Here Endeth the Lesson

          By the fall of 2012, my transition was complete.  I had gone from a disinterested bystander of my wife's hobby to a full time job as the co-owner of a quilt shop.  If a customer wants low loft fusible batting I know what they're talking about. I'm knowledgeable about shot cottons, eyelash yarn and and greige goods. I also know that long stemmed Egyptian cotton is the best for thread, and that high quality thread is double gassed so that it creates less lint when it's used in a sewing machine.  Etc., etc., etc. The rest of the journey is a lot of "inside baseball" stuff about the quilting business that bores me to write it.  I can imagine how boring it would be to read it.  So the blog stops here.  If you want to keep up with what we're doing at Judy Lea's Quilt Studio, you can check out our Facebook Page or sign up for our newsletter at www.judyleasquiltstudio.com.
          Some final observations.  In the dark times of 2009 I wasn't sure if I would ever work again.  It's a sad fact that after you reach your mid fifties, you're basically unemployable.  In a professional or managerial position, you typically have a 42 year old hiring manager interviewing 38 year olds who have achieved about as much as you have, just not as many times.  As someone once said, "people don't want to hire their parents friends to work for them".   If you apply for a more menial job, the hiring manager looks at you and thinks, "this guy has worked for 30 years and he wants this (crummy) job?  He must have something wrong with him".  Realistically you only have only 2 choices, get hired by an ex colleague, or create your own job by starting a business.
          The situation that I ended up in is pretty sweet.  I can walk to work.  Judy and I have total control over the hours we work, how the shop runs and all other issues therein.  The pressure on us is fairly low. We could close the shop tomorrow, liquidate the inventory, go home and retire for good. Or we could go back to doing quilt shows and travel around the country again.  The building will eventually be sold and we'll at least recover the money we spent on renovations.  I've read articles where people say that they're going to continue to work after retiring.  Say what??  I thought retirement meant that you quit working.  What they mean to say is they want a job that is fun and fulfilling.  Not the stress filled, soul crushing, back breaking job that you need to support a family and "get ahead".   I've got the perfect "retirement job".
          The job does have it's stresses, and so far Judy and I haven't been able to take much money out of the business.  Not a surprise.  I was speaking with the owner of a big quilt shop, and he said that he wasn't able to take money out for the first 4 years.
          Some advice for those of you that might want to do the same thing as Judy and I did.  You're marriage needs to be rock solid.  You'll be spending 24/7 with your spouse, and all the stresses of running a business will cross over to your relationship.  I'm a very lucky man in this regard.  This September Judy and I will be celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary.  We've had our ups and downs, but in the end we've been a great team.
          They say that life is what happens to you when you're making other plans.  I can testify to that.  Thanks for reading my blog.
          
         

Was it worth it?

          The building was opened and sales were on the rise.  Was it worth it?  From a financial perspective, absolutely not.  Virginia could have simply invested $5,000 to $10,000 to clean up the duplex and brought in renters.  The real estate agent who sold us the building pulled no punches. "The people who rent these kinds of places do not live like you do." she said,  "You don't need stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.  Just make sure that everything is clean and in working order."   Virginia could have made 10 times the rent we were paying her by doing that.  Moreover, the building would be much more saleable as a duplex with renters than as a commercial building.
          As for Judy and me, we'd have to be in business another 50 years to pay for the renovations through our business profits.  Profit margins are extremely thin in the retail industry, more so in the Arts and Crafts retail space.   According to our trade association, the typical quilt shop owner makes less than $10,000 per year.  34% pay themselves nothing at all. 
          If not for the money, why did we do it?  For Virginia, the renovation was something to do and when it was completed, a place to hang out every day.  For Judy, she gets to pursue her art and hang out with other quilting enthusiasts.   Essentially, the building is a super duper sewing room with friends that  give you money.  Plus, she can spend lots and lots of money buying fabric, thread and other things.  For me, I finally had a full time job.   The year I was unemployed was agony.  I'd been working since I was 15 and have derived a good deal of my self worth from my job and being the breadwinner.  I'm not judging anyone who is enjoying their retirement, but I just have to have to have a job.        
          As I mentioned in a previous post, every business large or small must address the same issues.  I'm constantly dealing with marketing, sales, information technology, facilities management, staffing, logistics, finance, customer service, telecommunications, insurance, taxes and regulations.  The explosion of social media has turned me into an Internet marketing maven.  I'm responsible for a Web site and a Web Store.  We're on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and of course this blog.  I write and publish online newsletters twice a month.  A great deal of business is done on email, which must be monitored constantly.  I love the intellectual stimulation.  Best of all, there's the basic human joy of setting a challenging goal and achieving it.
          Was it worth it?  Absolutely. 

         

We Get Lucky

         Mid April of 2012 the building was ready.  However, before we could have our grand opening we had to fulfill our contract to return to the AQS show in Paducah.  No problem.  We figured that since we did so well during the flooded out show in 2011, we could do even better with a bigger booth and more experience.  The profits from Paducah would help pay for the renovations. Wrong!  With no floods our competitors were out for blood, including Eleanor Burns and her warehouses full of discount fabric.  Our sales were 15% less than the year before and costs were double.  We headed back to Concord lighter in the wallet.
        Our Grand Opening of the new shop was the first weekend in May.  We had a big party, lots of goodies and made decent sales numbers that day.  Father Jay, the Assistant Pastor of our church came and blessed us, the business and everybody there.
          We were off to a good start and waited for customers to pour in.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  May,  June and July we would go days without a single customer.  We worked our mailing list, advertised in the local newspaper, were on Google places, YP.com, the national Yellow Pages, The Quilters Travel Companion and the Quilt Shop Navigator.  I had given a presentation to our local quilt guild, which meets around the corner from the shop.    We were on Facebook and had a Web site.  Still, not much sales. Judy was having hysterics.  She told me and Virginia, "If business doesn't pick up by January, I'm liquidating the inventory, going into my sewing room (at home) and never coming out again!"  "Just once in my life I'd like to have a successful business!"  She had conveniently forgotten about the Stained Glass Studio she and Virginia had in the 1980's.  That one was quite a success.

Our 15 minutes of fame!

          August sales were a bit better, and then we caught a couple of lucky breaks.  Whether it was Father Jay's blessing or just dumb luck, in August we got a call from Lisa Thornton, a reporter for the Charlotte Observer.  They wanted to profile our business for the Local Section of the Sunday paper.  We were thrilled.   The article ran the week before labor day.   Business started picking up immediately.
          Then came our big break.  Susan Edmonson, a nationally recognized fiber artist and teacher who lives in Concord showed up one day.  She wanted to rent out part of the studio to teach her classes.  She had an ongoing monthly class (known in the trade as a "Block of the Month Club") that she wanted to bring in right away.  Later we could discuss what other classes she might want to teach at the studio.  This was a great deal for us because her students would be in the shop once a month and would buy supplies for the class and whatever else we could sell them.  After we agreed to the financial arrangements, we asked Susan how many students she would be bringing in.  Nineteen.   Nineteen!!  We only had 3 parking spaces and 200 square feet of classroom space!  We would make do.  I hustled over to the Church across the street to see if Pastor Pickett would allow us use their parking lot for the overflow.  No problem.  They now use our parking lot for their overflow on Sundays and we use theirs during the week.  We expanded our classroom and bought another big table.  The first day of class I played parking lot attendant and things went fine.  To this day Susan and her students have been a cornerstone of our business. As an added bonus, Susan is a wonderful, vibrant person who's fun to be around.
          New customers from the newspaper article, Susan and her students, and organic growth from just being there finally got the studio going.   Once again I learned the lesson that success takes a little bit of luck.
       
               

"The Reveal" as they say on HGTV

Front Kitchen Before

Exterior Before

Living Room/Bedroom Before

 

Front Porch Before

Main Bathroom Before

Exterior After

Front Kitchen After

Front Porch After.  Note that the tree is gone.

Front Living Room/Bedroom After

Main Bathroom After

Front Living Room After

Formerly a Vacant Lot

The renovations cost more than the purchase price of the property.  In addition to cosmetic items like cleaning and painting, We moved walls, installed a complete heating and air conditioning system, reinforced the floors, totally rewired the building, added a kitchen, remodeled two bathrooms, replaced all 14 windows, installed new flooring in the showrooms and refinished the floors in the classroom, installed all new lighting, purchased display cases/furniture, built a 38 foot handicapped ramp and a parking lot, and landscaped the property.  It took over 6 months start to finish.  It was truly a family affair. Our son Andrew, our son-in-law Cid, Virginia, our daughter-in-law Terri, Andrew's brother-in-law Trevor, Judy and I all worked major hours on the project.    A special shout out to Andrew. Couldn't have done it without him.  Also, the County Building Department and the City of Concord were helpful and friendly throughout.  I think they took pity on the novice General Contractor (me).  Also, I think they appreciated the fact that we had improved the area.
          Judy and I figured that all we had to do next was open the doors and wait for the customers to come pouring in.  The underwhelming response to the new shop was our next big shock.

Coming Down the Home Stretch

          There was one last major item on the renovation list.  Turning the vacant lot next door in a parking lot.  There was a small problem with that.  We were running out of money.  Renovation costs were 300% above our somewhat naive estimates.  So Virginia came to the rescue and volunteered to pay for the parking lot.  She also agreed to finance the 14 new windows (all with ultraviolet protection for the fabric) by raising our rent.  Once the windows were paid for our rent would fall to what we had originally agreed to.  One more financial note. During the renovations a branch from a gigantic dead tree on the property fell in the street and landed on a car.  Virginia paid for the damage to the car and we paid for the tree to be removed (about $2,000). The parking lot construction went on without a hitch. Interestingly, with the price of oil, concrete was cheaper than asphalt, which was great with us.  At that point we had 18 building inspections. We passed all but one.  The plumber had installed the wrong type of toilet seat in the rest room.  A quick trip to Home Depot fixed that.
          The last inspection we had to pass was for the parking lot.  By then Judy and I had been working on the renovation for 5 months and we were really desperate to get the shop open and generate some revenue. We had visions of losing everything and ending up pushing shopping carts full of junk down Main Street. The building inspector didn't need to be there for the parking lot inspection, so Judy and I were driving when he called.  "The parking lot looks just fine" he said, "but I can't find your backflow preventer."  Our what? backflow preventer? What in the hell is a backflow preventer?  Did it have to do with the parking lot?  Judy and I hurried over to our architect's office to see what we needed to do.  Ginger explained to us that a backflow preventer is a plumbing device required on all commercial buildings.  It's there so that if the city water pressure fails, the water in your pipes won't "flow back" into the city drinking water.   When you drive by a commercial building you'll often see what looks like a big rock on the lawn.  That's the cover for their backflow preventer.  So we called our plumber.  He was shocked.  "A backflow preventer for that (little) building? You've got to be kidding.  We're going to have to dig up the front yard to install it.  Getting the device in will cost around $1,800.  See if they'll allow you to install a double check valve instead."  The city agreed to the double check valve, and for a mere $700 we had a building that was ready to go.
          What wasn't ready to go was our inventory.  We had enough for a 200 square foot quilt show booth, and that was primarily fabric.  We needed to increase our inventory by a minimum of 250%, and order things such as thread, notions and sewing tools.  Things we never sold at the shows.
           April 2012 Judy, Virginia and I headed to Paducah to sell at the AQS show and upon our return, we were ready for our grand opening.

         


         

Judy picks a color for the building exterior. I take no responsibility.

          Renovations were going smoothly.  Building inspectors were approving the work (even though our carpenters kept changing our architect's plans). 
          So now it was time for the next big decision.  We had to decide on he exterior color of the building and choose a painter.  After about 30 seconds thought, we realized that we couldn't paint the exterior ourselves.  Judy's mother Virginia was visiting paint stores picking up business cards of painters.  After meeting with a couple, we settled on Jesus.  For those of you who are not Spanish speakers, that's pronounced "hey SOOS".  Jesus had that hard working immigrant mentality that I admire so much.  More importantly, he worked cheap.  We agreed to buy the paint, and his crew would take it from there.  Judy headed over to the Home Depot to pick out paint.   She chose a color called "California Lilac".  Sounded good to me.  Kind of quilt shop like.  When Jesus took the lid off the first can he and I gasped.  It was bright lavender.  And I mean BRIGHT LAVENDER.  He looked at Judy and said "you really want me to paint the building that color?".    Judy smiled and said "Yes I do.  At least people will know where we are.  And besides that, once paint is mixed you can't return it."  Jesus shrugged his shoulders as if to say "OK Senora, your the boss."  I hoped it wouldn't look so bright once it was applied.  It was a forlorn hope.
          As the paint was applied we became the talk of the town.  Cars would slow down as they drove by the building.  At our Vet's office and I mentioned the building. Dr. Moore asked "Are you going to keep it that color?"  I said "Yes we are.  That's the color".   The look on Dr. Moore's face was "Oops, I stuck my foot in my mouth on that one", and she quickly changed the subject to the treatment of our dog's ailment.  Virginia visited the building as it was being painted and had to be revived.  Remember, she's the property owner.  "What's wrong with beige?  Or white?" she asked.   Judy and Virginia got into a heated discussion which ended with Judy saying "If you want to buy all new paint yourself mother, go right ahead!"  After a lot of teeth grinding, Virginia relented and the painting went forward.
          I have to give Judy credit.  She took flak from everybody for a decision was one of the best we made.  Our sign was the color of our building.  All you had to do to give directions was say "go to the lavender house on McGill."  At church, at the bank or talking to strangers, we would tell them about the shop and they would say "That's that purple house, isn't it?"  Or words to that effect.  "All in the lavender house" is on our business cards.
          We were coming to our last big project, the parking lot.

Our Next Big Renovation Issue

The renovation of the duplex into a quilt shop was proceeding nicely, if slowly.  When you watch renovation shows on HGTV the renovation is always wrapped up in a hour (with commercials).  If you watch those shows, be sure to catch a little phrase they use before revealing the final results -"months later".  Judy and I were getting desperate to get the building open and our Certificate of Occupancy approved so we could open the shop and start recouping some of our money.
That said, carpenters were building, plumbers were plumbing and electricians were electrifying.  It was time to address a big issue - flooring.  The duplex consisted of 6 equal boxes.  Living room, bedroom and kitchen in the front, living room bedroom and kitchen in the back.  Small bathrooms were attached to each duplex. The living room and bedroom in the front was carpeted and the living room and bedroom in the back was hardwood.  Both kitchen floors had linoleum that had seen better days 30 years ago.  The back was where the eye-watering odor of cat urine was.
The easiest way to start on the flooring seemed to be to remove the carpet from the front duplex.  Oh yeah?  The carpet had been glued to the subfloor so that when you pulled it up it split off from the mesh it was sewn on.  A gluey mess remained on the floor.  Not to mention that it was back breaking labor for an old man like me.  I was down to the last piece of carpet and couldn't get it to budge. My 38 year old son happened to be there at the time.  He walked over too the spot and yanked it out like it was nothing.  Oh well.  Carpet and linoleum gone we contacted a flooring contractor and ordered flooring for the front duplex which would be our showroom.  I asked the contractor if he could get the carpet residue up before laying the floor.  He was aghast.  "That residue is full of asbestos" he said.  "If we do that you're going to have to do an asbestos abatement and that will cost at least $20,000."  After he picked me up off the floor he told me his plan.  "We'll cover the residue with plywood and lay the floor on top of that."  "That way you won't have to do the asbestos abatement."  Whew!
The next task was to tackle the cat odor.  As you may recall from a previous post, our veterinarian told us that it is impossible to remove the smell of cat urine from hardwood.  The best plan would be to remove the whole floor in the back and throw it away.  We didn't have the budget for that, so using sophisticated olfactory instruments (our noses) we determined that there were 3 kitty restrooms in the back.  We replaced the flooring and baseboards from those 3 spots, refinished the floors and painted the walls and ceilings. That took care of the odor.
In my next post I'll get to a most interesting decision  - the color of the building.

Fun with Contractors

In my last post we were renovating an old millworkers house in to our new quilt shop.  We had our architectural drawings approved by the County, and a Building Inspector slapped a plastic sign by the front door that inspectors could sign when the inspections were done.  We were ready to actually start working on the building.


Since I had a lot of free time, I was the general contractor. You know the old saying "a man who defends himself in court has a fool for a client."  The same thing goes in contracting, especially when you've never done it before. We needed carpenters, electricians, plumbers, painters and a company to pave the parking lot.   Everything had to be timed just right.  Fortunately, I had our architect Ginger to help.  Her retainer included creating the renovation plan, getting it approved by the County and answering dumb questions from her client.  More on that in a future post. 



Judy and I interviewed three contractors for the carpentry work which would be the majority of the work.  Each one looked at the job with some skepticism.  One had a creative idea.  "I know 2 carpenters who will work for you on a hourly basis.  They'll officially work for me, and I'll pay their insurance and workers comp.   Then you can be flexible on how fast you want to spend your money."  Sounded like a plan.   We shook hands with the contractor, and 2 guys showed up at 7 am on the first day of renovations.  One was very fat with a small mustache and a bowler hat, and the other was skinny and spoke with British accent - just kidding!  Actually Jack and Jeff did an excellent job for us.  My only worry was that Jack felt he knew more than our architect and kept changing her plans.   I said "Hey Jack, are you sure the building inspectors are going to approve what you're doing without officially changing the plans?"  "Don't worry" he said.  "I've been building houses for 30 years and I know."  Jack was right.   A lot of the time his ideas were better than Ginger's.  And all of Jack's modifications were approved with no problem.  One other thing about Jack and Jeff.  Like a lot of skilled tradesman in our area, they were smokers, and even though the building was a mess and stunk of cat urine, it was a safety hazard for them to smoke in it.  So they took smoke breaks.  It seemed like every time they did, Judy's mother Virginia happened to show up.  She was constantly complaining to me that "They're not working.  They're sitting around smoking."  Despite Virginia's concerns work was progressing nicely.


The hiring of a plumbing contractor was easy, if expensive.  And then came our meeting with the electrical contractor.  A quilt shop uses A LOT of electricity.  We needed wiring for central air, lots of additional plugs, heavy duty display lighting, security lighting, multiple irons and sewing machines.  Roger walked around the building with Judy and I, and as Judy explained what we needed his smile got bigger and bigger and I was sweating more and more thinking about the cost.


Besides the electrical work, bigger expenses were coming.

Renovation Surprises

In my last post we had contracted with Ginger Moore of Carlos Moore and Associates to prepare architectural drawings for the renovation, and get them approved by the County Building Department and the County Transportation Department.  The Transportation Department was involved because we were building a parking lot.  She had her work cut out for her.  But let me digress for a moment to describe how business is done in a small town. When the County Building Department demanded architectural drawings from a licensed architect before we could do anything else, I mentioned that I knew Carlos Moore.  The building inspector said,  "Carlos would be a great choice for your project."  Right then I knew that I'd better retain that firm if I knew what was good for me.  The good ol' boys network was in full bloom.

Anyway, Ginger had some immediate challenges.  The first and foremost revolved around the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Since we were getting a Change of Occupancy certificate we had to be fully compliant.  The front porch of the building was 37 inches above the street.  This required a handicapped ramp that was 38 feet long!  The bathroom had to be expanded to allow a wheelchair and an attendant to turn around.  The restroom turned out to be 6 feet by 9 feet and extended 4 feet into the showroom.  The floor was another problem.  A residence requires a floor with a strength of 40 pounds per square foot while a commercial building requires a floor with 100 pounds per square foot.  The entire floor would have to be reinforced.  Finally, Ginger had to do battle with the County Transportation Department over the design of the parking lot.  And a battle it was.  Long story short we ended up with a grand total of 3 parking spaces, one of which was the handicapped space. Parking was going to be an ongoing problem.
However, none of Ginger's designs addressed the main challenge - the overpowering odor of cat urine in the building.  We tried every commercial cleaning agent in the Home Depot.  Nothing worked.  We called commercial cleaning companies and they refused the job.  In desperation I spoke with our veterinarian. She gave us the bad news.  "The smell of cat urine cannot be removed from a hardwood floor.  You must tear out the floor and throw it away."  More expense.

Judy and I were starting to sweat regarding the cost of all of this.  We were way over budget and we hadn't even started.   A friend at church who is a renovation architect told me later, "Don't feel too bad, in a renovation you never know what you're dealing with until the first piece of drywall comes down".  I wish I'd known that sooner.

Ginger's approved drawings in hand, we started looking for contractors.

Look out HGTV, we're renovating!

In my previous post, I talked about how Judy's mother purchased a piece of commercial property that we could convert into a quilt shop.  The building wasn't exactly "move in ready".   Besides extensive renovations to the building, we had to convert the vacant lot next door into a parking lot.
 
The first thing we had to do was figure out the best way to finance the renovations.  We thought that was simple.  We'd mortgage the property and make payments out of our income from quilt shows until the shop was open and it could support the payments itself. Oh yeah?  You may recall that when you borrowed money on real estate in the mid 2000's banks had a unique way of determining the qualifications of borrowers.  The loan officer would grab your wrist and say "that pulse is really strong.  We'll lend you the money." Then came the financial crash of 2008 (what a surprise!).  When you went into a bank to borrow money in 2011 the Loan Officer would look at you as if to say "what are you trying to pull?  We'll need three forms of ID, a credit check and if the President of the Bank approves, you can speak to us about a loan and try to prove why you're not trying to rip us off!"  So Judy and I decided to use the old tried and true method of finance - we'd pay for the renovation ourselves.

That decision out of the way, we decided to become our own general contractors.  How difficult could that be?  Our first problem occurred with building permits.  The property was zoned commercial so we thought could easily get the necessary permits.  What we found out was that we had to get a "Change of Occupancy" certificate from the County before we could legally open for business.  Building permits were a part of getting the "CO".   Off I went to the County Building Department to apply for one.  The person behind the counter asked "Where are your drawings?"  I said, "I don't have any drawings, but if you give me a piece of paper and a pen I'll show you what we're trying to do."  I got the "look" from that person. He said "sir, we're going to need architectural drawings from a licensed architect".  And actually kept a straight face when he said it.

So off I went to find an architect.  Ginger Moore, daughter of Carlos Moore of Carlos Moore and Associates agreed to take on the project - for a fee of course.

A Big Decision

In the fall of 2011, in a twist of fate, our lives changed again.  Earlier that year Judy's mother Virginia was looking to purchase a property in or around Concord, to help our son start a thrift store type business.  A piece of property came available a quarter mile from our house.  The property consisted of a very small store, a 1,400 sq. ft. wood frame duplex and a vacant lot.  The store was way too small for a quilt shop, but would do for our son's thrift shop.  The duplex, built in 1927 had seen better days.  The front apartment had been vacant for a while and the back apartment was recently vacated so there were no tenants to evict.   Unfortunately, the recently departed tenant apparently smoked like a chimney and let her cats run amok. Your eyes would water from the smell of cat urine and second hand smoke.  Rumor was that she had died there, but with the smell in the apartment she could have laid there weeks with no one noticing.  Neither apartment had air conditioning and the heat was provided by big gas heaters that were vented into the two fireplaces and extended 5 feet into the rooms.  There was one parking space for each apartment - on gravel.
Virginia and Judy worked out a deal, but the negotiations weren't easy.  Judy never intended to open a brick-and-mortar quilt shop.  She had owned a Stained Glass Studio and knew what a time commitment that was.  She just "didn't want to have to be someplace every day."  Plus, we had to figure out the best way to finance the renovation.  Calling HGTV to do a show on renovating the building didn't seem realistic. 
Nevertheless, there were compelling reasons to take the deal.  First, I wasn't getting any younger.  I had an "expiration date" on my ability to schlep our merchandise around the country, set up and tear down quilt booths.   In August, 2011 I saw a suspicious bulge in my lower abdomen which turned out to be a hernia.  I have a cardiac pacemaker and am a cancer survivor, so this was a real wake up call.  Most importantly though, if we could pull this off we'd have a nice piece of commercial property and a base of operations which could allow us to develop a long term clientele and a business with greater intrinsic value.  Throw in the ability to walk to work and it was a no brainer.

We took the deal.  After all, how hard could it be to renovate the building?

The World's Largest Quilt Show

Before I begin the next phase of our story, I'm going to regale you with one more tale about quilt shows. The world's largest quilt show is the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  Believe it or not, more than 61,000 quilting enthusiasts descend upon the George Brown Convention Center for a 4 day show every November.  The year we were there we were one of 546 vendors.  If you were to walk all of the aisles to see the quilts and visit the vendors you would cover nearly 8 miles.  The show promoters rent electric carts to the attendees.  Fresh off of our success at Paducah, Judy and I decided to rent a 10ft by 20ft booth there.  After all, "Festival" as it's referred to in the trade is 3 times the size of the AQS show in Paducah, so we figured we could make a lot of money there.


At the World Quilt Competition at New Hampshire  I told Pepper Cory, a who's who person in the quilting world, that we would be going to Houston.  She said to watch out for thieves.  According to Pepper, thieves work in groups there.  One low life scumbag will distract the booth owner while another one looks to steal purses and cash boxes.  Sure enough, when we got our vendor packet, there was a an entire page of tips on avoiding theft.  While I was at the show I overheard a conversation between a vendor and a security guard, the vendor's purse had been stolen.  The Security guard said that there was not much he could do, but the convention staff checks the trash cans every day for purses and wallets.  Apparently, the low life scumbags will often take the money and credit cards out of the purse and throw it in the trash.   At least she might get her purse back.


The 4 Musketeers, Judy, Virginia, Lea and I convened at the show and got the booth set up.  Judy, Virginia and I made the 2 day drive from North Carolina and Lea flew in from California.  The set up was uneventful and the show was off to a great start.  On the second day I was heading to the show, tripped over a piece of broken concrete and fell on my face.  I ended up with a deep thigh bruise and a swollen hand.  A trip to the emergency room showed nothing serious, and the next day I got to rest in our hotel room with an ice bag on my leg watching movies on HBO.


Long story short we sold a ton, far more than Paducah.  HOWEVER,  Houston, like all big cities is expensive and at the end of each day Lea and Virginia wanted to know where we were going for dinner.  And they didn't mean McDonald's.  The food was great, but with travel expenses, hotel rooms, booth rental, etc., we literally ate up all the profits and then some.  Nevertheless, I never regretted going there because it was such an amazing experience.  Plus, it was good for our "street cred" that we'd been vendors at Festival.


Back in North Carolina, an event occurred that would permanently change our lives and our business. Stay tuned.

An Unexpected Success

To recap our adventures so far at the giant AQS show at Paducah, Kentucky, the 10 foot by 20 foot booth in the Main Expo Center that had we contracted for was now a 10 foot by 10 foot booth at an abandoned Circuit City store on the outskirts of town.  The main Expo Center became a part of the Ohio River that year, forcing AQS to scramble to put a show together at all.  The night before the show, Judy, her mother Virginia, our daughter Lea and I survived a night of heavy thunderstorms, hail and a tornado warning so severe that a siren went off. That was the same night that a huge tornado hit Tuscaloosa, Alabama and caused a number of fatalities.  We felt fortunate to get through the night unscathed.

We were sure that the circumstances would cause the show to be a disaster, but we resolved to do the best we could with the small space we had.   Little did we know that the flooding worked in our favor.  Every vendor received a 10 foot by 10 foot booth regardless of what they had contracted for.   The mega vendors with their thousands of bolts couldn't get them in.  Moreover, Eleanor Burns warehouses flooded and she was unable to offer her thousands upon thousands of yards of fabric a $3 to $5 per yard.  The attendees were still there, however and looking to spend.  I have a running joke at each quilt show we're at.  Typically, the attendance at the show starts very slowly and builds up as the day goes on.  Most times you're not even aware the show has opened.  At the beginning of each show I say "drop the rope and let em in".  Even if no one's there.  At Paducah, we literally had to fight our way through the crowds in the lobby of the Circuit City store get to our booth before the show opened.  At times the aisles were so packed you could hardly move.

One other advantage we had was being at the end of a cul-de-sac.  Attendees would come up a long aisle and turn right only to be trapped in our cul-de-sac, and have to go by our booth a second time.  I was stunned by the number of attendees and how much they bought.  Judy simply said "I told you so.  Quilters save up all year to spend at Paducah".   She should know, she was one of them.

Long story short, we had a tremendous show.  The only problem was that we were again across from someone doing product demonstrations.  This time the demonstration was "How to make your own chenille".  When the show began, the only thing I knew about chenille is that it's in bathrobes and bedspreads.  After 4 days of listening to the same demonstration, I knew far more about chenille than I ever wanted to know.

The last day of the the show, Lea flew back to California and Judy, Virginia and I returned to Concord with big smiles.  You just never know.

PS - Judy, did do some shopping.

Thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes, oh my!

In my last blog post I told the story of how our experience as vendors at the big AQS quilt show in Paducah, Kentucky got off to a disappointing start.  The Expo Center in Paducah became part of the Ohio River that week and the the show was relocated to makeshift quarters at 2 abandoned retail stores out by the Interstate.  After we calmed down about the situation, Judy, Virginia and I set out to do the best we could. After all, neither us nor the show promoter could do anything about the weather.

When we arrived at the abandoned Circuit City we unloaded the trailer and Judy took off for Lowe's to find something we could use to cover the big oil slick in the middle of our booth.  She returned with some multi colored foam rubber tiles that are used for kids' playrooms.  After a few hours of work, the booth was looking pretty good, as was the vendor mall at Circuit City.  At this point I should explain that there are no rookie vendors at Paducah.  You must have been a vendor at another large AQS show before you're even allowed to rent space there.  Trust me, experienced quilt show vendors can make any space look good.   That's what we do.

Satisfied that the booth looked as good as it could, we had dinner and headed back to the B&B.  At dinner the TV set at the restaurant showed severe thunderstorms in the area, but we weren't overly concerned.  By then we had lived in the South for 5 years, where thunderstorms are commonplace.   On our way to the B&B we were caught in a really big storm, it was dark and suddenly Judy asked, "What's that bouncing on the road ahead?"  It was hail so large that we were afraid it would crash through our windshield.  A minute later a tornado siren started blaring.  Remember that Judy is a native Californian and I spent most of my life there.  We didn't know what to do.  Should we lie down in a ditch?  Try and find an underpass for a bridge? I tried to remember TV shows about tornadoes and what you're supposed to do, but was drawing a blank. So we drove to the elementary school where the siren was blasting to figure out our next move.  It was there that I thought "What are the odds that we're moving in one direction and a tornado moving from another direction hits us? Not very good."  So we drove back to the B&B through constant heavy thunderstorms but no tornadoes, thank God.

However, our ordeal wasn't over yet.  Our daughter Lea was en route from California to join us that night.  It took nearly 3 hours for her connecting flight to get from Dallas to Nashville while dodging numerous heavy thunderstorms.  From there she had a 3 hour drive to Paducah which included the same country roads where we had heard the tornado siren.  It wasn't until I saw her headlights coming up the driveway of the B&B that I could breathe again.  I was even more amazed that she got there safely when I saw her rental car.  She had a tiny sub compact that looked like a car you ride in an amusement park.

By morning the thunderstorms had subsided.  The 4 Musketeers - Judy, Virginia, Lea and I headed to the show not knowing what to expect.

Paducah Part II

The 10 hour drive from Concord to Paducah was uneventful.  When we reached the outskirts of town I started to get real excited.  We were going to duke it out with the big boys.

When we arrived at Vendor Check In there was just one other vendor in front of us.  I overheard the lady at the reception desk say to them "You're in Circuit City.  It's about 3 miles down the road by the Interstate. Here's a map"  I thought that they must be one of the vendors in the side shows.  They weren't a prestigious, top drawer vendor like us with a spot in the main Expo Center.  You can guess what happened next.  The lady at the desk checked our credentials and said "You're in Circuit City.  It's about 3 miles down the road by the Interstate.  Here's a map."  I said "No, no, no! We're in the main Expo Hall.  There must be some mistake!"  She replied "Sir, the Ohio River is flooding.  By tomorrow night there will be 21 inches of water in the main convention hall.  We've rented a couple of empty retail buildings by the Interstate, and we're putting vendors there.  Each vendor will get a 10 foot by 10 foot space." We had paid for a 10 foot by 20 foot space and we had a trailer full of stuff for that size booth.  So I said "Can we get a refund of our booth fee given the circumstances."  The answer - "No.  We're having a show and we have a booth for you so no full refund.  However, we will refund part of your fee since your not getting all the space you paid for.  The Vendor Chairperson will get back to you on the details.  If you don't take the booth we have for you, you forfeit the entire fee."

What could we do.  We had just driven 10 hours and paid for a week of hotel rooms plus our daughter's air fare (all non-refundable).  So we headed to the abandoned Circuit City.    The facility was alive with workers setting up booths.  Unfortunately, the booths were 8 feet wide and 12 feet deep.  If you put one table in the front of the booth nobody could get in it.  We went to the spot where our booth was being set up only to find a giant black oil stain right in the middle of it.  Judy was was in tears.  We had committed substantial funds to the show so far (well into 4 figures), and that didn't include the meals we would have during the week and gas for the trip home.  I could read her mind - "Why did I decide to come to Paducah?  What possessed me to start a quilt business? Why was I born?"  The "Holy Grail" of quilt shows was not off to an auspicious start.

There was nothing else we could do that day, so we left Circuit City and went to find our bed & breakfast.  It was pretty far out of town down some country roads, but it was very nice.  The only problem was that the owner didn't quite understand that we were there to work, not have a romantic weekend.  Breakfast had to be on the table a 7:30 am sharp so we could get to the show on time.  She did a pretty good job of hitting the deadline, but I could tell she wasn't happy about it.

The next day was set up day, so after a good night's sleep and an excellent breakfast, Judy, Virginia and I headed back to Circuit City to see if we could make some lemonade out of this lemon.  

Paducah, Part I

In my posts up to now I've tried to avoid a lot of "inside baseball" talk regarding the quilt show circuit.  It's mostly technical stuff and not real interesting unless you're in the business.  However, I do need to give you some background regarding the American Quilters Society (AQS) show in Paducah, Kentucky so you can better understand what we went through and why we were so thrilled to be there.

Paducah, Kentucky (population 25,000) is the home of  the AQS, (one of the world's largest publishers of quilting books and magazines), the National Quilt Museum, Eleanor Burns, the first lady of quilting TV shows, and Hancock's of Paducah one of the largest quilt shops in the country.  One week each year, the population of Paducah literally doubles as quilting enthusiasts from around the world descend on the town. The prize for the Best in Show quilt is $20,000 and a spot in the National Quilt Museum. The AQS sponsors a show in the Main Expo Center with about 200 vendors and a smaller show on Kentucky Avenue.  At the same time, The Rotary Club of Paducah sponsors a show with 50 vendors.  Every vacant storefront in Paducah has "pop up shops" with vendors from across the country.  There are additional vendors in the the big mall in town and Eleanor Burns brings in warehouses of fabric for the week.  Every sewing machine manufacturer and fabric company is there, not to mention some of the largest quilt shops in the country.  Hotel reservations must be made a year in advance.

When we lived in California and I wasn't paying much attention to quilting, Judy announced that she and her mother were going to Paducah for the show.  I said, "are you nuts? You're going all the way to Paducah for a quilt show?".  Judy looked me in the eye and said "yes, dear.  We'll be gone a few days.  Take care of yourself and don't drink too much (who me?).

Early in 2011 we were contacted by the AQS vendor chairperson for Paducah.  She said there was a cancellation and would we like to sell there.  We couldn't believe it.  Paducah! The major leagues of quilting! In less than 18 months we had gone from the Guild Show in Hendersonville to being vendors at what is arguably the most prestigious quilt show in the world.   Before we accepted, we had to make sure that we had a place to stay there.  After a good deal of searching, we found a bed and breakfast 20 miles from Paducah with rooms available.  We got back to AQS and signed up for a 200 sq. ft. booth in the main expo center.  We were truly in the big time! 
Judy's mother wanted to come with us.  We figured we could us the additional staffing.  Judy mentioned that  the aisles could get so full it was hard to move.  Plus, the show runs 10 hours a day for 4 days and it can be a real grind.  We also figured it would be a chance to spend some time with our daughter Lea who lived in California at the time.  So we paid for her to fly to Paducah  The 4 of us would work the show.
The week of the show we loaded every piece of fabric we owned, put Judy's mom in the back seat, and full of optimism and some trepidation, we headed for Paducah.  Stay tuned for Part II.

We went to Philadelphia, but we wished it was closed!

In my last post we had left Cincinnati and were headed to Philadelphia for another show.   We had a couple of extra days between shows, so we decided to visit the Amish country.  We had a great time.  We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary at Mueller's Smorgasbord and hit a bunch of yarn shops (Judy is a knitter too).  On to Philadelphia.

The hotel we booked through Priceline had seen better days.  As I was going back to the car to get a suitcase, a door opened on our floor and a very buxom young lady stepped out in a very low cut top, high heels, lots of make up and perfume.  We rode down the elevator together and she quickly walked through the lobby and into a waiting cab.   I suspect she was in the hotel for commercial purposes, and not the kind that Judy and I were.  Then I saw a man carrying a rifle in the parking lot.  I was concerned until I found out that there was a gun show at the hotel that weekend.

The show was located in a huge old warehouse that smelled of tires.  We were in the far corner of the show as far away as you could get from the main entrance.  It took over a hour for the attendees to filter back to our area.  Worse, we were across the aisle from someone demonstrating ergonomic rotary fabric cutters. For 4 days we heard the same demonstration over and over and over again.  I WAS impressed at her enthusiasm for these ergonomic rotary fabric cutters.  The 4th day she was just as bubbly as the first.  I almost bought one for that reason alone.  What I wasn't so enthusiastic about is going into the Ladies room by mistake.  Know that 90% of the attendees of a quilt show are women.  When things are slow I often say that "it's as quiet as the Men's room at a quilt show".  On the first day of the show I was washing my hands in what I thought was the Men's room and two women walked in. I said "ladies your in the wrong room, to which they replied, no sir, YOU'RE in the wrong room".  I went outside and found that the show promoters had changed the sign from the day before when we were setting up.  In my defense, I suspect it was one of the few ladies rooms with urinals.

Sales were beyond lousy, then disaster struck.  On the night before the last day of the show Judy and I got food poisoning.  It was the worst possible time for that to happen. We had to man the booth the next day, pack it up, and drive to a hotel we booked and paid for that was 200 miles from Philadelphia.  I thought about calling the show promoters and having them tear down our booth and pack it for us.  By morning we weren't feeling too awful so I told Judy that we would get through the day in stages. Stage 1 - pack our bags and load the car.  Stage 2 - Open our booth at the show and sell for the day.  Stage 3 - Load the booth into the trailer.  Stage 4 - drive to the hotel.  Long story short, we made it to the hotel, but  not before getting lost trying to find it.  When we finally got to our room,  Judy developed a migraine, threw up in the trash can by the bed and slept for 12 hours.

On the long ride home we had time to reflect on the previous 2 weeks and plan our next move.  All of the profits we had made up to that time were wiped out on 1 trip.  I felt like Tommy Lasorda, the legendary manager of the LA Dodgers when he told reporters that, "This freaking job is not that freaking easy!" Only he didn't say "freaking".   Judy and I couldn't agree more.

My next couple of posts will be about our experience selling at the Holy Grail of quilt shows, the AQS Show in Paducah.

Fun in New Hampshire and then "the Bad Trip"

Our next Quilt Show turned out to be our favorite ever.  Each August, The World Quilt Competition has a stop in Manchester, New Hampshire where the competition quilts are part of a large quilt show.  Our profile was rising at this point and we were invited to become vendors at the show.  I had visited New England once and Judy had never been, so we decided to accept the offer.   Right away, our friends warned us to stay away from I-95 and to take I-81 through Western Virginia instead.  The drive was beautiful.  We went through Pennsylvania to Binghamton, New York, East through Albany and Route 9 through Vermont.  Route 9 through Vermont was amazing.  I can only imagine what it's like during leaf turn.  We'd booked a room at the Show hotel, so all we had to do each morning is go down the elevator, have breakfast at the hotel and walk into the Exhibition Hall.  It was like being on vacation.

Two new things happened at that show.  For the first time we had a line of customers in our booth waiting to check out.  Judy was ecstatic! Also, we sold out of some of our fabric.  Judy had purchased fabric panels designed by Stephanie Brandenburg (see photo).  When they arrived at the house I said "You've got to be kidding.  Who's going to buy that?"  Judy just smiled and said "Just let me buy the inventory, dear.  You stick to driving the truck and setting up the booth."  Naturally, we sold out of the panels in New Hampshire.  Judy was nice enough not to say I told you so, but I know she was thinking it. We left New Hampshire thinking "We've got this quilt show business figured out".  Hah! I'm sure the quilt show gods had a good laugh at that one.

A month later we were scheduled for shows on consecutive weekends.  The first was in Cincinnati and the second in Philadelphia.  It would require us to be on the road for about two weeks.  We made it to Cincinnati after driving through one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever experienced.  At any moment I expected to be washed off the road, and/or a tornado was going to land on our truck.  It was a portent of the trip.

Across from our booth in Cincinnati was a vendor from Michigan.  Their booth was 5 times the size of ours and stacked from floor to ceiling with fabric.  I asked them how many bolts of fabric they brought. "About 1,500"   To give you some perspective, our quilt shop in Concord has about 500 bolts.  We hoped that people who went to their booth would shop at ours also.  No such luck.  Believe me, there is nothing worse than watching someone across the aisle make sale after sale after sale while you sit there and watch.  Sales weren't terrible, but it feels much worse when someone is selling more in a day that you are at the whole show.

So we packed up and headed for Philadelphia hoping that show would be better.  It wasn't.  What happened there will require a whole additional post.  Stay tuned.


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We Hit the Big Time - and It Hits Us!

At the end of my last post, Judy and I had completed our first quilt show.  We did a few more shows and started developing our "war stories".  Near the end of  day one of a two day show in Statesville, the promoters announced that a major snow storm was approaching and we should get the heck out of there.  The snow was just starting when we began loading out, and by the time we were done there was  3" of snow on our vehicle. Judy is a native Californian.  Not only does she hate the white stuff, she doesn't understand why there's snow at less that 10,000 feet.  At another show the guild needed walkie talkies to open the front door, since opening the front door and back door of the venue at the same time would cause a strong wind to come through and blow down the quilt displays.  At another show the emergency exit door was in the middle of our booth.  I called that one "boothus interruptus".

Our sales were increasing, but were not what we wanted.  My job search was going nowhere fast so we decided that I would focus full time on our business and we would become vendors at "The Big Shows".  "The Big Show" is a whole different animal from a guild show.  The shows are in large convention centers, have anywhere from 200 to 500 vendors, and attendance between 20,000 and 60,000.  We'd be competing against the retail divisions of multi million dollar fabric and thread companies and some of the largest quilt shops in the country.  Our adventures at these shows is going to require several posts.

Our first Big Show was the American Quilters Society (AQS) Show in Knoxville, Tennessee.  It was there I learned the term "marshaling yard".  The loading dock at the Knoxville Convention Center is not big enough for 200 vendors to use at the same time, so we had to go to a marshaling yard about a half a mile from the convention center.  You wait in line until you're number is called then you drive to the loading dock.  By that time, we had purchased a 5' by 8' trailer to carry our stuff.  Waiting in the marshaling yard was like a cartoon, with my little bitty trailer flanked by the large trucks and trailers of our fellow vendors.  If I drew big eyeballs on it, it would be the little trailer that could.  When we made it to the loading dock, we received help unloading the trailer from prisoners who were doing community service.  When I wanted to tip the guys, I was told to "give the money to the boss, he'll dole it out."

Since we were first time vendors, we we were assigned
a small booth in a far corner of the convention center.  Before the show opened each day, I was able to look at the quilts that were in the competition.  I was totally blown away by the skills and artistry of the fabric artists who had quilts on display.  If you're ever in a city with an AQS show, I recommend that you attend just to see the quilts. There will be an AQS show in Charlotte the end of July.  Another thing I'll never forget is an exhibition of quilts for and by victims of AIDS.  I got very emotional and had to walk away.

The show went well.  The instructors from the AQS took a liking to our dupioni silks and we sold a lot. Only one slightly embarrassing incident.  A customer made a purchase and gave me her credit card.  When I asked for her ID, Judy said "That's Alex Andersen (you idiot) you don't need ID."  As you might suspect, Ms. Andersen is a who's who person in quilting.

One thing about Knoxville, the restaurants are fantastic and very reasonably priced.  It was a fun show. Most importantly, we realized that we could successfully compete against the big guys.

Thelma and Louise (AKA Judy and Fred) Hit the Road

In January of 2009 Judy and her mother attended the Quilting and Needle Arts Extravaganza in Statesville. Judy took one look at the vendor booths and the crowds and thought "I can do this".  From that simple thought, our lives were changed forever.  In the Spring of that year Judy did all the things you need to do to establish a business.  Obtained licenses from the City of Concord and the State of North Carolina, built a Web site, chose the name for the business, ordered inventory, established a business checking account, DBA., etc.  She also asked me to take some time off of my job search to wheedle as many invitations as I could to be a vendor at quilt shows.

The first show we were able to get in to was for the Western North Carolina Quilt Guild in late June.  The timing couldn't have been better.  Our daughter Lea, our son-in-law Cid and our three grandchildren were visiting from California.  Lea and Judy went to Hendersonville the day before the show to set up the booth and I followed the next day with my mother-in-law and the 3 kids in tow.  This type of show, referred to as a "Guild Show" is the most common of the quilt shows.  Every two years, quilt guilds have an event where their members display their latest quilts and sewing projects, and have a contest for the best quilt.  Vendor booth rentals offset the cost of the venue and the cost of advertising the event.  The vendor chairpersons are guild volunteers who, as we found out, are well meaning but often clueless about managing vendors.   That's OK though, every guild member and volunteer is a potential customer so we vendors bend over backward to make a good impression.

The Hendersonville show went fine, except that it was held in late June with no air conditioning in the venue. The attendees were literally fainting in the aisles.  Wonder of wonders, we actually sold something!  I had visions of Judy and I sitting in our booth for 3 days with 0 sales.  We didn't sell a lot, but we did sell enough to encourage us to move on to the next show.

Never having been a vendor at quit shows, I was pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of  fellow vendors.  Quilt shows aren't busy the whole time and you get to know your fellow vendors pretty well. Although we are competitors, we act more like co-workers.    

Hendersonville was a positive experience - Judy and I were on our way.

The Quilter

Since this blog is Tales of a Quilters Husband, it's only fair that you learn something about the quilter.  Judy is more of an arts and crafts person than a quilter.  Making things is in her DNA.  Her father was a Master Machinist in the Aerospace Industry and her grandfather made some of the most beautiful furniture I have ever seen.  Judy has been sewing since she was 6, but that was only one of her crafts.  Macrame, decoupage, stained glass, crochet, knitting, needlepoint, you name it.  In the 1980's her primary focus was stained/leaded glass.  During that time she attended art school and opened a stained glass studio.  Toward the end of her stained glass career she was creating kiln-fired slumped plates and glass buttons.  She also sold stained glass pieces and other craft items at trade shows and conventions.  Our most fun times were selling at a Star Trek convention and Science Fiction "Cons".  In 1994 Judy was invited to a Learn to Quilt class by a friend and the rest, as they say, is history.  Quilting was a perfect match for her sewing skills, her eye for color and her skill in 2 dimensional design.

During our long and happy marriage,  every now and then I get a look from Judy that says "How could you say something so stupid."  The first time I got that look (from something quilting related), was when I asked, "Do you really need all that fabric?  If you're going to make a quilt, why not just buy the fabric for the quilt?"  If you don't understand why I got "the look", just ask any quilter.  The second time I got "the look" was when Judy told me she needed a quilting machine.  She said that she was sending quilts out to be quilted and that was expensive.  I asked "why can't you quilt on your sewing machine?" - the look.  Shortly thereafter a Viking "MegaQuilter" with aluminum frame arrived at our house.   A couple of years later when Judy announced that she needed a better quilting machine I knew to keep my mouth shut.  The type of new machine she wanted - called a "long arm" machine - is an industrial quality sewing machine designed for quilting (the photo is Judy's machine).  Long arm quilting systems, referred to as a head and a frame, sell for $11,000 to $35,000.
In all fairness, Judy's new Gammill Premier with a 14 foot frame took a chunk out of her 401K, so I didn't have to pay for it.  However, I did go with Judy to the maintenance class for the "Gammill".  I learned how and where the machine should be oiled, and how to set the timing.  That was the beginning of my being drawn into the world of quilts and quilting.

How I got here

I do not make quilts.  I do not sew.  I have no creative hobbies whatsoever.  I am Co-Owner of a quilt shop and I love it! How did this happen, you might ask.  Here's the back story.

In 2008 I completed my 29th year as an executive headhunter.  I was managing the Charlotte Office for a 'boutique" search firm when the Great Recession hit with full force.  Business fell through the floor, and in January 2009 the Charlotte Office was closed, I lost my job and my family's health insurance.  No problem, I thought, I'll just find another job - at 60 years old, as a recruiter, during the worst recession since the Great Depression - sure.   My wife Judy is an avid quilter and had established several small businesses selling craft products at shows.   She decided to start a business selling quilting supplies at quilt shows in order to pay for health insurance until I found a new job.

A year later I was still looking, had no prospects and Judy, supportive as ever, said  "Give it up! Nobody is going to hire you at your age. Join me and we'll build a bigger business".  So there it was.  I finally got hired.  It was by my wife, but only after she checked 3 references. (just kidding about that last part).

At this point I should mention that I'm an art lover.  That's one of the main reasons I'm so enamored with the world of quilts.  What quilt artists can do with fabric and thread is truly amazing, and I'll share some of that as we go along.  If you're ever passing through Paducah, Kentucky, I strongly recommend that you visit the National Quilt Museum there.  It's well worth it.

During the past 5 years Judy and I have been vendors at over 70 quilt shows, including the largest in the world in Houston, Texas (61,000 in attendance).  We've dodged tornadoes in Kentucky, floods in Indiana, and made it through snow storms. Most importantly, we've met some wonderful people along the way.

In 2012 we renovated a mill worker's house built in 1927 and opened a brick-and-mortar shop - Judy Lea's Quilt Studio in Concord, NC.  The renovation of that building is a whole separate story which I'll get into in a later post.

My blog will detail our adventures, share a good amount of info about the world of quilts and quilting, and touch on what it's like to be a small business owner in 2014.   I hope you'll enjoy the stories as much as I've enjoyed the journey.