Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephanie Carlson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

It all began with a printer and a heat press, working off my kitchen counter.

I’ve always been entrepreneurial by nature — the kind of person who looks at almost anything and wonders how it could become a business. For 17 years, I worked as a natural hoof care practitioner, trimming horses’ hooves for a living. I loved that work — the horses, my clients, and the sense of purpose it gave me — but it was one of the most physically demanding jobs I can imagine. Over time, chronic pain and fatigue made a change in direction necessary, and I found myself facing a complete career change.

Starting over at almost 40 was terrifying. I considered getting a job working for someone else, but after being self-employed for so long and without a degree, I had no idea what I was even qualified to do.

I wanted to find something that would be both sustainable and fulfilling, and the thought of failure was absolutely terrifying. But I’ve always believed that even failure is worth going through as long as you learn something from it — and the only way to guarantee failure is to not try at all. So I finally chose a direction and just went for it.

I thought I was starting a t-shirt design and printing business. I invested in a high-quality printer and heat press, and as I was experimenting with fabrics and working on designs, my mom — an avid quilter — asked if I could print Bible verses onto quilt squares for a wedding gift she was making.

That simple request changed everything.

Once I saw the finished fabric squares, I realized how rare it was to find Scripture fabric — especially precut quilt squares with perfectly centered Bible verse designs. On a whim, I listed a set on Etsy. The photos weren’t great, the description was minimal, but they sold almost immediately… and then another set sold, and another.

The more I connected with Christian quilters, the more I realized how deeply they resonated with this idea. Many told me they had searched for years for Bible verse fabric like this, only to come up empty-handed. While a few companies produce faith-based fabric by the yard or larger panels, I couldn’t find anyone offering precut, perfectly centered Scripture quilt squares.

That’s when Carlson Homestead Quilting was born — a company dedicated to creating faith-filled fabrics for inspired quilting.

What started as a kitchen-counter experiment quickly outgrew what I could produce alone. Although I still do all of the cutting myself, I now outsource my fabric printing to a lovely family run company right here in the US.

This business has not only given me a creative outlet but also a way to bring encouragement and Scripture into homes through quilting — one fabric square at a time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Stephanie Carlson, and I’m the founder of Carlson Homestead Quilting, a South Dakota–based fabric company that creates faith-filled fabrics for inspired quilting. I design and produce Scripture and inspirational precut quilt squares that make it easy for quilters to include meaningful verses and uplifting messages in their projects. Every square is printed on 100% cotton fabric, perfectly centered, and precut to standard quilting and crafting sizes. I’m also in the process of launching a custom design program with graphic designer and artist Emerald Smith, who recently joined my team.

All of our designs are currently created by me or Emerald (although I have plans to partner with some other talented artists to offer some limited edition prints of their beautiful artwork!) and printed by a wonderful family-run company in Pennsylvania called Little Cocalico. They provide professional-quality printing that beautifully transfers my designs onto fabric, with results that last just as well as any fabric you’d find in a fabric store. I still do all of the fabric cutting myself from my home studio in South Dakota — at least for now, until I’m able to find the right way to outsource that part of production.

What really sets Carlson Homestead Quilting apart is our focus on Scripture and faith-based designs in a precut format. While a few fabric companies produce religious prints by the yard, I haven’t found anyone specializing in ready-to-sew Bible verse squares. My customers love that they can open a pack and start creating right away — whether it’s a quilt, wall hanging, pocket prayer quilt, or a handmade gift of encouragement. I also plan to expand my line to include other themes alongside my faith-based collections.

What started as a simple idea has turned into a multi-platform brand, with products available through Etsy, my own website, and other online marketplaces. Earlier this year, a selection of my products was picked up by one of the leading wholesale suppliers for independent quilt shops across the country. My goal is to continue expanding Carlson Homestead Quilting into more online marketplaces and brick-and-mortar stores nationwide — eventually including big box retailers like Michaels and Hobby Lobby — making beautiful Scripture-themed fabrics easily available to anyone who might be looking for them.

At its heart, Carlson Homestead Quilting is about encouragement, creativity, and connection — creating fabric that not only looks beautiful but carries meaning, weaving faith and art together in the most tangible way.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in past ventures was trying to build out too many directions at once. With this business, I was determined not to repeat that, so I chose to focus on one platform and grow it steadily before expanding further. I decided upon one single platform to pour all of my focus into, and for a long time it was where nearly all of my sales came from.

At the beginning of this year, though, a glitch in their system flagged my account while I was updating my tax information — and their automated system completely shut my shop down. It took two months to get it restored. By the time it came back online, I had lost nearly all of the momentum I’d built. I felt devastated, frustrated, and honestly, terrified. In trying to avoid the pitfall of spreading myself too thin, I had put almost all my eggs in one basket — and for a while, it felt like I had made the wrong choice.

In the middle of all that discouragement, I felt a quiet nudge to take action instead of waiting for things to improve. I reached out to one of the largest wholesale suppliers in the quilting industry, to pitch my products — something I had wanted to do but had always been too intimidated to try. To my surprise, they loved my concept and decided to carry a selection of my products. Around the same time, I also decided to get out from behind my computer and start meeting people locally.

I walked into a lovely small-town quilt shop and introduced myself to the owner, explaining that I lived locally and had my own brand of fabric. She asked to see some samples, and when I showed her, she loved them. Without me even trying to sell her on anything, she said she’d like to carry them in her store and invited me to do a presentation at her upcoming quilt retreat. She has turned out to be one of my best local supporters!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I shifted my career away from natural hoof care for horses because my body couldn’t handle the physical strain anymore, and when I moved from hoof care to fabric design, I thought I was leaving those physical struggles behind. What I didn’t anticipate was how demanding the production side would be — cutting hundreds of yards of fabric by hand. I found myself repeating the same pattern again: pushing through pain and fatigue to meet deadlines and then collapsing for days to recover.

But through it all, I refused to quit. Every day I told myself, this phase is not forever. I kept improving my tools and processes, and I held onto the belief that the right solutions would eventually come along. And little by little, things started to turn around. I finally began to get answers to my health struggles and started to feel stronger, and I could finally work through an entire week of fabric cutting and still have energy left over to actually build my business — not just survive it.

Now I’m in a completely new season. My next step is to invest in equipment and space that will help me keep up with demand and continue growing. I want Carlson Homestead Quilting to have a home base that combines production, retail, and community — a space where faith, creativity, and connection can thrive together.

This journey has taught me that resilience isn’t about never breaking down — it’s about choosing to get back up every single day, trusting that perseverance and faith will eventually lead to breakthrough.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carlsonhomesteadquilting.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/@carlsonhomesteadquilting
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carlsonhomesteadquilting

Image Credits

The photo of me was taken by Sarah Hofkamp.