Quilted Twins - Brick and Mortar
It's real. It's really real. We have a real store. It's a fun, fun place with lots of activity and fabrics galore! Here's a brief synopsis of how we came about opening to the public and NOT just being an online store.
Right around the end of the 2017 i decided that I'd let a couple of people in to see our fabric warehouse.
They were stunned. It was so beautiful (if you think fabrics are beautiful) and messy. So packed. So full of fabrics. Two of the people who stopped in encouraged me to open more often. I was pretty determined that I would not. (Thanks, Annette Knecht and Mud).
By the end of January I was re-thinking my position against opening to the public and began thinking maybe we should try to open once or twice a month. Then my quilt exchange buddy, Linda Brandon, wanted to come and see the warehouse. She's a snowbird, and I knew her days available were limited. Along with her, my spa neighbor, Mud, once again, was pressuring me to open to the public. "I've been telling everyone about you, Rachael! You've just go to let them in." (She has a hair cutting business/salon/spa right next to our fabric warehouse and would pop in regularly.)
So, in February, I agreed to open on a Saturday morning for 3 people who said that they wanted to come. 3 turned into 15 as each person brought a friend, and Becky put it up on her page and we emailed a couple of others, and I found that I loved it. However, I was trying to run it by myself, which didn't work out so well. I wanted to talk and hear stories and see projects, but people wanted fabrics cut and we had to figure out a way to pay!
So, we decided to open on Thursday afternoons, only this time, with a full sleight of 5 to 7 people at the ready to help cut, find fabrics, file fabrics and otherwise just help out. And our Thursday afternoon fun began.
However, we quickly discovered that people couldn't find us. We had NO SIGNAGE at all. Evidently 13829 US Hwy. 98 Bypass, Dade City, FL, was NOT showing up on all the GPS systems out there! Those who got close still couldn't figure out where we were. It was our fault... we had NO SIGNS...
Not one single solitary Sign. We decided to remedy that problem..
So, I've put together our sign journey as a story in pictures.
For some odd reason, I thought that this little sign in the walkway under the eaves would serve to get people in. I figured they could see it. THEY COULD NOT! Wow, was I ever wrong.
So, we got on the stick and quickly ordered a banner. We needed something that people could see from the road. We weren't really ready for our permanent signs in the window, as we weren't 100% sure what we wanted to say! However, a banner waving in the breeze worked!
Notice, we used Becky's pattern: Norwegian Snowflakes, as our background!
I bought 2 banners and my husband was hanging one on his truck since we don't have our more permanent sign up yet.
Ken then hung balloons on his truck to get still more attention. Our more permanent sign will go right where it says PAWN & GUN in yellow! That should soon be our blue and white sign! Right now it's a yellow and black, "Pawn and Gun Shop" sign.
Two weeks ago I got in our signs for my van! I'm so pleased to be able to drive around advertising for our amazing store! So, I've been driving all around with those on my van, hoping to let people know we're here!
Then, our next step in letting people know we were here was to get our outdoor signs up on the windows in front of the warehouse, so people would know in which unit to come!! Those came the weekend of March 24 (2018), and we got them stuck on the windows on Tuesday, the 27th. We even got the neighbor at the spa next door to help. We had a fun time! Look at the pictures of Ken and Mud (our neighbor in the business next door) sticking on the sign. I couldn't take the pictures and help, too, but I did help! (If you click on the pictures, you'll the story in pictures! There's multiple pictures here, not just Ken cleaning the window.
Our last matter of permanent signage was to get our large outdoor sign finished and up on our sign by the road! And they finished that up on Tuesday, April 3 !! So, now we're open for business and ready for all to know where we are!
If you're in the area, stop in!
The address is 13829 US Hwy. 98 Bypass, Dade City, FL 33525. We're open for walk ins on Thursday afternoons from 1 until 5:30 pm.
But just in case you don't live anywhere nearby, feel free to order from the website. We'll do our best to help you out!