How Kristi Droese Built Her Longarm Quilting Business in Wisconsin

0:00 I'd like to welcome everybody to Quilting Business Success.

0:27 My name is Bobby Ware.

0:28 I work in tech support here at Gammill.

0:32 And we have our special guest today, Christy,

0:35 how do you pronounce your last name?

0:36 Droz.

0:37 Droz, Christy Droz.

0:40 Well, Christy, we are glad to have you here.

0:42 I didn't have any pre-show time to talk to you,

0:47 so we're just going to go cold turkey here.

0:52 So Christy, let's just start out by where are you located?

0:57 Where do you live?

0:58 Outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1:02 Yeah.

1:03 Up there, are you guys, do you guys

1:05 get any summertime up there?

1:07 Does it get warm at all?

1:09 Oh, yes.

1:10 It does.

1:12 Well, it seems like this summer in particular,

1:15 I've been talking to people, Canada, British Columbia,

1:19 everywhere, and it'll be 100 degrees

1:21 sometimes in northern places.

1:24 So you guys are not being spared any of the hot weather.

1:29 No.

1:29 We're glad to have you here.

1:32 So our target audience here for this podcast

1:38 is a lot of it is people who are either starting quilting

1:43 businesses or in quilting business

1:46 or thinking about doing it.

1:48 And sometimes it's encouraging and informational

1:54 for them to talk to somebody who

1:57 has walked at least a little bit of that path ahead of them.

2:00 So that's what we're going to do today.

2:03 Christy, how long have you been long arming?

2:08 Probably since about 2000.

2:11 Oh, since 2000, you've been long arming since then.

2:14 Yeah, my first Gammill didn't have

2:16 stitch regulator or anything.

2:19 OK, wonderful.

2:21 So you're a veteran at this stuff.

2:24 Well, I don't, yeah.

2:27 So what made you decide to start long arming?

2:30 Can you tell us a little bit of that story?

2:32 Well, I started quilting in the late 90s,

2:35 and I figured if I was going to get any quilts finished,

2:38 I'd better get a long arm.

2:40 OK.

2:41 And how did you get exposed?

2:44 Did you see people doing long arming, or how did you?

2:48 My neighbor that would quilt with me,

2:51 she showed me an ad or something in the catalog.

2:54 And so we drove to Gammill and talked to them

3:00 and a few other places.

3:01 And we just thought Gammill was the best, and we bought one.

3:05 OK.

3:06 And that was, what did you say, 2000?

3:10 Yeah, it's around 2000.

3:12 OK.

3:13 So I don't have anything on my machine

3:15 except the machine, the first one.

3:18 Yeah.

3:18 So you did some hardcore research.

3:22 You actually drove to different places.

3:24 Yes, my husband and I did, yep.

3:26 And you came down here to West Plains, Missouri

3:29 and checked out the Gammels also.

3:31 Yes.

3:32 All right.

3:34 Now, when you first started, when

3:36 you got your first Gammill long arm,

3:39 so you just started right off the bat with a Gammill, huh?

3:43 Yes.

3:43 OK.

3:44 I don't think there was too many other ones,

3:47 not that were quality like the Gammill.

3:51 I got you.

3:53 So when you got your machine, was it at that point

3:57 were you specifically getting it for business

4:01 or for personal use, or what was that?

4:03 At that point, it was personal use.

4:06 OK.

4:07 And so what was it about the Gammill that you,

4:12 why did you choose to go with Gammill?

4:14 It's quality.

4:16 It was built to last.

4:19 Some of the other ones were just,

4:22 you could see where they're add this on or add that on

4:25 and stuff, and I didn't want something like that

4:29 because it wasn't the quality, the hard iron,

4:33 and everything was meant to heavy duty.

4:38 I hear that from almost everybody I've talked to.

4:40 They like the, they say it was just solid.

4:44 Was your husband Carl with you when you went out,

4:49 did all this traveling?

4:51 Yep.

4:52 OK.

4:53 And so you said you started with a hand-guided machine.

4:59 What, it was, was it the, did it have stitch regulation or?

5:04 No, they didn't have that at that time.

5:07 OK, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

5:10 Yeah, no, I had nothing on that except it went.

5:14 OK, OK.

5:16 And do you still have that one today?

5:19 I do, and that's the go-to all the time

5:21 because it just worked so well yet.

5:24 OK.

5:26 Is, have you ever had that one upgraded or is it still a non?

5:30 No, I talked to him at one point a few years ago

5:33 and they said it would just cost too much to upgrade it.

5:37 So we got another one with the stitch regulator.

5:41 OK, OK.

5:42 So I used that one and then this last six,

5:46 oh, a few months ago I got the Statler Stitcher on one.

5:49 So I have three of them.

5:51 OK, so you're relatively recent with the,

5:55 with the computerized, huh?

5:56 Yes, I'm coming to the classes in Minneapolis

5:59 and Des Moines to learn.

6:02 Working with confidence, huh?

6:03 Yep.

6:04 OK.

6:05 Well, I think you will absolutely love that.

6:08 Have you ever been to Quilting with Confidence before?

6:11 No.

6:12 I think you'll absolutely love it.

6:14 The, everyone that I've talked to about Quilting

6:17 with Confidence, they just absolutely love it.

6:20 I'm sure.

6:21 You'll learn a lot and there's also

6:23 just such a sense of camaraderie with all

6:25 the other quilters there.

6:27 Oh, I'm looking forward to that.

6:28 Good, well, I'm glad to hear you're going to that.

6:31 So, so you bought your machine to start out with

6:35 for personal use.

6:38 When did you, when did you start doing a business?

6:41 Not too long after that.

6:44 You know, basically I learned the machine, how it works.

6:47 And there was no training at that time.

6:51 The person came in, set it up, showed me how it worked

6:54 and left.

6:55 So I had to do all that myself.

6:57 But once I got confidence enough,

7:01 there were so many people that wanted it.

7:04 So you were, you had to be pretty much self-taught

7:07 there in the beginning.

7:08 Yes.

7:10 All right.

7:11 Oh, Lisa, I just got a note from Lisa.

7:13 She says she'll be there to see you.

7:16 Lisa, if you're watching, you just, you look,

7:19 you look for Christy, you find her.

7:21 She'll tell you that she saw you on the podcast.

7:23 That's great to hear.

7:27 So you started the business.

7:32 Oh, and I did want to say that as far as that learning

7:35 the machine, it's a lot different nowadays.

7:39 Because nowadays, for the people that are watching,

7:42 there is, if you purchase a Gammill from Gammill,

7:47 you get free new owner training and everything.

7:50 And even if you haven't purchased it from us,

7:52 you can purchase the video courses.

7:55 And there's just, there's hours upon hours of step-by-step

7:58 that tells people how to do that, so.

8:00 And YouTube is really good.

8:01 You have a lot on YouTube.

8:03 Yes.

8:04 I've learned a lot now on that.

8:06 A ton of stuff on YouTube.

8:07 Yep.

8:11 Okay.

8:12 Oh yeah.

8:13 I got a note from some of my higher ups here.

8:16 If you're interested in quilting with confidence,

8:18 go to gammill.com forward slash qwc2024.

8:26 gammill.com forward slash qwc2024.

8:31 All right.

8:32 And if anybody needs me to repeat that later,

8:33 just send me a message on the bottom here.

8:38 All right, Christy.

8:40 So how did you, can you tell me a little bit about this,

8:46 the path of when you decided to run a business?

8:53 I mean, how long did it take

8:54 till you decided to go that path?

8:56 It wasn't very long.

8:58 You know, I would say within six months to a year

9:01 after I got confident, then people knew I had it

9:04 and then they'd ask me to start doing theirs.

9:07 So I started that.

9:08 And then I gave business cards to quilt shops.

9:13 Okay.

9:16 Now, when you first started,

9:17 did you kind of know if there was enough long arm business

9:23 available in your area to support you?

9:26 I had no idea, but I was amazed how much I got.

9:30 I'd have 35 quilts at my house at one time.

9:35 You had business stacked up pretty quickly, huh?

9:38 Yes.

9:40 And so when you decided to do the business,

9:45 did you do any like preparing beforehand,

9:51 like business type stuff or advertising

9:56 or researching to see?

9:59 No, I mean, they didn't have all the computers

10:01 and all that stuff then as they did now.

10:04 And I'm not real computer savvy.

10:06 So it was basically just word of mouth.

10:10 That's how I got it.

10:12 And I had some loyal people forever.

10:16 And at that time, were you involved in the quilt guilds

10:20 or did they help you?

10:22 I didn't belong to any quilt guilds,

10:24 but I taught at some shops and just gave business cards out.

10:29 And that was enough at that time.

10:33 Well, great.

10:34 So just pure word of mouth from a quilt shop.

10:37 So a lot of that.

10:38 Yes.

10:40 And most of your advertising,

10:43 you just kind of passed out cards at that time.

10:46 Yes.

10:47 Okay.

10:51 So when you bought your gamel at first,

10:57 you bought it from gamel?

10:58 Yes.

10:59 And how did you come up with the funds

11:02 to purchase that first machine?

11:03 Did you just have it or?

11:07 I guess we had it.

11:08 I don't remember.

11:11 Carl probably knows.

11:12 Yeah, I just looked at him and he said, yeah.

11:16 Carl gave it to you.

11:17 Yeah, he did.

11:18 He's good to me.

11:20 I got you.

11:22 Okay.

11:23 So during the time that you've been doing,

11:28 so you've been basically running a business

11:30 since 2001 or so?

11:33 Yes, I've been doing people's quilts.

11:35 I haven't been advertising much lately

11:37 because I started a studio or a shop.

11:42 So I do some quilting,

11:43 but I haven't pushed it to do right now.

11:46 But now that I got the Statler Stitcher,

11:48 I wanna start really getting more involved in it.

11:53 Yeah.

11:54 Have you learned how to operate that pretty well?

11:57 Well, I've done the edge to edge pretty good.

12:00 I've got that going,

12:01 but I haven't done anything specific yet.

12:05 I'm gonna wait for the classes.

12:07 Okay.

12:08 Yeah.

12:09 I have some of my own to do.

12:11 I got you.

12:12 I got you.

12:13 Well, that, yeah,

12:14 I think you'll find that edge to edge

12:16 will be your bread and butter.

12:19 Yes.

12:19 Because you can crank out a lot more quilts on a Statler

12:25 than on a hand guided.

12:27 So do you have another job in addition to this

12:32 or is this pretty much-

12:33 I did up until 2009.

12:36 I worked full time,

12:38 but then I was,

12:39 the company was dissolved and I didn't work anymore.

12:43 Okay.

12:44 And so since 09,

12:45 you've just been a full-time quilting.

12:49 Basically that,

12:49 and then doing the studio now for 10 years.

12:53 Okay.

12:54 And what is your studio?

12:56 What is it?

12:57 Windswept Quilters.

13:00 And I have the long arms there,

13:02 and then I have a big classroom

13:03 and I have a room of fabric and notions.

13:06 Okay.

13:07 So we meet for open souls and I teach there,

13:10 and then I lecture and teach at guilds.

13:13 Okay.

13:15 You teach quilting?

13:18 Yes.

13:18 Different kinds of quilting.

13:20 Okay.

13:21 Okay.

13:21 And could you tell us about how many hours a week

13:26 you probably spend doing this,

13:28 these things?

13:30 I'm part time with that

13:32 only because I have senior parents.

13:35 And so I,

13:36 it's like every other week I do the studio

13:39 and every other week I do my parents.

13:41 Gotcha.

13:42 One time it was my sister until she passed.

13:45 Hmm.

13:45 Okay.

13:46 So I don't want to do 24 hours,

13:48 you know,

13:49 10 to 10 or nine to nine,

13:50 or I didn't want to do that.

13:53 Right.

13:54 Well, do you find that,

13:56 you find that you have more freedom

13:58 to be able to do that kind of stuff?

14:01 Yes, I do.

14:03 Cause you can work real hard for a week

14:05 and then have time off to enjoy

14:08 cause it's your hours.

14:10 Yeah.

14:11 And I think,

14:12 I think a lot of the people that are watching right now

14:15 and the people that will be watching this

14:18 will appreciate that information too,

14:20 because it's not like a job where you're working

14:24 for someone else.

14:25 Correct.

14:26 Kind of set your own hours.

14:28 Yep.

14:30 So,

14:31 so you haven't actually started doing edge to edge

14:37 in your business yet.

14:38 Have you?

14:39 I have done nine people quilts for them,

14:43 nine quilts so far.

14:44 And in the two months I've had the Statler.

14:47 So I've already got nine done for customers

14:50 and I've got about 40 of mine.

14:53 Excellent.

14:54 Excellent.

14:54 And so,

14:56 and so I guess,

14:57 I guess all this time up until,

15:00 up until recently,

15:01 you've done like custom work pretty much.

15:04 Yes.

15:06 Do you,

15:07 you charge by the hour,

15:09 by the square inch?

15:10 How do you charge for?

15:11 Well, when I first started,

15:13 the, what I had read about,

15:15 it was by the square yard.

15:17 So I've just done the square yardage all the time,

15:21 but now I've looked up different ways

15:22 to try to charge by the square inch.

15:24 So I'm like everybody else,

15:26 but I've basically always done the square yard.

15:30 So the square,

15:32 so how did that work?

15:33 What did you charge?

15:34 Well, like if they wanted meandering

15:36 and it was tight, small,

15:38 that would be more money

15:39 than if they wanted just big meandering,

15:43 or custom work or something,

15:45 then it's a different price.

15:47 Okay.

15:50 Can you tell us what it is per square inch

15:53 for your custom?

15:55 Well, when I do,

15:58 Or is it different for different?

16:00 Yeah, it would be different for different things.

16:01 Like it could be 30,

16:04 well, 3.5 cents

16:07 because I do it $35 a square yard.

16:09 So that's like 3.5 cents an inch.

16:12 Gotcha.

16:13 If it's custom and really a lot of work,

16:16 and then it would be less for,

16:18 I know a lot of people do a one cent an inch,

16:23 but if it's got a lot of work to it,

16:25 it will be more.

16:26 Right, right.

16:28 Have you fallen upon a price for edge to edge yet?

16:34 No, it's basically the same thing that I have right now

16:39 that I've been using that I use for edge to edge.

16:42 Okay.

16:46 Well, so you've been doing hand guided all these years.

16:52 Do you know about how many quilts

16:56 have you averaged per year?

16:58 Do you know about?

16:59 Oh no, hundreds.

17:02 Hundreds per year?

17:04 At least.

17:06 And has that number been pretty steady over the years or?

17:14 It was at the beginning when I first started

17:16 and then cause my husband was going back to school.

17:19 So I did more at that point.

17:21 And then when he wasn't in school, I cut back some,

17:25 but I could do as many as I want,

17:29 but I've slowed down some right now.

17:32 Yeah, yeah.

17:34 And that's another good thing about the business

17:36 that you're in.

17:37 You can slow down when your husband's around,

17:40 and have more time with your family.

17:42 Yes.

17:43 That's awesome.

17:45 So in your shop, do you provide or sell batting

17:50 or wide back fabrics or?

17:52 Yes, all of that.

17:54 I have a lot of wide back fabrics.

17:56 Okay.

17:58 And do you any other services like piecing,

18:02 backings, binding, t-shirt quilts or?

18:06 I have done all of those, you know, for people,

18:09 custom work, but most of the time they just bring me

18:13 in theirs and I do theirs.

18:16 Okay.

18:17 But I have done the rest.

18:19 Gotcha.

18:21 How did you weather things through the pandemic time,

18:26 like 2020?

18:28 Did that slow you down or speed you up?

18:31 No, I still had people coming to the shop.

18:33 They'd call and say, are you there?

18:35 And they'd come in.

18:36 So I still had people come in to buy fabric

18:40 and they needed to get out and I was there.

18:44 There you go.

18:45 That's excellent.

18:47 What kind of turnaround time do you have on,

18:52 like if somebody brings a quilt into you,

18:55 how long does it usually take to get it back out?

18:57 Well, it would depend on, you know, the time of year

19:00 and what's going on, but I can do it within a week sometimes

19:04 and sometimes it could be a month.

19:06 Okay.

19:08 All righty.

19:09 So during this, you know, during the last 20 years

19:15 or more of your business,

19:18 has there been any difficult parts of growing

19:26 or keeping your business going?

19:28 Can you think of any?

19:30 No, I haven't been pushing it.

19:32 And so now I'll be advertising or doing more

19:35 now that I got the Statler Stitcher

19:37 because I can do more and have more confidence.

19:40 Gotcha.

19:41 So yeah, so you're kind of like in a phase

19:45 where you're kind of turning a page,

19:48 getting into the, stepping into the 21st century here

19:51 with computerized.

19:53 Yes, with the help of my husband.

19:57 Well, I think that you will.

20:00 you'll see a huge difference in the amount of what you can accomplish with that computerized.

20:07 I know there's a lot of people who are in a school of thought where they,

20:12 you know, if it ain't hand-guided, it's not real quilting, but the majority of people that

20:19 I talk to, you know, they just love the Statler, you know, and the Ascend. You can

20:28 just crank out so much and do it beautifully. I think that you will be very happy, especially

20:34 after you go to that Quilting with Confidence. I'm so glad to hear that you're going to that.

20:39 Yeah, I am too. I'm looking forward to it.

20:43 So I probably don't have to ask who's been your biggest cheerleader of support through all this.

20:50 No.

20:52 Is it that guy that's standing over to the side of you?

20:54 Yep, that's him.

20:56 Carl, well, that's great. So what would you say is, what kind of impact has this,

21:08 I would say, for lack of a better word, a lifestyle that you've chosen

21:12 of this type of career, what type of impact has this had for you as far as

21:18 the control of your schedule, your money-wise? Tell us a little bit about how this business

21:28 has impacted you.

21:29 What's nice is when he was at school, I could really crank him out and do it because he wasn't

21:34 there. And now when he's at work, I can do my stuff and do as much or as little as I want.

21:42 And it, you know, it just gives me the freedom.

21:46 So we can go on vacations and I don't have to worry about not having vacation time.

21:52 Does Carl do any of the quilting stuff?

21:55 Yes.

21:57 Sometimes he's, well, we're learning. And so he'd be at the machine and I'd be at the quilt,

22:01 and then we'd switch places. So he's really into it.

22:05 That's awesome. That's great.

22:08 With the people that I've talked to, a lot of times, husband and wives, they play off

22:16 of each other. They encourage each other to be more productive. So that's great.

22:26 Well, Christy, can you think of something that maybe when you first started versus right now,

22:34 is there anything that you wish that somebody would have told you when you first started or

22:39 something that you didn't know that you wish you would have known?

22:45 I guess because I didn't get really any formal training because at that time, I don't know.

22:50 But figuring it out, it's not a hard machine to learn and you just got to get the rhythm in it.

22:57 And I have enjoyed it all the time. So I have not had a down time.

23:05 Gotcha. And that, again, just emphasizes the educating yourself on how to use these machines.

23:14 I mean, I encourage everybody watching that has any interest in this to visit Gammill.com.

23:22 There are entire courses, video courses that you can purchase. There's a lot of free resources

23:30 that will show you how to do things on there. And you can call us anytime

23:37 at Gammill to find out what resources we have for you. Well, Christy,

23:47 it's been 24 years ago or so that you got your first Gammill. For the people that are watching,

24:00 what advice would you give to somebody who would like to get on this path that you've gotten on?

24:08 And do you think it's possible to be successful in this day and age in 2024? What would you say

24:15 to the people watching? Oh, yes. If you started, you'd be very, you know, there's so much out there

24:22 and so many people that like piecing and don't like quilting that they pay to get it done just

24:28 so their quilts get done because they don't want to do that. They like the piecing part,

24:32 and I hear that all the time. So if you offer that service, you're going to be successful.

24:37 You know, you just got to make sure you listen to the people and do a good job.

24:45 I wanted to ask you, over the time that you've been doing this, have you had any

24:51 issues where you've had to deal with difficult to deal with people? And how have you dealt with

25:02 that? Basically, I've only had a couple people that were difficult. Somebody had pictures,

25:10 and you couldn't quilt the pictures, but you could quilt around them. And I would tell them,

25:15 if you do that, it's going to bub out. And they told me to do it anyway. And then they

25:21 got mad that it turned that way. And I had to rip the whole thing out. And I just gave it back to

25:25 them. And I said, then you do it. But that's the only one that I really know that I warned her

25:30 ahead of time, but she wanted it anyway and then didn't like it. So I just ripped it out just to

25:36 make her happy. And, you know, I didn't want to have bad feelings, but you can do so much.

25:43 So do you think communicating with your customers is pretty important, like before?

25:49 Yes. You know, you got to ask them what they want.

25:53 Gotcha. Well, Christy, I think I've reached the end of my questions here.

26:01 And I want to thank you very much for sharing your journey with us.

26:07 You're welcome.

26:07 I know there's a lot of people that will have some good takeaways from what you've shared with

26:12 us. And, oh, I wanted to ask you, if anybody would like to get in touch with you or your business,

26:23 do you have any means of them getting in touch with you?

26:27 You can get my email at kdrose, D-R-O-E-S-E at gmail.com.

26:36 Okay, kdrose at gmail.com?

26:39 Yes.

26:40 K-D-R-O-E-S-E at gmail.com. Okay. All right. Well, Christy, thank you so much. And I wish you

26:52 best of luck with your new Statler journey. And anybody that has not been to Quilting

26:58 with Confidence, I encourage you to go there and meet Christy. And with that,

27:04 I think we're going to go ahead and end the show tonight.

27:07 Okay.

27:08 Happy Quilting, everybody. Thank you very much.

27:11 Thank you very much.

27:12 Bye-bye.