Karen, Trisch and Carol’s collaborating, fine tuning ideas, and formulating them into a business plan, resulted in the quintessential, "Quilter's Retreat," logo so named after their unique artistry.
Discussions then focused on the store’s appearance, and their goal of being a “regular quilter’s” quilting store. Displaying quilts on the wall would enable regular quilters looking, touching, and realizing, "I could make this"--achieving empowerment feelings versus fearing the works of art were untouchable and impossible to duplicate.
Thinking “outside the box” they created a “man cave”, inspired by one of the husband's garages where the idea for a quilt store was incubated--a place men could go and be comfortably engaged while their wives/girlfriends shopped—a guy place with a TV, sports magazines and car magazines. With just a few quick switches, it could be converted into a children's area, with movies, simple toys and a teepee, keeping kids occupied while their mother shopped.
Their store was to be a place where each customer is valued, where kids are not frowned upon, where they REALLY DO want to see your quilt when you are done, and where they enjoy teaching customers the “quilters art” they have been dying to learn. Patience, enthusiasm, and excitement will abound, also learning customer’s names and fun things about them and/or families. Offering longarm quilting at a reasonable cost, with a quick turn around is key.
We want all of this and more. So…. they continued their quest, driving to numerous quilting stores in Maryland and Virginia, shopping at each one, and discussing what they liked and disliked. The vision was clarifying and the excitement increasing.
Unwelcome fear crept in. What if they couldn't do it? What if they failed? What if they were wrong? But all along the journey, they felt it was the right thing to do. Individually, they prayed for guidance, and together, felt they should move forward.
They scouted a few locations - liking some better than others. Some were too large, some too small. All were ridiculously expensive. A friend suggested looking into office space instead of retail space. Hmm…. an interesting idea! Persevering, they located the perfect sized office space, the near perfect set up, and a price that worked. Ironically, it happened to be just above the retail space they initially wanted. Yes, finally a winner, with only a few changes to be made in the floor layout.
And so Quilter's Retreat began...
