Quilts & Other Notions reopens under new owner

When Joyce Franklin opened Quilts & Other Notions in 1982, she got started with $5,000, and there were 11 other places to buy fabric in Creston.

Now, Franklin has retired as owner of Quilts & Other Notions, and Creston resident Sarah Brown has taken over. She purchased the store and reopened it as the new owner on Friday.

“We’re not changing a whole lot other than the look and freshening it up,” Brown said. “And, there’s all the same faces and people that our customers are comfortable with.”

Quilts & Other Notions, located at 209 W. Montgomery St., was originally called Knits & Other Notions when Franklin first opened it on Walnut Street in 1982. Franklin opened the store in its current location in 1984.

“I opened my store with $5,000 – don’t you wish that would happen today?” Franklin said. “I drove to Minneapolis and filled my brown station wagon with as much fabric as I could afford, which was about $5,000 worth, and opened my store.”

In 2009, Franklin bought the Quilts & Other Notions Creative Center at 201 N. Elm St.

Now, Franklin has handed over Quilts & Other Notions to Brown, but she will continue to own Piece Works Quilt Shop in Winterset, which is managed by Tony Jacobson. Franklin will also continue teaching classes – everything from beginning quilting to advanced and art quilting – and hosting retreats and classes at the creative center, which she still owns.

“It feels really good handing it off to Sarah because I know she’ll take it where it needs to go,” Franklin said. “She’ll take it to the next level, and then I’ll watch it grow more.”

For Brown, creativity has been an outlet since childhood, so when she moved to Creston from San Diego in 2012, she gravitated toward Quilts & Other Notions.

“I’ve been a lifelong, not seamstress necessarily, but maybe sewist,” Brown said. “My grandmother was a seamstress, and I grew up hand-stitching. I’ve always been a maker of sorts.”

When Brown met Franklin, they had a few things in common, including San Diego – Franklin lived there for a while – and an appreciation for art.

“She was demoing an embroidery machine that was probably ($10,000),” Brown said. “So, when I found out how much it was, I joked around saying, ‘Can I come work for you and earn the machine?’ She said, ‘Well, why don’t you just buy the fabric store and you can have all the machines?’ So, I had that as a seed in the back of my head that she would have to retire eventually.”

Sometime in 2013, Brown began seriously looking into how to fund the venture. Then, when Franklin decided to retire as owner, Brown made the decision to purchase the store.

“It’s terrifying to take on this kind of risk ... and it’s safe to say that I’ll be in debt over this a long time, but it’s such a dream,” Brown said.

Now as the owner, Brown plans to keep much of Quilts & Other Notions the same – including mostly the same staff – but has also made changes.

One change is the store hours; Brown will have the store open on Sundays for the first time. The new hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

Another change is the products the store will offer.

“Before, there used to be over 10,000 bolts of fabric,” Brown said. “Right now, there’s about 3,000 bolts, so we’re kind of keeping some of the newer, fresher stuff. We’re still keeping a wide range of types of quilting fabrics – boutiques, solids, some different novelty prints.”

The store will have new fabric lines come in each month.

“We’re going to try to move the fabric faster in and out of the store,” Brown said.

On Friday, Brown launched the store's first website: www.quiltsandnotions.com.

“A lot of our customers come from Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, so people are driving to be here, but this will allow them to see what’s in stock or maybe even order online,” Brown said. “We’ll have most of our notions, books and fabric online, and there’s a lot that’s not online that will only be available in store.”

The store will still offer the same items, including fabric, marking tools, cutting tools, needles and sewing machines. The staff will also continue to service machines in store.

“It’s going to feel very different to the customers used to coming here because there’s a lot less stuff, but they’ll be able to walk through the aisles more easily and maybe see things they haven’t noticed before,” Brown said. “And, we have new products.”

Sometime in late summer, Brown plans to begin teaching some of her own quilting classes at the store. With the recent “modern quilt movement,” Brown said the possibilities are vast for the types of classes she may teach.

“Quilting gets a bad rap that it’s grandmas’ kind of projects, but there’s a whole movement of modern quilts,” Brown said. “There are young people, and there are actually men that come and shop here and quilt, and they’re making very modern quilts that are really incredible. There are things that are definitely different than quilting that you’ll see (offered) as we grow.”

To aid people in making more modern quilts, Brown said there will still be much of the customers’ long-time favorite fabric styles, but she is also bringing in a larger variety of modern fabrics.

“I’m excited to take this business over because I think it’s so important for small communities to have small businesses,” Brown said. “ I think this is what attracts people to visit your town is when you have viable businesses offering cool stuff.”