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Meet Lori Thompson of Crafty Girl Adventures in Saddle Rock East – Aurora

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Thompson.

Lori, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started crafting as a child, thanks to my creative grandmothers and mother. I was also a 4-H kid with great project leaders who taught me a lot. Creating didn’t always come easy to me. I got a lot of red ribbons at the county fair those first times before I started to get blue ribbons. I continued to make things through my early adulthood and studied clothing and design at Kansas State University.

Creating became a serious hobby for me when I got married, moved to Denver, and changed careers. I worked in the affordable housing industry for many years and crafting was such a great stress reliever. I began to teach craft classes and design patterns for fun. ⁠Over time, I realized that I was more passionate about my creative work and was beginning to get burned out on my nonprofit career.

I left my job last year to start Crafty Girl Adventures. I’m creating, writing, and making full-time now. Crafty Girl Adventures has been its own adventure during this time. I started out planning to just host crafting events, but now I’m self-publishing craft patterns, focusing more on sewing and quilt patterns. I love how my creative work has evolved and what it has taught me over time. The best part, though, has been connecting with others to encourage them to create and being inspired by what they do! ⁠

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Crafty Girl Adventures has had some bumps along the way. The biggest challenge has been defining what Crafty Girl Adventures is. I started the business to host a craft events to encourage others to connect and create. I soon learned it was tough to just count on these events as my main business activity. Also, my focus was too broad, offering too many types of crafts so CGA didn’t really start with a strong identity. People were not quite sure what it was. There’s also lot of competition in the Denver market as many breweries and bars host crafting events. Most of those event hosts are experts on one or two crafts and their events center only around their designs.

I was also getting burned out by doing so many types of crafts. While my event participants enjoyed the projects, these were not my favorite ones. I did some soul searching and pivoted things late last year. I decided to go back to my design roots and do what I’m loving most now – quilting. I’m now working on a fun mini quilt project to encourage others to quilt using new technology and nontraditional methods and materials. I’m also developing a line of sewing and quilting patterns that work with die-cutting.

Please tell us about Crafty Girl Adventures.
I’m an indie craft pattern designer and quilter whose goal is to encourage others to create. Lately, my business has focused on a new creative project called “The Quilt Diaries,” where I’m creating small 10” art quilts inspired by favorite stories, words, and fabrics. I originally started the project as a way to spark my creativity and practice my quilting skills. This project has taken on a life of its own as I’ve found that the people and stories around me in every day life are inspiring the quilt designs. It’s been fun to think about those stories and people and figure out a way to honor that in a small quilt! Each quilt I’ve made has a story behind it, which I share on my blog.

One unique thing about my work is that I use my Cricut Maker, a die cutting machine that can make intricate fabric cuts that are hard to do by hand. By using this technique, I’m able to use really detailed fonts for fabric letters. Another benefit is being able to use iron-on vinyl to create thin, crisp lines that look like there were printed on the fabric. I haven’t found any other quilters that are using iron-on vinyl on their quilts yet. I love being able to use newer crafting technology, like the Cricut Maker, combined with traditional quilting techniques to create these fun art quilts.

Crafty Girl Adventures offers patterns, tutorials, and hosts events to encourage others to connect and create. Lately, my business has focused on a new creative project called “The Quilt Diaries,” where I’m creating small 10” art quilts inspired by favorite stories, words, and fabrics. I originally started the project as a way to spark my creativity and practice my quilting skills. This project has taken on a life of its own as I’ve found that the people and stories around me in every day life are inspiring the quilt designs. It’s been fun to think about those stories and people and honor that in a small quilt! I share each quilt and its story on my blog.

My goal with The Quilt Diaries is to make quilting more relatable to everyone. Most people think of their grandmother’s quilt when you bring up quilting. But quilting has expanded far beyond that. Quilters are making everything from traditional quilts to modern pieces to intricate art pieces. There are so many factors that go into a quilt – fabric patterns, colors, stitching, and embellishments. Playing with these factors can produce some really interesting and beautiful quilts! It’s my hope with these small quilts that I can expand how people see quilting as an art form and inspire quilters to try something new when making their quilts.

My plans for The Quilt Diaries is to keep making quilts and start offering classes and patterns for those interested in telling their own stories through these quilts. For those that don’t quilt but want to honor the inspiration, people, and stories in their lives, I’m happy to do commissions and make a personalized quilt. As my quilt collection grows, I’d love to share it at quilt guild programs, too.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would follow my gut and create what I love that others love, too. In the beginning, I was trying to cater to too many people and what they wanted but ignored what I wanted to create. As a result, I was scattered and I spent a lot of time trying to figure things out. I’ve found that when you love your work a big part of why others also love what you do is commitment and passion you bring to your creations.

I would also take more risks and worry less about perfection. In the beginning, I had a lot of analysis paralysis, worrying if I was doing the “right” thing. I’ve learned that there is no right thing. You just have to jump in and try things and then pivot if they don’t work out. I’ve learned how to do “less sooner,” a concept a fellow entrepreneur taught me where you get things done the best you can as soon as you can. That means less perfection, but far more productivity, which will get you to where you want to be sooner.

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