Hey guys!

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.