We’ve also created the ultimate quilter’s experience that many call the “Disneyland of Quilting” right here in Hamilton.
That first tutorial video, like a small stone, produced ripples and became the start of something amazing.
My son asked me if I wouldn’t mind filming some quilt tutorials to get our name out there and I responded, “Sure! … What’s a tutorial?” I soon found myself in front of the camera, teaching quilting techniques to a tiny handful of viewers. With virtually no money for advertising, we relied on our creativity and ingenuity to help our small company grow. Those early days were long, with many sleepless nights. I helped run the quilt shop with my daughters, Sarah and Natalie, while Alan and David focused their efforts online. With Alan's experience running tech-startups out west, David's financial and marketing background, and Sarah’s knowledge of the quilt industry, we had the perfect ingredients to begin our online quilting business. My son, Alan, teamed up with his best friend, David Mifsud, whom he’d met while volunteering as missionaries in Kiev, Ukraine. Shortly after setting up our small shop, we decided to take our new business online. Little did we know that within a few short years, we’d be offering over 30,000 bolts of fabric, along with hundreds of our own quilting patterns, quilt kits, our very own quilt magazine called BLOCK, and a huge selection of precut quilting fabrics! So, in November of 2008, on a shoestring budget, we bought a small brick building in Hamilton that would fit a longarm quilting machine and the Missouri Star Quilt Company was born! At first, we only offered machine quilting services and sold a few quilt fabrics and quilting supplies. The idea of sewing quilts for a living thrilled me-they say that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. You should start your own machine quilting business!” Two of my children, Alan and Sarah, told me, “Mom, if you have to wait that long to have your quilts quilted, there’s gotta be a lot of demand. It was so much fun! Then, one day I brought in some quilts to be machine quilted at a local quilt shop and I was told I’d have to wait a year for it to be finished. I quickly began stitching up quilts for friends and family from whatever fabric I had on hand. Previously, I had designed costumes for the theatre, but when we moved to Missouri the theatre scene wasn’t very big-it was all about quilting! I took a local quilting class and was immediately hooked. The idea for the Missouri Star Quilt Company came out of the blue.
0 kommentar(er)
