Star Store of the Month
October 05, 2012
So this month's Star Store is the wonderful........ The Quilt Studio! Our friend Carol, owner and fabric lover, told us all about her hand-picked selections for the store, her vision, favorite collection, and love for AGF! Here's the Q&A with The Quilt Studio.
1. Tell us how The Quilt Studio got started. Why? When? Where? Who?
The Quilt Studio was created out of a love for quilting by a mother, Carol Cisar and a daughter Michelle Boyd. We absolutely love finding new, modern patterns and quilting techniques and combining them with the latest designer fabrics, colors and prints. The shop originated out of a desire for Carol to start longarm quilting her own quilts and soon blossomed into a thriving quilting business, both in store and online. From then we were overjoyed to add to the shops’ inventory with the latest quilting patterns and modern fabric selections . The shop was started in 2001. The shop is located in a building owned by the family, on a major, easy to find street in Omaha, NE. We vend at many national quilt show such as Quilt Festival in Houston, AQS at Paducah and Des Moines and also many local shows.
2. Some shops have theme… what would you say is your shops theme?
I believe our theme for the shop is “Contemporary”. We love the modern designers take on fabrics.
3. Boast your bolts… what is your current bolt count?
We currently have 3000 bolts which turnover quite frequently.
4. What goes into fabric selection? What do you consider and how much of a role does personal taste play?
Michelle has a large part in choosing fabric selections, she is 24 and brings a young, new approach to fabric choices. She loves mixing the contemporary designer prints with some new and also traditional patterns.
5. Social media is one of the biggest tools out there right now… How do you incorporate it on a daily basis and how have you seen that impact your business?
I believe social media is definitely where the modern business person should seek to advertise their business. We daily use Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
6. So let’s say I just bought some fabric online… describe the process and time frame from order to doorstep (without letting out and secrets)
Orders are shipped daily, we have an instore UPS shipping station and post office nearby. Our site is very easy to use and is updately daily.
7. Tell us about your staff.
Our staff consists of Carol Cisar and Michelle Boyd the owners, who have been quilting for over 12 years, we make all the purchasing decisions, daily instore sales and still make most of the samples. Renee Aken,a sales associate is a long time quilter, teacher, and excels at all aspects of handwork. Carey Ransford a sales associate also does a wonderful job of running our website and internet posts. Joy Vodicka helps us with longarm quilting and bindings. Jeanne Marquart teaches classes and does instore demos and a monthly block of the month club.
8. If you didn’t run a successful fabric shop what would be your dream job?
Besides the fabric shop, Michelle and I also have another pastime of showing dogs both regionally and nationally and had the number one dog in our breed in 2011.
9. You carry a variety of Art Gallery Fabrics products. Can you tell our readers what do you like about our products? What are your hot sellers from AGF right now?
We absolutely love Art Gallery Fabrics. The fabrics are of the highest quality cotton I have seen and they are so easy to piece with. We carry several of latest lines and we are especially fond of the basics lines such as Oval Elements and Nature Elements, they are just the right size prints and the colors are wonderful! The fabric lines are easy to use even for beginner quilters. And they fall right into our modern, contemporary theme.
10. What kind of feedback do you get from consumers that buy AGF?
Our customers are always very pleased with our selections from Art Gallery, and are very popular with young quilters just getting started.
11. What is your favorite AGF collection so far?
Paradise is our alltime favorite collection and we are really excited about the new line Luxe In Bloom.