Then, in the Spring of 2022, Quilt Sampler featured us again as an Encore Shop designing the story of “where they are now.” Today we are by far the largest supplier of Block of the Month programs in the world. In 2000, Quilt Sampler magazine listed Stitchin’ Heaven in their top 10 quilt shops. In October 2022, we will move into our brand new 45,000-square-foot warehouse, office, and event space for the total square footage of over 75,000 on our campus. We’ve recently built a 17,500-square-foot retail store, e-commerce, and office space, as well as 9500 square foot retreat center with 6 guest cottages for visiting quilters. In 2022, twenty-six years later, we are a 75-employee company with fans who travel thousands of miles to take classes and commune with fellow “piecing” enthusiasts. So, once I left my job and opened Stitchin’ Heaven in 1,000 square feet with 600 bolts of fabric. While learning how to quilt during my time in the corporate world, I thought how cool it would be to own a quilt shop. The emus did not happen – but quilting did! We had planned to raise emus there, but that once hot industry was cooling. We packed up our lives and relocated to a 200-acre ranch outside rural Quitman in east Texas. When they said no, I did the most logical thing - I quit. In 1994, I asked my employers for the summer off to spend more time with Clay, my only child with whom I’d never spent a summer, then in fifth grade. It fit well with my travel and stress management as I would work on my blocks on the plane. Inspired by my aunt, who started quilting at age 65, I started quilting. But it was stressful work requiring lots of travel. That experience instilled in me a lifelong obsession with systems and customer focus. Then I moved to the yellow pages’ publisher GTE Directories, where I helped lead the company’s successful application for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Also, the stuff I made didn’t always fit right, and I started to care about that!Īfter high school, I started a corporate job at Southwestern Bell. Through high school, I made most of my own clothes until I realized it cost less to buy them. When I was 13, my mother taught me how to sew as a leg up in homemaking class.
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