Tag: MSQC

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Part 8: Construction…yes, MORE construction!

No doubt we needed to expand!  Again. {the poor men in our family!!}  It wasn’t long and they were back to the drawing board/sheet rocking/sanding/painting/exhaustion. {started January 2010}  With this addition we knew we had to put in a new bathroom and a heating and air conditioning system.  Did I mention that this old building we were in was a car dealership?  It only had one, yucky-very old-nasty-super gross ‘Men’s only’ bathroom!!  EW!  That in itself, was so embarrassing!  We hated to let anyone use it.

So off we went, expanding again.

We didn’t have money for carpet so we painted the floor green.  What can I say, I love color…and they didn’t have PINK floor paint or I would have used that! LOL  {seriously}

The boys installed a drop ceiling, air ducts, and plumbing {for the bathroom} mudded, taped and sanded everything.  It was looking great and we were THRILLED!!!!

Is it crazy that this whole experience is still so surreal to us all?  I still can hardly believe it myself looking back, how quickly things have progressed.  Sometimes it feels like we’ve been doing this forever, some days I still feel like a total newbie!

One thing for sure, we were/ ARE  living the DREAM! Excited {and sometimes un-organized} through it all!

More to come….

~Sarah

Ps.  This is a series I am writing to take you through our experience.

Here are some links to the the other parts if you missed them.

Part 1, 2,  3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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Part7: Growing some more!

A new room, we decided was a must.  We had moved around the tables-shelves-and displays enough!  We had a great group of women that sewed with us for our Friday night sew and we just needed more space!

Remember, that while all this shop stuff was going on, my Dad and husband both work regular full time jobs and have been the labor force behind 99% of the remodeling.

We were thrilled to finally be able to open the doors to our new room, NEVER imagining we would be able to fill it with fabric.  Really, I thought that there was NO way, we would ever have enough fabric to fill that space!! Ever.  { do I sound like a broken record yet? }

Well, as you can see BOOM the first night we used it, it was full!  Not with fabric but with people!  What a blessing.  I did look at Dad {that very night} and say that we were gonna have to get started on the other room.  Really, in utter disbelief.  It was still pretty empty as far as product went, but that didn’t take long to fill up either.

Friday night sews for us have always been a blast!  We get to really visit with each other and hear and share hilarious stories that frankly, bring us closer together!  We are just like one big family.  We tease each other {remind each other to boil the manicotti before filling them}, laugh together and yes, we even cry together.  Each one of our customers mean so much to me, and I realized that we wouldn’t be here without them.

Can you believe that it ONLY gets BETTER!?!?!?  This was only July-August 2009  We hadn’t even been open a whole year.

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Part 6: Our ‘new’ normal…and growth.

April 2009 Poor Mom was miserable. {and grumpy and needy and miserable} Hehe

Well, we were trucking along trying to figure this adventure out with Mom still in a  lot of pain.  We decided to go ahead with our plans for classes and just see where we went.    ***If I don’t sound very sympathetic please forgive me.  It was just the way I was raised.  Mom herself will tell you that sympathy was never her strong point.  And really, I am just teasing.  I figure since I’m writing it I can say whatever I want to, right?!  Hahah!***

One of the classes we offered was called ‘Stitchin’ Chicks’ and it was for the 10-15yr old crowd.  Boy did we have a blast with those girls!  We made pillow cases, pajama shorts, notebook covers, aprons and so much more.  They were the sweetest group ever and I am so glad we did that!  We also held a class for the local 4H group and that was a blast as well.

I want you to really take notice of the pictures:  We only have ONE room open.  We only have a few shelves of fabric, and we have room for our sewing tables in the middle of our one room shop!  We were still moving everything to the edges of the room when we’d have our Friday night sews and classes and it was working fine!  We knew though, that we would have to expand…we just thought we had a bit more time!  LOL.

By June we had volunteered to do a Booth and a Quilt Show at our County (Caldwell County, MO)  Civil War Reenactment.  {the first one, ever}

We were really excited to be a part of it, and be able to help showcase some of the Counties best quilts!!  What a blast we had!  We have the BEST customers/friends ever and we couldn’t have done the Quilt Show without all of them!  It was a very exciting time for us and for our County!  {I hope we do something like that again, it was such a great event!}

Things were still very touch and go with Mom.  She would think she was feeling better, then she would be up to much on her leg and boom, she’d be back in bed.  Finally the doctor decided she needed surgery.  At least now we had a plan and hoped that plan included her being able to heal. {fingers were crossed}

In spite of everything, business was still good.  Our Machine Quilting {thank you Natalie} was picking up a lot of steam, and quite frankly, paid the bills.  {I said bills, not wages.}  But we had a plan, and it was working….and we were happy!

 

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Part 4: The beginning of our Dream

Where we started…

Where we opened.  Crazy, huh.

Our main goal was to provide a place for Mom to work {since all her babies had grown up, she was lonely (ha) and bored} and to give her and Dad something to help with retirement.  We didn’t want to get into debt and stress about all the bills, because well, that totally defeats the purpose of having a fun-family business, right.    So that left us with $2,500 to buy fabric.  Baaahahahahahahahah!  Okay, that is just crazy to me.  We were completely clueless. Mom and I went to Quilt Market in October and met a woman who was talking about her tiny shop she just opened.  {she reluctantly told us about her having to open with only 75K}  Gulp, we were in over our heads!!

Well, we just decided we would just do what we had planned and make the best of it. If we were gonna fail, heck, at least we tried.

My brother and his friend {our business partner} built  a website from scratch, and we thought we’d start  trying to do a little internet business on the  side.  {actually, we planned on dominating and taking over the world} insert evil laughter….

Who knew we would grow and grow.  I remember our first internet order.  We all cheered with joy and awe.  WE couldn’t believe it was actually working. LOL

We had classes and offered quilting, and were so blessed by the support from our local quilting ladies.

Our first ever Class at MSQC

This was just the beginning.  Who knew how much more we would grow!?

Then…Mom broke her leg.

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Part 3: Color and a floor

When we first started talking about opening a quilt shop I knew that I did NOT want the walls boring beige.  I had been into WAY too many quilt shops that were  bland or dark. I knew for sure that I wanted our shop to be bright and happy. Not to be confused by Neon and disco-ish. [i know, that is not a word, but you know what I mean, right?]

Anyway, I picked out this green and we LOVED it.  {actually, Mom started painting it a very boring color and I had to stop her and insist on this one. LOL}

Once the flooring started going down we all knew we were in for something good.

We couldn’t have been more excited!  {oh, and isn’t my husband cute??}  Really, he is.