being willing to learn, being willing to share somebody again who's very good at color. I said, and this person teaches, and I said, but how do you teach this? And she said, well, I tell a little bit, but I'll never tell them anything, everything. I won't tell them. She should not be a She should not be a teacher. Lyric Kinard (32:04.238) Hmm. Yeah, every bit of generosity you put out in the world always comes back to you tenfold. I've experienced that so many times. One thing you did though, Alex, is you never stopped. You had face spasms of all things and you kept at it. But willing to be bad at something and doing it enough until you get good at it is how things happen. ALEX (32:19.278) I know. It's stupidity! It's stupidity! ALEX (32:32.918) It's the truth. Lyric Kinard (32:34.094) We do get lucky sometimes and things fall into our lap, but unless we're willing and open for it to happen and unless we're prepared for it to happen, when that bit of the universe gifting you something that you need or want at the right time, you won't be able to take it up unless you've already been doing the work. ALEX (32:54.486) No, no. The other thing just as a side that I forget that I did, I'm gonna say three seasons into Simply Quilts. I didn't know what cameras, for cameras people, I didn't know where to look, I didn't know what to do, blah, blah, blah. I rented a local TV station. And I took all the money that I made that season and went in and they gave me lessons. So I could figure out where my failings were and then go and learn that. Lyric Kinard (33:30.53) That's one of the quickest ways to get better is go in and pay attention to your weaknesses. The first time I was on a big, big camera TV show, I think I watched it once and then was like, my gosh, this is horrible. But then I went back and watched it one more time, but I took notes on the things that I knew I could change. And I worked really hard to fix those things. ALEX (33:37.206) Mm-hmm. ALEX (33:43.479) No. Lyric Kinard (33:57.654) And that's what people who get better do. You don't beat yourself up, you go and learn. ALEX (34:03.576) You go and learn. You go figure out. And then I had another kid whose actually parents live around the corner from here, but he's down in LA. In fact, his dad was the architect for my room. He came over and he gave me lessons. Because how would I know how to do any of this stuff? I wouldn't know how to do this stuff. But the number one thing that people do wrong, I'm going to tell you this and now it's going to be a worm in your brain. Lyric Kinard (34:13.281) Mmm. ALEX (34:33.122) Don't do that! Lyric Kinard (34:33.486) I do it all the time. It's hard not to. I've probably done it a million times. You know what I do when I think about not doing um is that I'll go back and look at an episode that I filmed and go, oh, I guess the world of that day was absolutely because I said it 400 times. I usually replace it with something else ridiculous. I just did it. Yeah, yeah, try not to, but it's not the end of the world. ALEX (34:38.766) I ALEX (34:56.59) everybody. Lyric Kinard (35:03.362) either. ALEX (35:04.48) in your head. Sorry, man. Lyric Kinard (35:06.805) It's all good. It's all good. There's always so much room for improvement. We always have somewhere to go. What's somewhere you have to go? What are you looking forward to or dreaming of if you had the easy button and there were no obstacles? What would be next for you? ALEX (35:28.558) want to take classes. I want to take classes. I mean, I can't even believe that I'm sitting here with you and that the opportunities have been afforded to me. And again, I'm ever so grateful. But not only do I love teaching, I love learning. And when you learn, and it may not even be in anything fiber related. It might be woodworking. It might be basket making or whatever. I love learning. Lyric Kinard (35:30.582) Yeah. ALEX (35:56.11) And I think it goes hand in hand with growing you no matter what your craft is. Lyric Kinard (36:01.976) right? And anybody who does things with their hands are often creative, multi-craftual people, right? We want to do more things than just the one thing. Always. ALEX (36:12.437) Hahaha! ALEX (36:17.214) Right, right. And risk, and risk, and who cares if you have to throw it in the garbage can? Who cares? Lyric Kinard (36:26.35) What's the worst that can happen if you make a bad video? What's the worst that can happen if the thing you're creating right now doesn't turn out exactly like you hoped it would? ALEX (36:36.334) So let me tell you something that happened that'll make everybody feel better, maybe. I just presented a video this Monday, and you can get it on our YouTube channel, either The Quilt Show or Alex Anderson. And it was a woman named Kathy Dorfin, I'm gonna say it wrong, Kathy Dorfin Dugger. Degendorfer. And she does the Sisters Outdoor Poster, okay? She's a paint artist. I had just gotten a new computer and we actually ended up returning it. anyways, she had to redo it three times with me. And I was so embarrassed. Most people would say get lost. It was so embarrassing. And in the end, the message is so good. thing was called chasing creativity and really it's truly worth watching. It struck me the first time I heard it and I said we have to do this for our audience and then it was a nightmare. So to me that was probably the most embarrassing thing that's happened but fortunately she wasn't 25 years old and all mad at me. She rolled with it. Lyric Kinard (37:57.452) because you just keep going and you figure it out. Alex, this has been absolutely delightful. I wanna ask you just a couple quick flash questions that can be completely off topic. You can answer anything you want to. What is the last thing you made? ALEX (38:00.483) Mm-hmm. ALEX (38:08.813) Good. ALEX (38:16.844) What is the what? Last thing I made? Handwork, I'm doing a ton of hand work and I don't I'm not completing things necessarily but I'm really into hand stitching and Doing that and I love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love Love it I've kind of grown away from my sewing machine for a little bit. So Yeah Lyric Kinard (38:39.342) Awesome. What have you listened to recently? ALEX (38:44.398) What have I listened to? Like TV shows? Firefly, Firefly Lane on, it's so good. It's so good. I love it. And then also Tommy Lee's new thing. What's it called? Landman? Lyric Kinard (38:48.436) Anything, anything, anything. Lyric Kinard (39:03.022) She likes it. Look at that! I'll have to go check it out and see why you're covering your face. ALEX (39:12.264) You learn real fast. Lyric Kinard (39:15.86) If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you live? ALEX (39:21.282) I want to go to Sue Spargo's store and take some classes. That's what I want to do. It is so doable. How stupid is that? We have traveled the world and have been so lucky because of what we do for a living. But I guess this gets back to I want to go and learn. I want to go somewhere and learn. That's what I want to do. Kind of boring, right, Lyric? Lyric Kinard (39:24.878) That's so doable. It's not stupid, it's fantastic. Lyric Kinard (39:47.918) No, no, anything you learn is always exciting and fascinating and interesting, right? I love it. I love learning new things. Alex, thank you. It has been a delight and a pleasure to talk to you and thank you for sharing your wisdom and your experiences so openly and honestly with our audience. ALEX (39:55.246) Mm-hmm. ALEX (40:12.544) And Lyric, thank you for everything you've done. I'm going to tell people, I'm going to talk on you right now that I told you before. Shelly is our producer for thequiltshow.com, and she will work with the talent. We do not think of them as gum on the bottom of the shoes. We think of them as our heroes. And everybody brings you up, and it's because of the global connection. What you did for the quilting industry is huge. And she said, make sure. Lyric Kinard (40:28.366) You ALEX (40:41.036) you make sure she knows it. And I'm sure you know it, but still it's nice to hear it, right? Lyric Kinard (40:46.254) Give Shelly a great big hug for us and I can verify that the Quilt Show does not treat their guests as anything other than amazing rock stars. You are lovely and wonderful to work with. ALEX (40:56.353) We tried. Yeah, we try. ALEX (41:03.086) Well, and thank you, because we had an oopsie with you, remember? And then you came back. The guy forgot to turn on a camera. And we were looking at your belly button the whole time. Oh my god. Who's going to call? Lyric Kinard (41:10.897) I remember now. It's all good. It gave me a chance to go somewhere else and do it again, because I find it fun. Like, I am fascinated by the whole process behind the scenes as much as I am by what goes on once it airs, ALEX (41:24.462) I love it. ALEX (41:32.974) yeah. yeah. And one little quick thing, guys, if this is something really new to you, wanting to go digital or this or that, go see if your local JC doesn't have a beginning class or senior center or something like that. Because there's no reason you have to invent this wheel by yourself. There's no reason. Lyric Kinard (41:54.092) Yeah, junior colleges are fantastic. Go find somewhere to learn. Come to the Academy for Virtual Teaching and we will help you out. ALEX (41:56.216) Yeah. ALEX (42:03.726) Thank you. Bye bye. Lyric Kinard (42:04.76) Take care, Alex. Bye bye.

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