Crafting, Quilting, where do I start?
-by Lucianne Shoffner
Photos by Katijane Shoffner
You start with a great friend at a crafting or fabric store. We found three in Tipton County that will definitely fit the bill!
With a business category that accounted for over $44 billion dollars in the US economy last year, crafting is nothing to smile and nod about. Millennials, in particular, have at least one craft that they work on, but are more likely to have up to four that they love. Crafting is as old as humanity, and while it was once much more important in helping keep clothes on your body, and quilts to keep you warm in the winter, the actual work has lost none of its fascination for people. Needlework is creating quite a ‘comeback’, and is certainly not on the ‘lost art’ list as some people have thought. Sewing brings forward cherished memories, whether it's teaching your child to sew, or being taught by your mother or grandmother.
Quilting especially has had a resurgence, not that it was ever lost, but it has certainly progressed way past the ‘bits and pieces’ of fabrics that were used long ago. Although, I think it truly would have been comforting to have ‘Daddy’s shirt’ or ‘Momma’s dress’ to wrap up in at night, and that lingering feeling may be why we all love snuggling under those quilts on a cold, winter night.
Sheri Hudson, with Sew Squared, who started a new shop on December 1st, 2021 was our first stop on the trail of local artisans. “I have been in and out of different types of businesses forever, but this is something that I truly love. My Grandmother put a needle in my hand when I was five years old, and I made my first quilt block at seven, hand-stitched all the way. I’ve always been into the needle arts, whether it was cross-stitch, crewel, needlepoint, knitting, crocheting, so that joy that I had with my grandmother grew into a lifelong passion for sewing. I made clothes, halloween costumes, I sewed for the Munford Band for fifteen years, and as I got older I started watching the quilt shops fall away as people retired, nobody was stepping up to take their place, and I felt compelled, ‘called’, to open a shop. I started planning about three years ago, then COVID hit and the timing wasn’t right. But as we were coming out of it, and more shops were closing, I knew I had to ‘do it now’.”
Hudson has many types of fabrics in her shop, and maintains specific guidelines for her material. “We are a quilting shop, but we are also a premier fabric shop, so top quality 100% cotton fabric, 100% cotton thread, and all of the sewing notions that go along with that. We are a quilt shop from the novice to the experienced quilter.” Hudson carries white goods that are the ‘filet-mignon’ that will last for a hundred years. “We pay a premium for our materials to make sure our customers get the fabric that will last. My premier line is Northcott fabric, which is a wonderful line of fabric that has phenomenal colors. Our fabric is sold by the yard, not the half-yard that you find online. AND you get to feel it and see it when you buy from a local fabric store.” Along with Northcott fabric, she also carries Art Gallery fabric, Michael Miller fabric, and Henry Glass fabric. “The best way I can describe the quality of those brands is that when you feel them, you just want to cuddle up in them, they are so soft and luxurious that it’s like putting a cloud against your skin. When I opened the shop, I wanted those fabrics because that’s what people drive for - and nobody within a 200 mile radius carries those fabrics.”
Behind ‘the curtain’ that separates the shop, is Hudson’s classroom. “That is my sewing circle,” she smiled, “we are called the ‘sew-n-sews’ which is a group of ten ladies.” The ladies rent space from Hudson, so it’s a win-win situation, they have a space to sit and sew and work on whatever projects they want to, and they can bounce ideas off of each other - creating informal classes within the sewing group. Hudson also offers classes each month, “My premier class line right now is designed to get new quilters in the door.” As we laughed a little at the name, she continued, “That’s my strip club. We meet twice a month on Saturday and build quilts out of 2” fabric strips, hence the name. It’s a skills builder class, we’ve been building to a culminating event in October. They make their own quilts, they’ve actually made five quilts up to this point. It’s a different project each month.” Continuing, she told us about other classes, “We do a Christmas Sampler that is a three month class, we do different classes revolving around different quilt patterns.” From ‘Storm at Sea’ to ‘Bear Paws’, quilt patterns have unusual names, and there are many people that design their own patterns. Hudson also does research to find patterns, but prefers to make her own designs, “Just about everything that I do is an original design.”
Hudson agrees with the sentiment behind sewing, “Some of my most cherished memories are when I sat and sewed with my Grandmother, and when I taught my daughter how to sew. The project was irrelevant, it was the ‘passing on’. To me, treasure moments are the passing on of my knowledge and my skills to the next generation, the next person down the line.” Hudson also told us of a customer who is in her eighties that had never sewed before she walked through her door, “She’s been in our sewing group now for over three months, and is having fun!” Continuing, she added, “It just goes to show that you are never too old to learn something new!” She has 5-6 brand new sewers, and as many as 20 novices that are in her classes. “They love to come in and pick my brain.” Hudson continued, “I am a colorologist, which just means that I am an expert in putting colors together, and then with quilting you have to have precision, all the stitches need to be the same - there’s not much room for error if you don’t want it to be noticed. And these projects are hours and hours of dedication, so you don’t want to really be wrong.”
Hudson is happy to help, and happy to share her world with anyone so if you want to learn, feel free to stop by her shop, Sew Squared - 176 Wesley-Reed Dr., Suite B in Atoka, TN 38004. Call 901-622-0203 or check them out on Facebook.
Our second stop was right up Highway 51 in Brighton, at Forbidden Threads. Leann Ross, owner of Forbidden Fiber was happy to share about her shop. “We started as a yarn company in my kitchen about fifteen years ago, just dyeing some yarn. It’s kind of grown a lot. We’ve moved from New Jersey to California, and now we are in Tennessee.” She smiled, “When we moved here, things took off and it’s grown from being ‘just me’ to a staff of seven! We do hand dyed yarn, embroidery floss, and cross stitch fabric, all dyed in the shop!” They also do their own knitting and cross stitch patterns. “We also do a lot of mystery boxes sold on a subscription basis.”
“We actually don’t do a whole lot of walk-ins right now, although they are certainly welcome!” Ross smiled, “about 75% of our business comes from online or subscription boxes - and then we do a small line of wholesale.” The subscription boxes sounded like a whole lot of fun, so that’s what we talked about next, “We have yarn clubs, which basically equates to getting a skein of yarn based on a theme every month - one is called the ‘once upon a yarn’ club; it’s based on fairy tales, or movies - this month is shipping now, it’s called ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and we created a color weave around pirates, and we include some trinkets and color markers that go along with it. We also have a ‘Rhythm and Yarn’ club which is music based, it’s a one of a kind color weave that we do not reproduce and is inspired by music albums, this month was inspired by Dolly Parton. We have a cross-stitch, or floss clubs just like the yarn clubs.” Going on down their production line, she pointed to another box that is a themed box. “These aren’t a club, but you have the opportunity to purchase them just based on whether you like the theme or not. Currently we are working on our ‘Thirteen days of Halloween’ boxes, which is usually one of our bigger sellers.” You can choose either yarn or floss, and you get individually wrapped colors and everything you need to complete a project. “You also get some fun little Halloween things in with it - it’s fun, and we have fun with them!” Ross continued.
Ross’s mom was the inspiration behind her dive into crafting, “My Mom owned a craft store when I was small, but I started knitting again when I was in my 20s. I learned how to dye my own yarn, and you can dye faster than you can knit, so I started selling it. After about 10 years or so, I burned out, so I started cross stitching. I found out about all the hand-dyed fabrics and thought ‘wow’ - I was addicted!”
The shop has so many colors, all a product or Ross’s team. They produce many of their colors as ‘one of a kinds’, so when they are gone, they are gone. Most of the colors are seasonal, “We are moving into our fall colors, we produce them, sell them, and then retire them. It’s more seasonal rather than hundreds and hundreds of colors that get overwhelming to look at!” While Ross has a few skeins of yarn from past projects in her shop, they aren’t available online - so if you need just a smidge of last Christmas, run by!
It’s fun to watch the process, and would be so hard to choose, “My favorites change all the time - we try new colors and new combinations, and there’s always something new coming out of the dye pots, I love purples and blues, so my favorite right now is Magical Nights. But we try so many new techniques, it could change tomorrow!” Since most people can’t choose just one color, Ross does offer ‘mini skein sets’ that have more than one color for a project, and offer an affordable option to choosing four or five large skeins. “We also have tonals, variegated colors, and you can use those to create with.” She has a stained glass window collection, inspired by Beauty and the Beast, and other includes Outlander, Narnia, Snow (inspired by Gilmore Girls), Discovery of Witches, and so much more. “Christmas collections are always our more popular, we always do new colors every year. I try to do things a little more non-traditional, to give people something different.”
The embroidery threads are hand dyed from a white cotton. “We start with a white, which gives a truer color, the only exceptions are brown and red, which are extremely hard to get to the correct color, so sometimes we will start with a light brown thread.” She also has collections with cross-stitch patterns and threads, including Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Gilmore Girls, Beaches. Colors have at least 4 layers of colors on them, active time to dye is about twenty minutes per layer, per skein. Then they are rinsed, and some fabrics require a lengthy process to do so. After rinsing, they also take a good bit to dry on the drying racks. “It can be a struggle to reproduce the same colors with some fibers,” Ross explained.
Yarn varies from bulky sweater to lace quality yarns. “Most people make shawls and cowls, and while people knit all year around, it definitely picks up starting in the fall.”
To see the beautiful array of colors in person, it’s fine to go by their shop in Brighton at 7615 TN-3 Suite 101 (It’s in that hard to get to center beside the middle school and Brighton Bank off of Highway 51). You can also go to their website, to find out more about their subscription boxes and themed boxes: www.Forbiddenfiberco.com
In their long range plans, they are thinking about doing hand-dyed quilting fabric, and I can just see all of the magnificent colors they have in a quilt. It would be an amazing work of art! Other long range plans include a “crafting Saturday” when people could come by the store and just work on a project. They do have the basics for all of the beginners, needles and supplies, “So if you want to start, come by and get your starting supplies!” Ross finished.
The fall colors have been released, boxes are available and I personally love their 2022 Fall Palette - almost enough to try to take up knitting, if I could find the time. If you go by, make sure you send us pictures of the projects you make! contact@cypressmag.com
Stop number three is ‘The Stitchin Store’ in Covington was a must. They made the quilt to be given away at Heritage Days, the festival in Covington in September. Natalie Hewitt, owner, took us through a tour of her store, “This store has been open for over ten years, and we have one of the largest collection of quilting fabric in West Tennessee, along with being an authorized Brother Sewing Machine and Embroidery machine dealer.” Smiling, she added, “we try to keep this a fun place for people to come, we have fabric, notions, patterns, quilt patterns, bag patterns, all the things that you need for your sewing adventures!” Currently they even have classes to make bags, quilts, and include classes with names like ‘Simple Simon’ and ‘Running with Scissors’ which should encourage even the most timid of seamstresses to join in the fun. [That would be me!]
Hewitt and her daughter have samples they have made all over the store, including the quilt for the Heritage Festival that is a tribute to ‘Bees’, including bees in the fabric and then, “I found a quilting design that actually has tiny bees in the stitching, so we have bees all over it!” The beautiful quilt will be raffled off at the Festival.
Hewitt likes to do things differently, going against the grain at times in her patterns, “They are our designs, so they should be unique to us!” With the depth of fabric and the atmosphere of the shop, they try to help customers with sewing questions, and “if you don’t know how to do something, and we don’t know either, then we can learn together!” Hewitt says they love to learn new things, and there’s always something that can be learned from each project that you do with sewing, as long as it’s something you haven’t created before. Hewitt learned to sew the hard way, trial and error, until she started learning from Youtube videos. “I would do something and then have to pick it out and start over. At this point, I’ve made over thirty quilts since we started. Becca has done ten plus quilts since October, when they bought the store.” Hewitt laughed, “Becca decided to learn to sew and learn she did! She is putting me to shame on the number of quilts that she has made.”
The depth of the fabric keeps customers driving from all over, even out of state. The fabric includes a huge range of colors,
Quilting patterns that are available at the store include baby sharks, dinosaurs, and some of the very serious traditional patterns.
Since the Hewitts have owned the store, they have donated seventeen to eighteen quilts to the nursing homes, “we did a stash-buster, where people brought in some of their ‘stashed’ material to help us, and we are also doing ‘Quilts of Valor’ that we are donating to the Tipton County Museum for the Veteran of the Month program where they honor a different Veteran each month.” Hewitt smiled with pride as she walked around the store, showing us quilt after quilt, and the large fabric selection that she has. One of the most interesting things about many of her quilts were the back-sides of the quilt in the intricate designs that she has accomplished.
Eventually, they will add more classes that will appeal to younger people. “I don’t want quilting to be forgotten,” Hewitt told us, “that’s why we are featuring new modern fabrics, now, as well as the traditionals favored by quilters, we want younger people to be inspired, just as we have been, by the fabric they choose, and the fabrics that are available.” She has Tula Pink fabric, a very popular designer, including the ‘tiny beast’ line with ‘trash panda’ and ‘deer john’ with very vibrant colors, as well as Alice in Wonderland fabric. They have a cubicle of eclectic fabrics that also appeal to younger audiences. “Most people don’t know that when ‘runs’ of a fabric are sold out, they don’t reproduce them, so they end up being collectible.” Hewitt told us, “Most of our people come into the store, but occasionally we have people trying to find specific fabric to finish projects.” Other brands they carry are Moda, a little bit of Michael Miller, Island Batiks, In the Beginning, Free Spirit, Benartex, and Contempo.
Hewitt’s daughter, ‘Becca, was hard at work on a Bunny, Owl, and Fox quilt by the same designer as the Baby Shark quilt. She also does sewing machine repair - so if it’s broken, she can fix it, depending on the manufacturer.
Classes are on Thursdays, so watch facebook and their website calendar for current class information.