Quilted Twins: 2023 - Year in Review

The year 2023 started out quietly enough, without most of realizing just what was going to become of normal, calm and quiet. There were enough really rough things that happened, that I’m deciding to focus on the fun and interesting things that happened to all or some of us here at Quilted Twins.


January: In Mid January we welcomed Koleene of the All Florida Shop hop to our store where she gave us our first shipment of our beautiful SHOP HOP magazines! We were thrilled. We also welcomed in a couple of large groups of shoppers who schedule private shopping times! We also started selling two beautiful shop hop kits, featuring the panel from the 2023 SHOP HOP.

February: This month we here at Quilted Twins were busy planning and executing the Collura Cottage, at the Pasco County Fairgrounds. We had over 300 entries this year, from quilts to woodworking! It was a beautiful blast. We had a lot of help this year, but definitely need to find still more people to make it even more fun and less exhausting for all involved.

Feb. 9: Becky decided to fly over from Poland and help with the craziness. She brought beautiful goodies, including hearts, Polish bags and beautiful zippers. She worked like a trooper making samples and helping with kits.

On Feb. 17, we had a huge busload of ladies come and visit us! Busses are always a ton of fun!

Feb. 25: the Fair concluded. We served lots of cookies and milk, and had a great time visiting with customers who popped into the Collura Cottage to see us and talk!

Feb. 21-28: We entered the By Annie contest in earnest. I encouraged our customers to vote for us, and lo and behold, we found out in March, that we WON! What a blessing!

We had the sign made so that we would have something a little more permanent to remind us of how wonderful you all are in voting for us! Thanks again, for that!

March 1 - We opened our doors to our first ever All Florida Shop Hop HOPPERS. It was the beginning of 2 months of non stop go-go-go!

March 14: Loralie Harris, our very first ever trunk show, came to town! We had about 90 ladies show up at the venue, and we all had a blast!

On March 16: Flat Jen visited our shop during the SHOP HOP. Brenda Dean brought her (the cardboard cutout) in to visit after giving her an entire tour around Dade City!

March-April: We continued working like maniacs during the first ever All Florida Shop Hop. Our customers were amazing, and we were thrilled to welcome some of our regulars who brought friends! The whole Shop Hop ended with over 1200 HOPPERS visiting our store, many of whom have become friends, or were already friends before it began! We loved it, though it was exhausting. We had people beginning, finishing and everything in between. They had a blast! We had a blast!! We had ladies with bunny earrs. We had the quilted heart ladies, and we gave away and gave away our little squares to everyone!

May: We had a huge, huge, huge THANK-YOU-for-voting-for-us party to our customers with thousands of dollars in prizes and giveaways. The Sewin’ Room staff spearheaded the whole event, and we had the most successful single-day event of our Quilted Twins history. We featured the ByAnnie products that Julie Harris had arranged, and hundreds of people came from around the state to participate.

We also added another small unit in Room 6, which now holds some geometrics. It helped alleviate a tiny bit of pressure as far as space is concerned.

We also brought in the beautiful EARTH JEWELS lines, in both backing and 45” that has become a customer favorite.

June: In early June, Quilted Twins was chosen to make two quilts for the 2024 All Florida Shop Hop Magazine. I’m saving those pictures for another few days, as they’ll be shown in the magazine around the 15th to the 20th of January

At the end of June, we went to the H and H Conference in Chicago. It mainly featured yarn, but was a fun prize to win from By Annie!. Staying in a free and beautiful Hilton right across from the venue was an eye opening experience for us, as our team tried to take in as much as we could to improve the shopping experience for our customers back in Dade City.

July: Ken and I took 5 days off from the store and headed up to The Anchorage Christian Camp in NC, where Ken remains on the board of directors. We visited, rested, plotted, planned, and visited quilt shops for ideas in the North Carolina area. I got a much needed pedicure after what the previous 4 months had done to my feet!

July, Quilted Twins hosted our first ever Vitas Memory Bear Sewing day in the Sewin’ Shop! They got a lot of bears sewn up that day!

On July 24, we also had an unbelievable sale that we held in the Sewin’ shop featuring pieces and $6 half strips and more! It was super well attended and we sold a lot of those!

In August, we entered the Jaftex Video Contest for a Shop Tour as well as a Reel. Our Facebook Reel took first place with over 21,000 views. The Store tour came in third or fourth, but we could only take one prize, so we took the first place! (First prize in this one was money towards future orders. It covered 10 bolts of fabric.)

On August 15, I cut myself, resulting in a trip to the ER, and a lot of wasted time. I’m still upset with myself over that.

Shortly after that, Lahaina, Hawaii, was burned up in a horrific fire. We encouraged our customers to send quilts straight to them. My contact there told me that they got several.

On August 29, a Hurricane Idalia came through, but thankfully, we were so far inland, that we got almost nothing.

September:We decided to tackle the storage rooms, and get them straightened out. It took an entire month, and Ken started over Labor Day and continued to build shelves every two days or so until we had all the shelves we could fit!

It was also over Labor Day that I had time to piece the quilt that I was making for the All Florida Shop Hop Magazine.

We were entered into the Best in Florida contest. We encouraged entrants, at least a little, to vote for us. We didn’t hear anything about how it went from Best of Florida until it was over with. We had no progress reports or inkling that we were doing well.

 
 

At the end of September, we loved our newly discovered efficiency in organizing the Salon, so we decided to organize the CHOP SHOP.

October:  We welcomed our newest employee, Mechelle, to our team.

In the middle of the month we found out that we had won the Best of Florida in the Craft and Hobby Store division! Once again, thank you!

 

Then, we took off and went to Houston to the Houston Quilt Market. We met up with our digital marketer son, Steven, who flew in from Ohio, to join us. Ken won a prize at one of our learning sessions.

November: At the end of November, we welcomed little Evie (Eleanor Violet) Petersen, granddaughter of Becky Tillman Petersen (my twin) and her parents are Jessica and Jeremiah Petersen. Jessica cuts fabric and answers the emails 🙂

December: We were in survival mode, while we were helping Jessica’s family during her difficult recovery from Evie’s birth and Evie’s slight complications. You all stepped up to the plate and helped with TakeThemAMeal throughout December!

We brought in Konfetti Cotton thread, as well as Tutti, which is a variegated cotton thread from Wonderfil. However, this thread has not been well received. We’re sad about this, because of all the requests for 100% cotton thread. We’ll do more promotion on it, soon, however, to make everyone aware of it.

On Dec. 14, we welcomed Diane Murtha, for our first ever trunk show on the premises! She is a fiber artist who has released her first book. She brought interesting ideas to our store.

Ken added a new shelf in the Civil War room so we can house our Civil War backings and 30’s backings in the same place!

 

We finished out the year on Dec. 28 with a huge load of 2024 SHOP HOP fabric!!


We would like to thank you all for the amazing year. It’s been full of incredible challenges, both good and bad. However, we have had wonderful support from you all, and it has helped us to face many of these, tackle them, and win!

We’re praying for a fruitful, fun and fulfilling 2024!

Rachael Woodard7 Comments