 People often ask me if I’ve “always dreamed of opening a quilt shop.” I know that, for many shop owners, it’s been a long-term dream, but that’s really not how Shiisa Quilts came in to being. There are really lots of little stories that make up the whole big picture of Shiisa Quilts…
For now, I’ll start at the end and work backwards!
One Off-the-Cuff Remark
In March 2007, I was visiting my mother in Bloomington. I have lived overseas for nearly 20 years and haven’t spent much time in the states during that time. But my father died in August 2006 and it was truly a reminder that I needed to spend more time with my Mom – for her benefit, and for mine! So, I spent two weeks with her in March… One day, about a week into my visit, we drove to Morgantown to shop at Ady’s Quilt Shop to find fabric for Mom to finish a quilt that she had started for me a couple of years earlier. On the way home, I remarked, “hmmm… maybe I should just move to Bloomington and open a quilt shop.” Mom, who has been trying to lure me back to the states for the past couple of years, thought that sounded like a great idea! So we spent the 45-minute ride chatting about what that might be like.
That night, I didn’t sleep. I took my laptop to bed with me and spent the night googling quilt shops! When I got up in the morning, Mom greeted me with, “So… have you thought any more about that quilt shop?” I admitted that I had… and we decided we needed to talk to some people in town that might provide some feedback about that. The first stop was my brother Jeff, owner of One World Enterprises. Then on to Suzanne at Yarns Unlimited. Both Jeff and Suzanne were enthusiastically supportive of the idea of opening a quilt shop here. In fact, everyone we talked to about the idea agreed that Bloomington needed a quilt shop!
So, it was decided. I would do it! In the course of about 48 hours, I went from “gee wouldn’t this be fun” to “let’s figure out how to do this”!! I was going to need a place to live when I got to Bloomington, so I decided to take a look at some condos – and within a couple of days, I had put in an offer and it was accepted! No turning back now…
A few days later I returned to Okinawa with lots of ideas and plans swimming in my head – and plenty of work to do!
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