Every year for the past 3 years, I have done spinning demonstrations at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair here in Toronto. It’s one of the highlights of the year for me, I always sign up for multiple days and last year I started competing in the drop spindle competition which takes place on the morning of the last day. I truly love teaching people about textile history and how much work went into every stitch and square inch of fabric created before the Industrial Revolution.
I often get people asking about if I teach and in the past I’ve handed out business cards to people who ask, but this year I’m trying something different. I’ve stitched a QR code in cross stitch for people to scan! It will bring them to my LinkTree where they can check out my upcoming class schedule, join my mailing list, follow me on socials, and more!
Here’s how I did it
I used Canva to create a QR code for my LinkTree URL.
I use Stitch Fiddle for my cross stitch designing. The basic version is free and very usable. I have the paid version which allows me to do things like move sections of the design around while I figure out the composition. As a basic stitch design software I recommend it.
I started out by uploading the Canva file, but I didn’t like how it turned out as a chart, so I decided to plot out the QR code stitch by stitch. It took longer, but came out clearer.
I added some Follow Me and Brooke Ali Fibre Arts text in my brand colour.
I tried a few things to add decoration to the overall design, but I didn’t really love any of them. I’ve decided to keep it simple for now, I can always take it out of the frame and add something in the future.
6. I cut out the fabric, taped the edges, and started stitching.
8. I ended up reversing the position of the text, but overall I’m happy with it.
9. I had two frames to choose from: white and black. I liked the contrast of the black frame against the black fabric best.
And here it is! Now when people express interest in learning to spin or to follow me I can point to this as a quick way to direct them to my info. I’ve done business cards in the past, but I feel like people throw away business cards because I’ve never had a business card turn into a sale or even a warm lead, even with people who seemed really keen in the moment. Let’s see if this QR code will work better to help people find me and my courses.
