Welcome to the business side of Notes from the Studio
It was the morning of my very first program. I stood up in front of the Wimberley, Texas Quilt Guild.
“Hi, my name is Shannon Brinkley…”
And then I completely froze.
Blank.
Nothing.
Just me… staring at a room full of quilters.
It was probably only 10 seconds.
But it felt like a lifetime.
And then — an actual angel in the front row smiled and said,
“So… how did you start quilting?”
And just like that, I was off.
I started telling them about the International Quilt Festival.
About the garden quilt that stole my heart.
About fabric collage.
About Scrappy Appliqué.
And the rest of the morning flowed.
They were warm.
Kind.
Encouraging.
The workshop the next day was relaxed and joyful.
We stitched.
We laughed.
We figured things out together.
And at the end of the weekend, they handed me a check.
I think it was around $600 for teaching and speaking.
Then I sold some books.
A few patterns.
I walked away with about $800.
They had paid for my mileage.
They bought my lunch.
They handled the logistics.
I just showed up.
And I remember driving home thinking:
I have hit the jackpot.
Because not long before that, I had been selling custom quilts for $145…
making almost no profit…working 20–40 hours per quilt.
And here I was.
One weekend.
One workshop I had already prepared.
One room full of lovely humans.
$800.
That was the moment.
That was when it clicked.
Not just “this works.”
But —
“This is easier.”
“This is scalable.”
“This is repeatable.”
So I did it again.
San Antonio.
Round Rock.
Austin.
Houston.
Dallas.
The same workshop.
Over and over and over.
And every time, it got better.
The awkward pause disappeared.
I knew exactly how to open.
I knew where the laughs would land.
I knew the questions before they were asked.
I could feel the rhythm of it in my body.
And something else started happening.
I began noticing patterns.
What confused people.
What excited them.
What they kept asking about.
Color.
Over and over.
Color.
Teaching became more than income.
It became research.
It became refinement.
It became confidence.
That first year I made $25,000 teaching.
The second year I made $45,000.
Which was more than I was making as a third-grade teacher —
the career I had gone to school for four years to build.
As a classroom teacher, I showed up at 7:30 every morning.
Stayed until 4:30 or 5:00.
Exhausted and fulfilled.
As a quilt teacher, I taught a couple of weekends a month.
And I had space.
Space to create.
Space to experiment.
Space to test ideas.
Space to build something bigger.
That 10-second freeze?
It didn’t mean I wasn’t ready.
It meant I was at the beginning.
And beginnings are allowed to be a little awkward.
Have a beautiful rest of your day,
Shannon
P.S. If you’re interested in becoming a quilt/craft teacher, keep an eye out for emails from me, as we’ll be opening up Earlybird Enrollment for our 2026 Certified Teacher Program soon!
You’ll be able to choose from 4 different curricula to get trained to teach (Scrappy Applique, Color Confidence for Quilters, Portrait Quilting, and Imbue: Natural Fabric Dyeing).
If you missed my last email where I shared another teacher’s story, you can catch up here.
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