Starting a Longarm Quilting Business: 45 Years of Wisdom from Jeri Soens

0:00 This is Quilting Business Success, my name is Bobby Ware, I am a member of the tech support

0:29 team here at GAML, and we have a special guest here with us today, and Jerry, I am going

0:38 to introduce you in just a minute there, Ms. Jerry, I am going to give the people a chance

0:43 to get on here.

0:44 I want to tell the people that are watching that during the course of the podcast, you

0:50 can, if you have a question to ask or a comment, you can look at the bottom of your screen

0:57 and you can click on there and submit a question, and I have not had much chance to talk to

1:06 Jerry prior to this podcast, so you guys will be getting to know her with me at the same

1:14 time.

1:15 Okay, well we are going to go ahead and start out, we got a few people watching right now.

1:22 We have with us Jerry Sowens, am I pronouncing that right, Sowens?

1:28 Yes, and it's pronounced that, just like sewing, Sowens, the old Sowens.

1:33 When I first saw your name, I said that's great, Sowens, yeah, that goes right along

1:37 with it.

1:38 Well Jerry, let's just get to know you a little bit, where are you located, where is home

1:45 for you?

1:46 I am in Colorado, in the northeast corner, north of Denver, or east of Denver, up at

1:55 Sterling area, in the northeast corner, not as far as Nebraska, Julesburg, up in that

2:01 little corner of the world.

2:03 Okay, and is the place where you're located, is it more urban or more rural?

2:09 It's very rural, dry land farmers.

2:15 Okay, gotcha, gotcha, so how long have you been doing long-arming, Jerry?

2:22 I have started, I started doing long-arm quilting in 1976, I got my first quilter.

2:30 1976?

2:31 Yes.

2:32 And they actually had long-arm quilting, it existed back then, huh?

2:38 They did, nothing like we have today, for sure, but it was the starting place, and came

2:44 out of Kansas City, and it was a machine with no designs on it, no stitch regulator on it,

2:55 just a flat, no feed dog, just a flat plate, and it was on and off, they'd taken everything,

3:03 all the inners out, and so it would be on and off, and wherever you moved the machine

3:09 is where it would sew.

3:11 So was it, was it basically like a sewing machine, mounted on a table?

3:17 And yes, an industrial machine, so it had a long throat, weighed about 90 pounds.

3:24 Okay, gotcha.

3:25 It was heavy, but same concept of what we're doing, what you guys are doing with the gamow,

3:31 but just no, no fancy stuff on it.

3:36 Okay, and so how did you, how did you start out getting into long-arming?

3:42 How did you discover it?

3:47 Actually it was at Cheyenne Frontier Days, they had a booth set up, and you could go

3:53 over and practice sewing on this machine, and I sent all my kids and my husband over

4:00 to the rodeo, and I said, you guys go, I'm going to stay by this machine, and every time

4:05 someone would leave, then I'd get back on the machine, and then somebody else would

4:09 come and I'd get back on the machine, and I fell in love with it, and I had to, this

4:17 is kind of a funny story, I had to convince my husband that it was worth my time and energy

4:24 and effort to buy this machine.

4:28 At that particular time, it was $2,500, so I had to take a loan out from him, I had to

4:35 take a loan out from him to pay him back to buy my machine, because it was so funny, so

4:42 I just got started, and I practiced, we had a lot of mattress pads, before I finally figured

4:49 out that I could really keep my technique and my speed at the same tempo, and my designs

4:57 at the rate so that the stitch, because they had no stitch regulator, so I needed to be

5:04 able to hold the machines at a tempo to where I could get 10 to 12, or 14 to 16 stitches

5:11 an inch, and make them look pretty.

5:15 And what year was this again, 70, 76, 76, bicentennial, yes it was, okay, and you started

5:25 out doing mattress pads?

5:28 Yes, with sheets, you know, and then of course back then, we didn't have the really nice

5:34 backings that we have today, so we did sheets for the backings, which worked, but it wasn't,

5:42 it's all we could get our hands on to make it big enough, but it was a great thing, because

5:47 a twin sheet would be a full, or yeah, a twin sheet could be a full quilt, and a full sheet

5:54 could be a queen quilt, and then the fit-on sheet, you could make it into a baby quilt,

5:59 so you didn't waste anything, okay, yeah.

6:04 Are you on a laptop computer right now?

6:07 I am.

6:09 You might want to move your top part down just a little bit, so we can see you a little

6:16 bit better, we're just seeing the top part of you, let's see, let's see, I'm not sure

6:22 where I am.

6:24 Like if you pull the top part of your laptop down a little bit, you can, yeah, that's perfect,

6:31 that's probably seeing my background, yeah, yeah, which is fine.

6:38 Let me ask you this, Jerry, when you first got that first old-fashioned long arm, did

6:45 you get it specifically to do a business, or was it for personal use, or what was that?

6:53 It was both, I thought if I could get used to it enough, I would take quilts in and quilt

7:01 them for people, as I was visiting and talking prior to that, I heard many people say when

7:07 you get together, I wish we had a way of getting our quilts quilted, our tops quilted, instead

7:13 of having to send them off, and we were in the Denver area at the time, and so I thought,

7:20 well, I bet I could get good enough to do that, and which I did, I was very proud of

7:25 myself that I was sending quilts from California to Kansas to New York, people would get my

7:32 name from a relative or a friend, and it just kind of word of mouth, I never advertised

7:39 it, it came to me.

7:41 Okay, okay, and so as the years went by, did you go through several different machines,

7:50 or did you kind of keep the same one for a long time?

7:54 I had that same machine until I bought my Gammill.

8:01 Okay, and when did you get the Gammill?

8:04 About eight years ago.

8:06 Okay, so 2016 maybe, somewhere around there?

8:12 Uh-huh.

8:13 Okay, and so what type of Gammill did you go with at that time?

8:21 At that time, I just, I've got, my friend that introduced me to your company, we'd went

8:28 to, I think it was either Boulder, I believe it was, and I got the one that was just still

8:34 freestyle.

8:35 I just wasn't sure if I wanted computerized yet, I just, I enjoyed the freestyle so much

8:42 and had...

8:43 But you had a lot of years with it, hand-guided, yeah.

8:46 Yes, and I had created a lot of my own patterns, God just has blessed me with, I could see

8:52 a pattern on a wall or a design, and in my mind, print it two or three times and then

8:58 come home and make it.

9:00 Okay, so you had a gifting there.

9:03 I do, and so I enjoyed the freestyling because I could do some really great patterns.

9:11 And do you still have hand-guided today, or?

9:14 I do, I have both.

9:16 Okay, did you get another Gammill, or?

9:22 No, I upgraded, I believe it was to the Statler.

9:27 Okay.

9:29 So I can do both.

9:30 Okay, and when did you retrofit to a Statler?

9:35 About four years ago.

9:37 Okay, okay, so you still have the same Gammill that you started with, it's just been upgraded

9:42 in the process.

9:43 Yes.

9:44 Okay.

9:45 And I like it.

9:49 And you've been pretty happy with your Gammill?

9:51 Yes, oh I love it, I love it.

9:55 When you first got your Gammill, was it non-stitch regulated, or was it a plus machine?

10:04 Non-stitch regulator.

10:05 Okay, okay, so you have come a long way from the very beginning in 1976.

10:14 That may be the earliest person that I've talked to with actually doing long arming

10:18 since I've been doing this podcast, so that's really awesome.

10:26 So when you started, let me ask you, as I told you before that a lot of our target audience

10:32 and people that are watching you right now are people that are either in the, a lot of

10:41 them are in the beginning stages of maybe starting a quilting business, and some of

10:46 them maybe are thinking about starting a quilting business, and some of them have been doing

10:52 it for a long time.

10:54 But when you first started, did you know that there was enough long arm business available

11:03 where you were, or, tell us a little bit about that journey.

11:07 Well, when I started, I wasn't sure what the market would be like, but I enjoyed sewing

11:17 and quilting, and we'd hand tie, you know, with the yarn and all of that kind of stuff.

11:23 And I just figured if you had a product that you could show people, that you could do it

11:29 in a timely manner, that they would prefer not to hand tie it with the yarn on the clothes

11:35 line.

11:36 And once I made a few of them and I took them to the fair, it just, like I said, I just,

11:45 my name got out there and people started bringing me their things, and I had-

11:50 A little bit about that, the process of growing your business when you started out, did they

11:57 have any quilting guilds around where you were, or was it the fairs, or how was that?

12:05 Mostly fairs.

12:06 I have yet to belong to a quilting guild.

12:11 I attended them and done classes for them, quilting classes, half-square triangles, those

12:21 kinds of things.

12:23 And I'll bring samples of what I've made with my designs on them, and I now have a business

12:29 card and a cost card that I've developed, and I just lay it out there, and if they like

12:36 it, great.

12:37 If they don't, that's okay, too.

12:40 Okay, and so mostly your growth has been, your exposure has been at these fairs, huh?

12:48 Mm-hmm.

12:49 Fairs, uh-huh.

12:50 Okay.

12:51 So, during this time, you mentioned you were involved in the ministry, was that your primary

13:07 occupation, aside from quilting, through the last, how long has it been since 76?

13:16 45 years.

13:17 45 years.

13:18 Or more.

13:19 Okay.

13:20 And so, you've been in the, are you a pastor, or?

13:26 Yes, I just retired two weeks ago.

13:30 Okay, you just retired.

13:33 Just, yes.

13:35 Okay.

13:36 So, okay, so during the last 45 years, you've had both of these parts of your life side

13:45 by side, you're doing them both at the same time, right?

13:49 Yes.

13:50 Mm-hmm.

13:51 Okay.

13:52 So, over the years, how many hours would you say you average, putting into quilting, like

14:06 per week, you know, was it a full-time job for you, or what?

14:13 Wow, that's a hard question.

14:16 That's a long span of time, too.

14:19 Yes, it is.

14:22 The nicest part about quilting is that you can kind of set your own hours.

14:29 And if you know that now, you can look at the patterns, and you know the computer is

14:36 going to do a certain pattern, and you can time every row, and it's going to do nine

14:41 rows, you know that's going to take you an hour and 22 minutes, or thereabouts.

14:47 Thereabouts, yeah.

14:50 I know.

14:52 And so, it's kind of nice, because if I have a couple of extra hours at night, I can go

14:57 down and get a quilt put on, and have it quilted and off the machine.

15:02 Now, freestyle, I could put one on, start it, leave, come back and pick it up, and do

15:10 whatever.

15:12 So, to put a time limit on it, I think is a little harder, because of so many designs

15:20 that we have.

15:22 Right.

15:23 And it's just been the last four years that you've been doing computerized, right?

15:29 Yes.

15:31 So, right now, what would you say is your ratio of edge-to-edge versus hand-guided,

15:42 and stuff like that?

15:45 Time-wise, you mean?

15:48 Well, like, both.

15:50 Both time-wise, and how many computerized quilts versus the hand-guided.

16:01 Oh, the computerized ones, they're not only more timely, but they're prettier.

16:13 Okay.

16:14 I'm limited on, unless you have a poly thing underneath, where you can follow a pattern

16:20 or something.

16:21 My brain doesn't work that way, so I couldn't follow those.

16:24 But people that can, do beautiful work with that.

16:28 But doing it computerized, I love the fact that I can do a starter row, and I can be

16:37 making binding at the same time, because I'm right there.

16:40 I can be doing something else.

16:42 I'm not attached to the sewing machine.

16:44 I'm right there, so I multitask during that time.

16:49 Maybe laying out a pattern, or cutting up squares to do fat quarters, or something.

16:54 So, I'm not just stuck there.

16:56 Where hand-guiding, you're right there.

16:59 That time has to be utilized just for that.

17:03 So, I hardly do any freestyle anymore.

17:08 I'm spoiled.

17:11 That computerized, that Statler will spoil you.

17:14 Oh my goodness, yes, yes.

17:18 If I can, a programming thing.

17:22 I've got somebody asking, how can we recommend a quilter to be interviewed?

17:28 And some of my co-workers that are watching right now, if you can send me a note on here,

17:34 so I can give accurate information on that.

17:37 And I'll answer that question as soon as I get an answer from some of my co-workers here.

17:43 All right, so Jerry, can I ask you, do you charge by the hour, by the square inch?

17:51 How does that work for your business?

17:54 I go by the square inch.

17:57 Right now, I'm 0.25 a square inch.

18:01 Now, if I do minky on the back, I go 0.3.

18:07 Minky is harder, and it's harder on the machine.

18:10 It takes a lot longer to clean the machine when I'm done.

18:13 And so, I go a little higher.

18:15 I didn't at first, and found that I'm doing a lot more maintenance after than what it encouraged.

18:24 And so, I charge more now for that.

18:27 Yeah, and with the people that I've talked to on this podcast,

18:32 it is well worth it to charge what your work is worth, and don't undersell yourself on that.

18:42 I've heard that from countless people that we've interviewed on here.

18:46 So, Jerry, do you know about how many quilts that you are making per year?

18:56 What kind of volume are you putting out?

18:59 Well, I'll go back two years.

19:02 Two years ago, I did 256 quilt projects that year.

19:09 I'm only up to 80 this year, but I've also been in the process of getting things ready for retirement.

19:15 So, I'm kind of slow.

19:18 Yeah, and that's one of the advantages of this type of business.

19:22 If you have other things that you need to take care of, you can take care of those, can't you?

19:27 Yes, you can, and you can schedule.

19:29 Well, I got two quilt orders today, and I know I'm going to be gone.

19:34 And I said, well, I try to have my turnaround time really quickly within a week.

19:41 I know that's fast, but people have waited three months working on their top.

19:46 And if they have to wait another three months, they start looking for other people.

19:51 True, very true.

19:53 Yes, and so I won't take a quilt.

19:56 I'd rather get it to them earlier than what I predicted.

20:00 rather than later. So, I'll say to them, you know, it might be 10 days before I get this completed,

20:06 but then I can call them and get it done within a week.

20:10 Okay, okay. And I'm sorry, let me step aside to this one more time.

20:16 If anyone is looking for someone to be interviewed on the podcast, Holly has told me that they can

20:22 send an email to contact at gamel.com. So, just send an email to contact at gamel.com and they

20:31 can do that. So, Jerry, do you, in your business, do you offer any other services like binding,

20:41 piecing, backings, anything like that? Yes. I have a friend or a person that will do

20:51 hand stitching, binding. And then I charge if I have to piece the backing together, I charge so

20:58 much a seam because it's time. And if they don't want to take the time to do it, if I have to press

21:04 it, I mean really press it, I charge for that. Okay. I feel like the art that we've gotten with

21:14 sewing and the techniques that we've been able to learn over the years just doesn't come free to us

21:20 either. You know, you guys didn't give me my machine. I had to buy it and I need to be able

21:26 to keep it maintained. And if I don't charge people to do that, then when the oil needs

21:32 changing, I don't have the money. So, I think we have to charge for what we're doing and be proud

21:38 of what we're doing. Otherwise, we won't show it off. We won't show people if we're not,

21:44 if it's not something I would want, I don't want to put it out there.

21:49 Yes. And for the people that are watching, like somebody that's just starting out, Jerry,

21:59 would you have any advice to give them as far as how to set their pricing?

22:06 What would you have to say to them about that? I would start out with, you know,

22:15 I would start out with 2.5 per square inch. And as they're sewing and say they're not, you know,

22:22 gosh, this isn't my best work. I'm sorry. I made a couple of mistakes. Then give them a discount.

22:29 You don't say, you know, I'll give you $10 for your next quilt top.

22:34 I have gift certificates that I hand out and say, you know, this is worth $10 on your next quilt.

22:40 Many times people will bring you the quilt tops and it has that, I call it a river edge,

22:47 where it's so wavy. And sometimes you just can't get that tucked in as nice as you would like to.

22:55 If they complain, you know, wow, that isn't how I thought it was going to look. I explained to them

23:00 what happened. I said, but I would certainly give you some credit for that if you're not satisfied.

23:06 I don't tell them ahead of time. I let them look at the product and decide for themselves.

23:11 But I don't want them going away angry either or upset. But then that opens up an opportunity to

23:18 have another class on how to get rid of that wave on the edging of your quilt.

23:26 Yes. And as far as the per square inch charge, it's going to be different in different

23:35 areas of the country, you know. And so, yeah, and the principles that you're talking about,

23:42 I think a lot of quilters would really agree with. You charge what you're worth and, you know,

23:49 if something isn't quite right with a particular quilt, you make it right, you know,

23:56 in one way or the other. So, do you have any stories of, like, any bad experiences with

24:07 anything that happened with any customers or anything like that that you can think of?

24:13 Yes. It was a lesson well learned. And so, it made me change my disclaimer.

24:22 Oh.

24:24 I do have a disclaimer on my, it's like a pamphlet and what I want the quilt to look like. You know,

24:30 a flat quilt is a happy quilt. And if it comes to me and it's all bundled up on the back,

24:37 it's not going to quilt pretty. Or if there's four or five seams coming into a corner and they say,

24:42 oh, my points didn't match very well. I look it over before I start. When they come to me,

24:50 I have a checklist and I ask them, is there anything in particular that they want? Any design?

24:58 What is it they're looking for? I want their project to be their project. And so, I go through

25:03 this little questionnaire thing with them that's on my disclaimer. But anyway, so a customer brought

25:10 me a really cute baby top. It had unicorns on it. It was just adorable. And the back was four

25:20 pieces of fleece sewed together, four different colors, four squares, with one great big seam

25:29 right in the center. And she wanted me to use that. And I said, I am really sorry. I can't

25:39 do that. I said, first of all, you're going to have just one big ball of stuff right here,

25:44 because the machine won't sew over eight seams and be nice and smooth for you. So,

25:53 she wasn't happy with me. And she said, well, I want you to do it anyway. And I had her sign

25:58 a paper saying that I did explain to her the results that could happen.

26:03 Okay. And so, what was the difference between your disclaimer before and after?

26:11 That I have the right now to refuse any project if I don't feel I can do a proper job,

26:19 in my opinion. And I didn't have that before. Otherwise, I could have showed her this is my

26:24 policy. And I didn't have it. And I do now. Okay. And it's really, I think, important for us to

26:32 protect ourselves first. So, anyway, long story short, when I got done, she was not happy.

26:38 And she squabbled and kicked and squabbled. And I gave it to her free. And I knew that's

26:44 what was going to happen. And so, I don't do that again. A valuable lesson learned there.

26:52 Oh, very much so. Yes. I have a question from one of the viewers right now.

27:01 Does your suggestion of 2.5 cents per square inch include thread and setup,

27:06 or do you charge additional for those? It includes the setup and white thread.

27:13 If they want a colored thread or the variegated thread, I charge per bobbin.

27:20 Okay. So, Jerry, looking back on your many years of doing this, can you think of

27:31 either one or maybe more than one items that may have been

27:36 some of the hardest part of growing your business?

27:43 Or some difficulties that you may have encountered in the process?

27:51 Oh, goodness.

27:53 Did you have any difficulty gaining new customers, or has that been a fairly steady thing

28:02 with your going to the fairs and things like that?

28:05 You know, I actually, I turn business away.

28:12 When you display different quilts, or if you even set up a booth at the fair or anything like that

28:18 and have samples, and that's how I kind of got started, was at the fair with a booth with different samples.

28:25 And they take your card, and they take a picture or whatever. It doesn't take very long.

28:32 They tell their friends, and I tell them if they do a referral, you know, I'll give them a discount.

28:39 And it's just kind of marketing a few things in a different way.

28:45 If they don't, I do buy my backing by the bolt, and I have many different colors,

28:51 because that seems to be the hardest for people to buy pieces and put it together.

28:56 And I let them know that rather than having one or two seams in there,

29:01 we can have backing without all those seams. And it just makes it prettier.

29:07 So I do have that. I have many colors of thread.

29:11 I've had to call for a couple of times for support from Gammill, which has been awesome.

29:16 And they just walked me right through something I'm doing, because I wasn't sure.

29:21 It was so new, the computerized, but it was so simple once I walked through it.

29:27 I mean, it was so easy, because they had me right on my screen and on my computer, on my machine,

29:33 and walked me right through everything. And it was so awesome. It was like, oh,

29:37 and walked me right through everything. And it was so awesome. It was like, oh, yes, I like this.

29:42 And so the couple of times that I felt insecure with what I was doing, they made it very simple.

29:50 Yes. And I will tell people who are watching, if you go to Gammill.com,

29:57 there is an opportunity. You can get sessions with educators and talk with them about

30:07 Creative Studio or different things that you may be having difficulties with.

30:12 If you have something that doesn't seem to be functioning right,

30:15 you can always schedule a call with us on Gammill.com and tech support,

30:20 and we can usually walk you through what needs to be done to fix those things.

30:28 One of the questions we have on here is, what is a change in technology that makes it easier

30:34 than when you started? And obviously, you got the Statler retrofit on your machine four years ago.

30:45 Can you share a little bit about what a difference that has made between the

30:50 previous kind of quilting you did, and now you primarily do the computerized?

30:56 Oh, it's given me diversity for one thing with patterns.

31:02 I could not make dinosaurs. I could maybe write happy birthday or bow wow with the freestyle.

31:11 But I did, we have bulldogs is our school mascot. And I was able to write, make a bulldog quilt

31:23 and put dog paws and bones all over it. I mean, talk about it. It's sold at an auction here for $1,200.

31:31 So, you know, I donate it and the school makes or the kids make that much money on it. Because

31:36 and that's what they said, look at it even has puppy prints. So it's those things that make it

31:42 so fun. I mean, you can just but I am going to a couple of your classes coming up because I know

31:49 there's more that this machine I have can do. I've just not allowed it to do it. And so I'm

31:56 coming to those classes because I want to learn more. And you're going to the Quilting with

32:00 Confidence? I am. Okay, wonderful. Which one will you be going to? The Colorado Springs and then I

32:08 signed up for the one in Pierre, South Dakota. Okay, you're going to two of them. I am. I want

32:14 to learn more about this machine. Yes, and for the people watching, I would highly, highly

32:21 recommend Quilting with Confidence. It has grown every year and it's a great learning

32:29 opportunity. You can choose whatever level that you feel you're at as far as

32:36 choosing of your classes. And not only that, there's such camaraderie with all the other

32:42 quilters. And without exception, everyone that I talked to that has gone to Quilting with

32:50 Confidence, they just love it. And they always say, I'm definitely going back again next year.

32:56 So I'm glad to hear, Jerry, that you're going to that and you will absolutely love it.

33:04 Oh, go ahead. Another fun thing though about the patterns is that some people like

33:13 it stitched close together, more antique-ish looking, and others want it spread out a little

33:20 bit. And with the computerized, you can look at the screen and look at your quilt

33:28 and measure the screen to it to see where that pattern is going to fit. If it's a repeat from

33:32 edge to edge and think, oh, that's a little bit too far apart. Let's scrunch it in just a little

33:38 bit to almost make it perfect of a line rather than an overlap of a design. And that's

33:44 what's fun, is you can just kind of play with it and make it the way you want. Yeah, you can still,

33:52 I mean, you have so much more accuracy and things like that that you're talking about available. But

33:58 at the same time, you can still exercise your artistic side and

34:04 make it your own style. So let me ask you one thing, Jerry,

34:13 during this process of quilting, who would you say has been your biggest cheerleader or

34:19 support system during this? Oh my goodness, my dog? No. Well, hey, you're one of those, I know.

34:34 What do you mean? Tell me what you mean by that. Well, if you had a particular person or

34:41 group of people in your life that have been an encouragement to you in the quilting,

34:49 or do you have any people that are, you know, like I kind of mentioned the camaraderie thing

34:55 in this particular part of your life? I would have to say the Quilts of Valor.

35:02 There was five of us that would get together and make quilts for the Quilts of Valor,

35:09 and they were so, so supportive, and that we were able to do, the time we did this for six years,

35:18 and did 185 quilts for Quilts of Valor, just us. And it was an ongoing, I got another one done,

35:27 will you get it quilted for me? I got another one done, will you quilt it for me? And just that

35:33 enthusiasm to make you want to do more and learn more, and just to see the results of it when it

35:41 was all said and done. And so many different ones that, yeah, they were my cheering place.

35:48 And then we'd take them either to the Front Range Fort Collins area or something, and they'd look

35:53 at our quilts and say, wow, look at the great job they're doing. And I'm going, you have to have a

35:57 gamel. That's great, that's great. And you're not in a quilting guild. I'm not. I go to teach

36:08 classes for them. I've done a couple of trunk shows for people. I did, I've done a trunk show,

36:17 or quilt show, whatever you want to call it, and showed them the very first quilt I made

36:22 to what I'm doing today. And of course, there's 250 degrees difference. And it's amazing. They'll

36:29 go, oh, wow, you did that? I said, yeah, we don't look at that one, though. We just look at these

36:34 new ones. But it's a good reminder to see where you've been and where you came from, because

36:40 that's all we had then. Yeah, and so let me ask you, in your area, your part of the country,

36:49 do they have very many quilting guilds? They do. There's four or five different ones here.

36:57 I do get their quilts because they know me, you know, when they need them done. And then

37:02 American Cancer Society, I get a lot of theirs. But there's four or five long arm quilters

37:09 of our area. I'm the only one that has a Gamel. They've all have a different brand. And

37:16 I'm not saying they're not nice. I just think mine are nicer.

37:23 I got you. I got you. You know, their attention will be off. The fact that you can

37:28 have every bobbin, make sure that the tension is right, is absolutely awesome. I couldn't do that

37:35 before. I'd be pulling out threads thinking, oh, what's happened to my bobbin? And, you know,

37:40 the fact that we can do that and make the bobbin thread just perfect. Mine is set at 190. I make

37:46 sure every one of my bobbins are set at that. That's wonderful. So, and I do have a comment

37:55 from Lisa is also going to be at the Colorado Quilting with Confidence. She said she's going

38:02 to introduce herself to you. So, you look for Lisa. She'll be trying to find you.

38:10 So, Jerry, let me, you've been doing this for a long time, longer than maybe anybody that I've

38:18 yet interviewed. Do you, can you tell us what kind of impact the, this quilting, this quilting

38:28 business, as far as the freedom of your time and schedule and maybe the quilting money,

38:41 what kind of impact have these, has this type of lifestyle

38:48 made in your life during, over these last 45 years?

38:53 Oh gosh, you know, quilting for me is like, it's my happy place. I can be, like I said,

39:04 up until two weeks ago, I had the stress of oh so many things, but when I'd come home and I know

39:10 that my quilter was down there and ready for me to put on a quilt, it was like therapy. It is the

39:16 best therapy for me. And the sound of that machine is like the hummingbird in the air. I mean, I

39:22 absolutely love going to my happy place. And if you get into it and you just, you think, gosh, I can,

39:31 I can play with this, or I can make that design, or maybe I want to make it go the other direction,

39:36 or, I mean, you just have so much freedom and creativity. And when we get creative, our thought

39:43 system goes from what maybe might've been a little negative to something really positive.

39:49 And I think the greatest thing really truly is when somebody will pick up their quilt and they're

39:53 like, it's prettier than I ever thought it could be. I mean, it's so rewarding that there's

40:00 so happy because you took the time and patience to measure it just right.

40:07 Yeah, yeah, that's, and I hear that, that's a universal, that, that emotion that you're

40:13 describing and that, that, that sense of rewarding is universal throughout

40:21 all the quilters that I've talked to. That's, that's one of the best parts of it.

40:26 I wanted to, one thing I didn't ask you is your, your business, do you operate,

40:34 do you have a shop or do you operate out of your home with your business?

40:38 Well, I operate out of my home and I'm blessed to have the last name is Soans because my quilting

40:46 is Soans Sews Quilts and, but I spell it S-E-W, Soans Sew Quilts and I work out of my basement.

40:59 Prior to my husband passing, he had built me shelves for fabric and shelves for thread. I is,

41:07 it's like a, a room designed for a quilter. It is, he would put things in at my level,

41:15 every one of us have a table level that we need to work at, not too high, not too low,

41:20 so you don't hurt your back. And I love it so much, really, truly, Bobby, is that

41:27 after Ron passed away, I took one of the bedrooms and I turned it into a learning center.

41:34 And so, I have five to seven young girls that come twice a month and they're learning how to

41:41 make quilts. Oh, that's fantastic. Oh, it's so fun. I have five alike sewing machines for them

41:48 and so they can troubleshoot and they are making quilt tops. They've made quilted table runners and

41:55 it's just, it's exciting to watch them mushroom into something that I love. So, yeah. How long

42:04 has it been, if I may ask, since your husband passed? It'll be five years this August.

42:11 Gotcha. Well, I'm sure he would be very proud to see that you've been continuing on

42:18 and I can tell that you're just, you're a motivated person. Before we completely wrap up,

42:26 and I'm going to give you a chance at the end, I want you to tell people how they can

42:31 get a hold of you or get in contact with you, but I want to ask you one question.

42:35 Since you've been doing this for 45 years and there's been a lot of changes during that time,

42:42 do you think that during this day and age in 2024 that long arm quilting is still something that

42:52 somebody could have a successful business at? What are your feelings about that?

42:57 I think it's still going to grow. You know, at one time, all we did for sewing was

43:04 textiles and dresses and shirts and things like that, but now quilting has become

43:12 not just a hobby, it's a passion. And if you can put all of that passion into a pattern or into

43:21 a design or into something, somebody else is going to feel that same love when they not only get the

43:26 quilt, but when they get the quilt finished, because they put their heart and soul into it.

43:31 And the beautiful fabrics that we have today, and you match that with beautiful stitching,

43:36 it's just, it magnifies it, you know, and it's a feeling of success or feeling of accomplishment.

43:42 And people, babies, one of my bigger businesses is baby quilts. I'll have baby quilts on hand

43:52 when people come say, oh man, I heard I'm going to have a new niece or a new nephew. I said,

43:56 well, I still have some baby quilts. And I sell baby quilts along with what I'm doing. And I keep

44:02 a backup of it, boy or girl, you know, puppy dogs or princess or whatever, because people will,

44:12 they love baby quilts and the receiver of the baby quilt. You can't buy a baby quilt that is so

44:19 personal from a department store that you can make. Everybody loves a baby quilt. Nieces and

44:29 nephews love their quilt. My grandson, who is very, very tall, says, Grahams, next time you

44:34 make my quilt, next time, right? I mean, so how many does he have, right? And he says, so next

44:39 time when you make it longer, I'm getting taller. You can't buy that, you know, you make that.

44:47 You make that. So, yeah. I love it. And I can, yeah, and that answer that you gave, I can tell,

44:57 is from your heart. I have one other business-related question. Patty has asked,

45:05 Jerry, are all your quilts done with an edge-to-edge pattern or do you also do, I know you

45:11 touched on this, but do you also do custom quilting? And if so, do you charge differently

45:17 for the custom quilting? Oh my, I have done cut and paste where I just put it in blocks,

45:26 but that's why I'm going to creative sewing. I want to learn how to do the borders better. I'm

45:33 not comfortable making the borders like I've seen done, and I don't want to do that on somebody's

45:41 project that I'm not comfortable with. So, I would have to charge more for that custom

45:47 designing because it's going to take longer and timely, but up until then, I still do edge-to-edge

45:56 because I don't know how to do the other, but I'm going to learn.

45:59 Okay, so there will probably be a lot more custom work coming out of your shop. I hope so.

46:08 Well, Jerry, it's been such a pleasure talking to you, and I really do appreciate it, and I

46:15 appreciate your heart. Can you tell the people listening, do you have a way that they can get

46:24 in touch with you or a place that they can see your work or anything? I don't have anything on

46:31 a web page or anything like that. I can send them pictures of some of my projects on my phone

46:38 if they would like, but the best way to get a hold of me is probably my email,

46:45 and they're welcome to have that. Would you like me to spell that out so they can get that?

46:51 Yeah, go ahead and share that.

46:53 It's all lower caps, and it's paster, p-a-s-t-o-r, jerry, with a j, e-r-i, dot soens,

47:06 s-o-e-n-s, at gmail.com. Okay, well, Jerry, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure,

47:21 and anytime we can do anything else for you, you give us a call here at GAML,

47:27 and until next time, we're gonna say goodbye, okay? And vice versa. If I can help someone

47:34 work through some of their things, I would love to, because that's what it's all about,

47:38 working together for the better cause. Yes, yes. Thank you so much, Jerry,

47:44 and you have a great night. And you also. Thank you very much. Okay, bye-bye.