How Sandy Kuhl Built a Thriving Longarm Quilting Business in Missouri

0:00 So, we are going to go ahead and start.

0:27 Today we have Sandy Kuhl with us, K-U-H-L, I had to ask her how to pronounce that to

0:33 make sure we didn't say Kuhl, but it's Sandy Kuhl, and she is with us, and I understand

0:43 you have a husband of 38 years.

0:46 I do.

0:48 He's welcome to join us on the screen if he wants to, you know, we do that a lot.

0:54 I don't know if he will.

0:55 There's the guy.

0:56 He didn't take much time to jump in.

0:59 That's right.

1:00 That's right.

1:01 Doug, right?

1:02 Yeah.

1:03 I had to make sure she didn't tell any lies about me.

1:04 No lies.

1:05 No lies.

1:06 All the truth.

1:07 You got to be there to defend yourself now when the husband is not there to defend themselves,

1:13 but you don't know what's going to happen.

1:15 Well, he may be able to pitch in a little bit, too, of some information, so I'll keep

1:21 him close by.

1:23 So let me, does Doug do any quilting, or what's his role in this?

1:31 He pretty much is, I call him my maintenance man.

1:34 He likes to oil and, you know, clean the rails and change my needles, and he does all that

1:41 maintenance things that we're supposed to do to our machines daily, weekly, or when

1:46 we use it.

1:47 That's probably why we have not heard much from you in tech support.

1:53 I work in tech support, and I don't recall talking to you guys, and one of the main things

1:58 of keeping your machine running good is just good maintenance, which sounds like Doug is

2:06 doing for you.

2:07 Yes, he is.

2:09 So let's go ahead and start out.

2:11 Where are you guys located?

2:13 Where's home?

2:14 Home is about 40 to 50 miles northwest of St. Louis.

2:19 It's a small town, and it's like St. Louis, St. Charles, and then Wentzville and Troy.

2:26 So we're in Troy, Missouri.

2:28 Okay, so you guys are fellow Missourians.

2:30 See, I did not know that.

2:31 Okay.

2:32 Yeah.

2:33 We're doing the show from the same state, then.

2:36 We are.

2:37 So Sandy, how long have you been doing long arming?

2:43 We bought our machine in 2010, so what is that, 15 years, 15 years?

2:52 15 years now.

2:53 Yeah.

2:54 Okay.

2:55 But I've been quilting for about 18.

2:58 Okay, and what kind of quilting were you doing prior to getting your long arm?

3:07 It started as my daughter wanted a t-shirt quilt for graduation and for high school graduation.

3:14 And I have sewn since I was a little girl.

3:17 My mom and my grandmother sewed, and so I just kind of followed in their footsteps,

3:21 although they did garment and draperies and things like that.

3:25 But when my daughter wanted this t-shirt quilt, that's what got me going and went to make

3:31 it.

3:32 I made it.

3:33 It was great, but I made it too big that I couldn't quilt it on my domestic machine like

3:38 I thought.

3:39 And so I hired someone out to do that, but that kind of got the bug of me going and making

3:46 those for friends of my kids, and eventually after about two and a half, three years, it

3:52 was just too much to do them on my domestic machine.

3:55 It took way too long, hurt my shoulders holding that heavy quilt.

4:00 And told my husband, I said, I really need a long arm or I'm going to have to give up

4:05 what I love to do.

4:07 And he was like, what kind do you want?

4:11 So he was very supportive.

4:12 And from there, we just started looking and that's where it began.

4:18 And when you first started, did you, was your first long arm, was it a Gammill?

4:24 It was.

4:25 It was.

4:26 So we did some research, and I knew some people in the quilting world that had gamels.

4:32 And just from the research that we did, gamel was to us, the top of the line.

4:38 It was more of an industrial type machine as far as the looks of it and everything.

4:44 And doing what I was planning to do is to start a business with these t-shirt quilts.

4:50 I felt I needed something that was going to last and hold up and, you know, stand the

4:55 test of time.

4:57 Yeah, when you mentioned t-shirt quilts, I kind of smiled because I talked to so many,

5:03 probably there's not a day that goes by that when I'm working that I don't talk to somebody

5:07 that tells me how much they hate doing t-shirt quilts.

5:11 So do you, what's your take on that?

5:16 I love doing them.

5:17 I don't mind them at all.

5:18 You know, I think I've, through the years of making them, I've found the tricks and

5:23 I've streamlined things.

5:25 To me, it's backing those t-shirts and stabilizing things.

5:29 And I truly don't have an issue with them and, you know, they quilt wonderfully on the

5:35 gamel.

5:36 You know, I can go around all my buttons that I might leave on or a zipper, things like

5:41 that.

5:42 So I can program, well, now I can before it was hand-guided, but, you know, so I don't

5:47 mind them at all.

5:48 I enjoy them.

5:49 So, you think the t-shirt quilts that are probably one of the most important things

5:55 is that backing to give stability to it?

5:59 It is to me.

6:01 I took a customer's t-shirt quilt just last week and I hesitated to take it because she

6:11 did not back it.

6:13 Sometimes, you know, the stretch of it, her borders were all wavy and wonky.

6:19 And so it was, it was a challenge to do.

6:21 So stabilizing is, to me, the number one thing you have to do with the t-shirt quilt.

6:27 Gotcha.

6:28 And when you were, when you started out, did you get your long arm, I take it you got your

6:38 long arm specifically to, for business purpose and not, not just for personal?

6:43 Yes.

6:44 It was to, to start a business.

6:48 And you were doing some business, you were running a business prior to actually having

6:53 the long arm?

6:55 I was, it was small.

6:57 It started with my daughters and then friends wanted that and I was like, well, how can

7:01 I grow this?

7:03 And so I started doing a craft show at a St. Louis high school craft show and, you know,

7:10 the first year I got a couple of quilts, the second year I did it, I got a couple more

7:16 and then people held on to my business card and made business cards and, you know, from

7:20 there and it just grew word of mouth and COVID hit, they canceled the show for a while.

7:29 And at that point I was ready to stop doing them because I was overwhelmed with the business

7:34 of word of mouth and people holding on to those cards.

7:39 So one of the best things for me was getting my long arm to, you know, just make that process

7:46 easier, producing a product that looked great, you know, never had an issue, so.

7:54 So what, and was, so was getting a long arm a real game changer?

7:58 Oh, definitely.

8:00 Definitely, like I said, I was, we were, I was hand guiding, Doug would help me hold

8:06 these quilts, you know, I just, hours we would spend on our pool table, you know, holding

8:13 this and while I'm trying to hand guide it, you know, and it was terrible.

8:17 My shoulders, my back hurt and that's when we were like, and it's just been a game changer.

8:23 Game changer.

8:25 So when I got my, when I got the camel, when I purchased that, we did purchase it used.

8:34 It had a stitch regulator on it, but it just streamlined it.

8:41 It just made it so much easier, even though I was hand guiding, it just took the pressures

8:46 off my shoulders and my back and it was great.

8:50 And what model of machine you started with?

8:55 It was a classic 26 inch throat, 14 foot bed.

9:00 Was it the kind that had the little LCD screen on each end of it?

9:05 No, it did not have any little screen.

9:08 We, right after we purchased it, we upgraded it to, I think, a vision.

9:13 It was just this little box of a machine, like steel.

9:17 And then we upgraded again to, I think the vision two.

9:25 And I'm not sure if that was the tablet, yeah, it was the tablet.

9:31 And so then I had the tablet and that was just a nice feature.

9:34 It was just, you know, touchscreen and everything.

9:37 And I did really like that.

9:39 Again, I was hand guiding everything.

9:41 I would use the laser light, put the pantographs on the back and guide through that to do,

9:48 you know, some more decorative things that people would want.

9:51 But for the most part, I was doing just meander stitches, you know, dabbled in just my own,

9:59 just fun playing with a little bit of custom, but never really did that at that point.

10:05 And did you upgrade it from a hand guided at some point?

10:09 Yes.

10:10 So two years ago on February of 23, I always had this, I don't know if you want to say

10:18 thing of, I wanted to say the quilt was all done by me.

10:24 I wanted to have my hand in that stitching.

10:28 And so I never was technically really interested in a computerized machine, but I would see

10:34 these quilts that friends of mine were doing and, you know, I was just like, oh, that's

10:39 so awesome.

10:40 That's, you know, great.

10:41 And so, I don't know, we went to Hannibal, Missouri, it was a little town in mid Missouri

10:47 and we ran into a quilt shop and I was talking to a lady there and she said, well, I was

10:53 telling her why I never really wanted the, you know, I wanted to say it was all done

10:57 by me.

10:59 And she's like, that never kept me up at night, worried that I did the entire thing by, you

11:05 know, stitching it by guiding it.

11:08 And I got to thinking and I'm like, well, maybe I need to think about upgrading, you

11:13 know, cause it just, I don't know what, why that set did something to me, but it was just

11:18 something that was just like, that might free up my time, not my time.

11:23 Cause I'm going to still be there to watch over it, but I might be able to multitask.

11:27 I might be able to back a t-shirt quilt while that's quilting, you know, I might be able

11:31 to cut that out while that's quilting.

11:34 So I was, I'm thinking, oh, this might help me time-wise too.

11:39 And so we decided that we were going to upgrade.

11:43 And so we looked at the Statler and the Statler Ascend and we went with the Ascend two years

11:48 ago in February.

11:50 So two years this month.

11:53 We did look at a few other machines at that time, but hands down Gammill was not even,

12:03 we weren't moving.

12:04 We were keeping our Gammill and we were going to upgrade the Gammill.

12:08 So with your looking around you, you honestly felt that the Gammill was going to be the best

12:14 bet for you?

12:15 Oh my gosh, hands down.

12:16 Just again, it was, you know, I use it a lot.

12:19 I, you know, I felt like, you know, I was, I was quilting at the time, 70 to 80 making

12:26 t-shirt quilts a year.

12:27 You know, so I felt like I used it a lot and these weren't, you know, nine t-shirts.

12:34 I was using 20, 25, 45, 65 shirts.

12:39 They're big.

12:41 And so, yeah, we just, we looked, you know, at a couple of different ones, I think just

12:46 to make sure that what we were purchasing was what we really wanted, you know, just,

12:51 but yeah, we just decided we were staying with Gammill.

12:56 And so, so having had the Ascend for a couple of years now, the, honestly, do you think

13:03 that it was worth the money for, for what you do with it?

13:06 Hands down.

13:07 I would definitely, I, and I don't know what a Statler was like, the difference to us was

13:14 the speed.

13:15 And, you know, the speed was more, was quicker, faster.

13:20 So that kind of sold me on it because as we purchased this, I also was trying to, you

13:27 know, get into the market of quilting tops for people that had created the tops.

13:33 And I wanted to then, I was trying to, you know, get my way into that market.

13:38 And I thought, well, if I can, you know, instead of quilting one quilt today, or maybe two,

13:43 maybe I could do two to three and with the Ascend and, and I can, it really has made

13:51 a difference.

13:52 So, yeah.

13:53 So, I have a question, somebody submitted here.

14:02 She is saying that I want to upgrade my quilter machine.

14:07 However, with the volatility with the economy and not knowing what is going to happen, do

14:14 you feel that there will be a downfall in people not being able to afford their quilts

14:20 quilted?

14:21 Do you have any feedback on that?

14:25 I don't think so.

14:27 Since, in my two years that I've just, since I've had the Ascend, I have probably doubled,

14:39 maybe a little more than double what I was doing without it.

14:44 I'm getting people, I'm on Google search, so if you search quilter in my area, I come

14:50 up and I, in December alone, I can't, I don't even know how many new customers I got just

15:00 by that.

15:01 And people saying, well, my long armor is not, you know, quilting anymore.

15:05 She's retiring.

15:06 She's, you know, so no.

15:08 I would, I expected my December to be, I was very, very busy and a lot of people or

15:16 my customers that I had had, oh, I don't need this for Christmas.

15:20 You do, do mine in January.

15:22 Take your, you know, take the people that need it.

15:24 That helps me a lot.

15:26 So no, I, I personally don't think that it's going to hurt, hurt the business because mine

15:34 is grown.

15:36 Okay.

15:37 And we'll, we'll go, we'll go back to that again in a minute.

15:40 I got one other, Lorraine is asking specifically what, what made you decide between the Ascend

15:49 versus the Statler?

15:52 It was the speed.

15:54 It was a faster, it, I don't remember the technical pieces of it.

15:58 Do you remember Doug?

15:59 The speed and accuracy.

16:00 The speed and accuracy.

16:01 I think, yeah, the accuracy was part of it.

16:04 It was more of a precision.

16:06 I, you know, I've had, I have friends that have the Statler who has, they've since upgraded

16:12 to the Ascend as well.

16:14 I actually haven't asked her what her thoughts are, but just accuracy and the speed is what

16:20 did I.

16:21 Yeah.

16:22 And like Doug said, we're spending that much money.

16:25 It was a few thousand dollars more.

16:27 We figured we would get that back if I could truly make another quilt a day, you know,

16:33 another quilt a day.

16:34 Yeah.

16:35 And I agree.

16:36 And Lorraine, if you're watching, the Statler is a very good machine by itself.

16:44 The Ascend is what makes it able to have increased speed with maintaining the accuracy and precision.

16:54 It's got beefier belts and beefier motors that cause it to move.

17:00 And so that's the difference with that, FYI.

17:04 Well, we, you know, I don't know if I've mentioned this.

17:09 I actually have a second machine that I keep that's at my daughter's house.

17:15 I watch my grandson.

17:17 And so when I'm there and he's napping, I like to sew and do my thing.

17:22 And so I quilt and we purchased another machine for her house so I could quilt there.

17:29 And my daughter asked me, are we going to do a Statler, mom, or are we going to do an

17:32 Ascend?

17:33 And I was like, oh, we're doing an Ascend.

17:35 I'm not, you know, because I love mine.

17:38 So you've got an Ascend over there and at your place?

17:42 Not yet.

17:43 We have not upgraded yet.

17:45 It's a Vision 2, but the plan is to hopefully soon upgrade that one.

17:53 Okay.

17:54 Okay.

17:55 Awesome.

17:56 Yeah.

17:57 You can, and I've talked to a lot of people who take care of the grandkids while they're,

18:02 you know, they're.

18:03 Yeah.

18:04 And it works out great when he naps, I'm doing my thing.

18:08 So.

18:09 I have another question here.

18:10 Do you take mail order quilts and have you had any problems with deliveries?

18:17 I do take mail order quilts.

18:19 I've from across the United States.

18:23 I have taken several.

18:26 I never have an issue with mailing a quilt back or receiving a quilt.

18:33 I always ask someone to tell me when they've mailed it.

18:36 As soon as I receive it, I let them know.

18:39 And I would say usually within four to five days, I have a quilt from them and vice versa

18:43 when I mail it back.

18:46 Okay.

18:49 At the end, I plan to, I want to let you tell people how they can get in touch with your

18:55 business if necessary too.

18:57 So I just wrote myself a note so I wouldn't forget.

19:00 Sure.

19:01 Thank you.

19:02 We're getting a lot of questions.

19:03 I got another question.

19:05 Sandy is asking what, what speed are you comfortable running your Ascend at?

19:12 For the most part, and I don't know this, the true answer to this question, but a lot

19:18 of, I don't know if it's pattern based where it runs.

19:20 I know I can increase it and decrease it, but a lot of it, most of the time my machine

19:25 runs at a 14.

19:28 There are times I'm like, oh, it's running faster.

19:31 And I look up and it's running at 17.

19:33 So 17 seems to be the, a good number, although mine does run at 14 a lot.

19:41 So I don't know if that's pattern based because I'm not changing that itself.

19:45 I don't know if you know that or not, but I do, I do raise it though, because as long

19:51 as it's running okay and I feel like, you know, I'm not having issues or anything like

19:56 that, 17 is where I'll run it.

20:00 there there are a lot of patterns that have and you can click on you can right

20:04 click on one of your patterns and see the pattern properties and some of them

20:09 have like built into them a default speed okay that might be some of what

20:14 you're seeing that's probably what it is and a good a good median speed we

20:21 usually recommend on the ascend is is a 15 and it'll run at 17 sometimes if

20:29 there's some very fine patterns and stuff in it'll do better at a 15 rather

20:35 than a 17 but yeah and and I think on that when I'll when I myself take it to

20:42 a 17 it's not an intricate pattern it's you know more open and flowy or whatever

20:47 so I think that helps to be able to run it at that speed not anything like

20:53 intricate or a lot of stitching and starts and curves and okay well let's

21:01 talk let's get back to the business thing so when you when you first got

21:08 your longarm did you check ahead of time or did you have a feeling did you know

21:14 that there was enough longarm business available in your area to support you

21:21 know another longarm quilter or what tell us a little bit about that or did

21:26 you just wing it no I mean when I got into the t-shirt you know business there

21:33 I was kind of winging it hoping that it went and hoping that it did but as I've

21:37 gone along and that when I upgraded you know that was one of my things I'm like

21:42 am I going to be able to keep the business and grow it and you know keep

21:46 it going and make it worth my while to spend that kind of money and everybody

21:53 said you won't have any trouble getting customers you really won't and I

21:58 honestly I have not I don't my plan is true yeah oh it definitely and like I

22:05 said I mean I I don't advertise I it's word-of-mouth I have a Facebook page I

22:13 have an Instagram but I don't post to it honestly I just don't have time I

22:17 would like to to be able to grow it even more but it's right now it's word-of-mouth

22:22 it's the Google search and repeat customers yeah I've not had any issues

22:29 of growing it or getting customers at all and so word-of-mouth what do you

22:35 mean like people that you have quilted for they kind of spread they'll say oh

22:40 I'm looking for a long oh you Sandy or go you know call her and you know

22:45 word-of-mouth like that just friends telling friends and and that that way I

22:50 don't have my business card in quilt shops I've not things I would like to do

22:56 like it I just I watch my grandson and I do this and I'm busy you know I there is

23:03 one local quilt shop that does have my name and if people ask they will give it

23:08 out but other than that I'm not in quilt guilds to like you know give my

23:13 business card out or show my quilts it's truly mine is word-of-mouth so you're

23:18 and so you're not really involved much with quilt guilds not yet that is my

23:23 plan when my grand I only have the one right now but when my grandkids are like

23:28 in school full-time you know kindergarten that's my plan then is to

23:33 you know start getting involved in the guilds more okay so living your life and

23:39 being involved with your family is important to you very yeah and so I mean

23:46 when I when I was originally started all this I worked full-time as well so I you

23:53 know I worked at a high school I was the registrar in the guidance department and

23:58 I you know so I worked full-time and and I started this doing that as well

24:04 and that my businesses grew and grew and grew and it was one of those things I

24:10 looked at my husband and he's like says very supportive I'm like I just either

24:15 have to really cut this back or I need to retire so I did I retired a few years

24:22 earlier than I could have but it allowed me to to really do this and grow

24:29 it so were you doing that job when you started the long-arming part of it I was

24:35 and how long did you continue before you were able to retire from that well I've

24:45 been retired seven years so maybe about eight okay I did it about eight years

24:51 all right yep somebody else asking a question but first I wanted to what when

24:58 you first when you first got your machine how did you how did you come up

25:04 with the funds to purchase did you finance or what what was the deal with

25:08 that we did not when we first purchased it like I said we purchased it used from

25:15 a lady that was selling it and we've we purchased that ourselves we did the

25:20 first few upgrades of the vision and division to ourselves but when we

25:25 upgraded to the ascend my father-in-law had passed away and we were left the

25:33 money and we used that to do that so that's how we financed or we paid for

25:40 the ascend so our second one we're not quite sure we're gonna be able to

25:46 totally do that but you know so that's what I'm working towards is to be able

25:51 to you know not have to finance it gotcha I have a question here what would

26:01 you say to convince me to get my quilter upgraded to the robotics or to the

26:06 computerized oh man I wish somebody would told me sooner than later to to

26:15 upgrade to a computerized machine I think one I can do this pardon why is

26:22 that what well such a good move because I can do more quilts I can quilt two to

26:29 three quilts a day I can multitask if you know I can start my machine and I

26:35 don't do this all the time but I mean I do it's like you know I need to go start

26:41 a pot of water to boil potatoes or you know cook dinner I can run upstairs and

26:45 do that and you know I can be sewing on a project while it's quilting and you

26:52 know so I can multitask and that has really helped a lot so if you make

26:58 quilts either for yourself or for business it's a game changer in time it

27:04 really is so it's night and day between a hand-guided it really is I mean you're

27:12 standing back there and you're guiding and you're walking along and you're

27:15 guiding and you know you do that for four or five hours a day it's hard it's

27:22 hard on your back it's my shoulders like at my neck it it was just starting to

27:27 really wear on me too I think so it just maybe was timing as well but man if I

27:32 would have known sooner to what a game-changer was for me I would I wish I

27:40 would have done it sooner awesome how many how many hours a week Sandy would

27:47 you say you work on quilting for others these days

27:54 it's 15 to 20 depending on the time of year right now it's a little slower

28:00 because we just got through the holidays and I think people are on this

28:03 rush to you know get everything done for the holidays sorry dog but you know come

28:11 graduation and then as the summer goes it's just it's a steady flow and you

28:17 know I can quilt three to four times a week all day two to three quilts a day

28:24 and you know once it comes October people are starting Christmas and it can

28:29 really pick up I mean it did for me this year for sure and do you nowadays

28:35 do you do do you do just edge-to-edge or do you do any custom right now the

28:42 majority of what I do is edge-to-edge I am starting to dabble into some custom

28:48 you know I just want to be really comfortable with that I'm super

28:52 comfortable with edge-to-edge I I don't have any issues with that you know but

28:57 that custom work is it's another little beast and and I I'm practicing and doing

29:02 and and I have done some for people probably friends that are like it's okay

29:07 do whatever you want you know they don't have anything in mind and so I'm

29:10 practicing and I want to make sure that that's to the quality I'm comfortable

29:15 with to be paid for and to send out okay so do you charge by the hour or by the

29:25 square inch how do you how do you charge for you their stuff I charge by

29:30 the square inch it I'm I'm not sure what I'll do with custom I'm toying with

29:37 doing by the hour it's it's yeah by the hour it's it's a lot more time involved

29:44 a lot of time and you know what I've done for people it's very minimal but

29:49 what I have done is then you know just square by the square inch and I look at

29:55 what I what I made and the amount of time I put into that and granted I'm

30:00 probably a little slower than I will be once I'm more comfortable but I'm like

30:05 oh I didn't make what I think I should have made you know so I'm thinking maybe

30:09 by the hour is what I will do but I haven't figured that out quite yet yeah

30:16 and I've heard many times from Andrew who's often on this show with me he he

30:23 admonishes people to you know charge what you're worth you know don't be

30:29 afraid because so many people cut their own legs out from under themselves by

30:36 they they they hate to charge you know because they love to do it that's that's

30:42 where I when I first started this oh I love to do it it was my hobby and I I

30:46 can't do all this for my family they don't need that many quilts and so

30:51 you're like oh I love to do it so but then it's like if you're undercutting

30:56 yourself you're hurting the business and and I've learned that through the years

31:01 so I do my best not to do that well and people if you like you say the word of

31:08 mouth that you have established you know over these years causes people well this

31:15 is what they charge that's the way it is and yeah so you know I've had I've had

31:20 customers that would drive south or they would drive to you know mid

31:26 Missouri to have quilts done they were cheaper and you know and they would call

31:31 me and they would ask my price and I would tell them and they were like oh

31:35 you know that's more than what I'm paying so they kind of want to get you

31:40 to come down to what they were paying driving an hour hour and a half to get

31:44 to it and I'm like well you know your time your fuel to get there I'm like

31:50 is it worth that to you and I have gotten every one of those customers that

31:55 questioned me or wanted me to you could tell they just they didn't ask me to

31:59 come down to that but you could tell that's what they wanted and I have not

32:04 got anybody that said no that's okay I'll keep driving you know an hour hour

32:08 and a half and every one of them got every one of them and they're good

32:14 repeat customers I mean I can quilt 10 and 12 quilts there's three of them that

32:20 I quote a lot for and so they don't mind so sounds like for the people that are

32:26 watching you would you recommend to not cut yourself short in that area oh no

32:35 don't cut yourself short no definitely don't do that so Sandy can you what

32:42 would you estimate like you do an edge-to-edge queen-size quilt how much

32:47 would one of those cost do you think I'm including like the batting if I'm or

32:59 just the quilting yeah the whole thing the whole thing Queen to 225 to 30

33:12 somewhere in there maybe I'm just that's a rough guess you could probably get

33:18 more than that I would think but I maybe it's like 240 I'm not sure you know I

33:24 mean yeah a lot of people provide their own batting and I allow that but I do

33:32 provide batting if they want to purchase it from me so I do have that as well for

33:38 people so yeah it just kind of depends on you know I would say $200 and then

33:44 the batting on top of that maybe okay um so let me ask you the quantity amount of

33:53 quilts that you do are are you like in your largest amount now at this period

34:00 of your life that more than you've done before yes definitely about how many

34:06 quilts a year do you think you're last year I did I quilted a hundred and sixty

34:15 eight quilts that's what I did last year I think that's pretty darn good for

34:22 trying to build this only having my ascend a couple years and you know so I

34:28 mean I I really feel that that's a I mean I want it to be even bigger but I

34:33 was happy with that last year because that grew from the year before so I've

34:40 got another listener with a question what type of batting do you mainly use

34:46 I use mainly what I use is a 5050 it's a bamboo cotton I recently have

34:57 purchased some Hobbs 8020 it's not my favorite but I had people asking for

35:04 that so it's it's a little bit cheaper and I understand when you've got you

35:08 know a queen and a king size quilt and you're wanting me to provide that

35:12 batting you're it's a little cheaper that's what they go for but I use a

35:17 bamboo cotton and I love it it's got a great drape yeah do you set you you

35:25 provide or sell supplies like the batting wide back fabrics etc stuff like

35:31 that um I don't provide the fabric for the backing I have before people they

35:39 they just don't know what to buy I have purchased that for people I am at the

35:44 fabric store a lot and so if I'm there and they want me to but you know they

35:50 pay for it too so but I will do that and I will piece it back for someone if

35:55 they've you know they don't feel comfortable or it's just big and they're

35:59 you know whatever so I'll piece it back for someone as well and I do binding

36:04 also okay okay awesome so looking back on your last 15 years or and more before

36:16 that what would you say has been the hardest part of growing your business or

36:22 worked in your business the hardest part

36:29 something that's been difficult you mean I'll pay the website might be able to

36:35 help you did you hear what my husband just said what the website updating my

36:39 website is he the guy that does that yes and I want to update it so that I have

36:47 my patterns and you know things like that so people can look at online and

36:51 you know he's not retired and he works too so I try not to harp on him too much

36:56 but yeah no that's one thing I do want but um you know I I don't I just feel

37:04 like it's just gradually built so I can't say that there was something that

37:09 was the hardest maybe the hardest was this is kind of silly but trying to find

37:15 batting at a reasonable cost so I you know with my tax ID I'm now buying it

37:22 you know at wholesale so that you know that was kind of a step I had to take

37:27 but I mean it's just kind of evolved and grown and other than wishing I would

37:34 have done something sooner I don't know that I have specific that software on

37:43 this and taking some classes helped a lot yeah but that's not a hard one a

37:49 hardship really it was just a learning curve learning the software right and

37:54 you know like he said to that you know when I was hand-guided things are a

37:58 little bit different than they are when you go to you know the computerized so

38:03 you know for me I was you know it's all you know memory it's you know that

38:07 memory muscle memory and so I would it took me you know probably a good month

38:12 to feel comfortable I didn't have to think about what I was doing and where

38:17 to go and how to thread things and do it I don't know how to describe that really

38:20 but it was just there was just a little bit of a learning curve there you know I

38:27 did take some classes with some other gamble I guess they were representatives

38:33 that offered classes that I you know that and that helps me a lot but um but

38:39 yeah I just feel like it's evolved I don't know that anything was really hard

38:44 and you got you got the new owner training with your machine didn't you I

38:49 did okay did you find that that to be helpful the video courses that come with

38:55 it um I'll be honest it was it was very helpful once I had my machine so when I

39:01 purchased my machine I purchased or the upgrade I wouldn't say I purchased it in

39:07 January being it sometime in the beginnings of January and you get that

39:12 information right then and so I was doing those classes but I'm a hands-on

39:17 person so once the machine arrived in February then things were making more

39:25 sense to me because I could do the hands-on and learn but yeah they were

39:29 great classes you know it just depends on your learning style but yeah once

39:33 once my machine was here it was just even better have you ever have you been

39:40 to any ever been to the quilting with confidence I have not and I've toyed

39:47 with it I'll be honest I don't I don't feel like I'm the beginner and I don't

39:55 know what level to take so do I take the advanced

40:00 do I take the beginner and I'm afraid I'm going to kind of be bored maybe just because I am so

40:06 comfortable with what I do and I'm sure there are things I can learn that I would learn and

40:12 and make things maybe easier or better for me especially with a custom.

40:18 So I'm just not sure which class to take where I fit in. Well and I would and for you and and

40:25 for the people watching uh I went to Quilting with Confidence this year up in Tennessee and

40:33 I would recommend people take the beginner yeah you're not gonna I I was in that beginner class

40:41 just to to see what was what was taught there and there are some advanced people in there

40:47 that still learned a a whole lot okay I think yeah I think either one to the beginner and then

40:56 yeah take the advanced or course after that yeah because you can if you if you go into the advanced

41:04 and um and it's too advanced for you it it's it's easy to get away from you but you can always uh

41:12 move up from there but it was it was fantastic not just the learning the the camaraderie with

41:19 all the other quilters and learning uh more than learning uh the how how to quilt you also

41:26 get the get to talk with people about their journey and their business you know and so

41:32 anyway FYI yeah no I'll look into that then for yeah no no I've I truly have considered it I just

41:39 it was it was that where do I go where do I fall into so yeah so I mean like I said though

41:48 you will learn from people and their experiences and I'm sure there's something I would take away

41:54 from that the beginning class too uh let's see uh I have Lorraine is saying take the advanced

42:06 well worth it I don't have robotics if you are good with computers take advanced the beginners

42:14 was actually too easy for me so that's feedback from another person okay anyway um and and this

42:22 is this is not just for you this is all the people that are gonna be watching so um so Sandy uh I

42:31 think I may know the answer to this one but who has been your biggest uh cheerleader and support

42:35 system through this journey yeah it's um well both my kids have been very supportive but Doug

42:43 has been the number one person who's encouraged me um never once said are you sure you can do

42:52 this you know he's never he knows it's a dream and that I love to do it and he's just been supportive

42:58 the whole way um he helped do all the research um like steady he you know helps just he loves to

43:05 come down and you know oil the machine and clean it and he you know helps me take the quilts off

43:11 maybe he's just very helpful and supportive and it's great so that's all yeah so what kind of

43:20 impact would you say has the quilting uh money and the control of your personal schedule what

43:28 what kind of impact would you say that's had on your life you know it gives me the the chance to

43:38 work when I want to work you know if I want to go out to lunch with my girlfriends I can

43:43 and then know that maybe I'm going to work after dinner that night or you know if I want to you

43:48 know do something for the weekend or the week or on a little vacation I know I can do it because

43:55 I can work those quilts a little more before I go a little more when I get back you know and um

44:01 so yeah it's given me freedom to to um you know do what I want to do when I want to do it

44:08 I've I do quilts a lot that's what I enjoy um but like I said I can you know do the things that I

44:15 never could do when I worked full-time outside of the home you know I couldn't do those things

44:22 and now I can because I have the freedom and the flexibility um to do that sounds like it's had

44:29 quite an impact on you yes it has you know and it's also you know we um you know we put two kids

44:36 through college not necessarily with that but um you know it it definitely helped improvements to

44:43 our home that we've needed you know we wanted new furniture we needed a new deck and you know

44:48 things like that it definitely has helped you know to where we're not you know having to use credit

44:53 cards and loans and things like that so it really has just given just that little extra that's nice

44:59 to have is there anything you can think of that that you wish somebody would have told you when

45:08 you first started out on this um to to to do it and just go for it don't be afraid um upgrade as

45:19 soon as you can you know because again they are expensive machines but don't wait you know if if

45:26 if if we wouldn't have been able to do this the way we did it um you know I wish we would have

45:33 you know taken a loan out for it because we would have paid for this machine you know way

45:40 sooner than I would have ever thought um because it's word of mouth that I don't have trouble

45:47 getting you know the business or the the quilters to come to me and um you know if you're doing a

45:53 good job and you have a good turnaround time I think that's important um you know not to get a

46:00 quilt in and let it sit for a month if you can turn those around in two to three weeks you have

46:06 happy customers and so I just think um for me yeah I wish I would have gotten you know that upgrade

46:15 sooner so um do you do you live in a real a rural area or or more of a populated area what um kind

46:28 of in between we're rural but we're close to everything too if that makes sense something I do

46:37 that I know a lot of quilters don't do um you know they want their business to come

46:43 to their home or if that's where their business is run out of um I have people come to my home

46:50 um but I also will meet people because of where my daughter lives she's 40 minutes from me

46:57 and I pass a number of bread coves Panera you know just a little restaurant that sells bakery

47:05 goods or whatever and I will meet my customers there um it's quick it's fast it's convenient

47:12 they're right off the highway and I think that has helped a lot too just I feel like that's

47:19 an extra little piece that I can offer um you know a customer that maybe not everyone does

47:26 and um so I do that so I probably meet a good third of my people that way

47:37 awesome well Sandy um so you got your machine 15 years ago

47:48 can you think of any advice that the there's a lot of people uh that are going to be watching

47:53 this and listening to this what advice would you give to somebody that wants to do what you've

48:00 talked about doing today and do you think do you think that in this day and age that it is still

48:07 possible to do this and be successful I definitely do um and I think what really

48:14 affirmed that for me was this past December when I received so many new customers because

48:22 their long armor was retiring or no longer doing this basically retiring I guess and it was just

48:28 like wow because when they would first call and say they're looking for somebody my first thought

48:34 was oh their long armor is busy you know they can't get me in by Christmas or whatever and

48:40 that wasn't the case on a single one of them they were all new customers looking for a long armor

48:46 and you know it's not like they were looking you know there's retired or whatever so um I think

48:52 there's definitely room for people to get a machine start this business if you love it

48:59 go for it don't wait yeah and I will and to piggyback on that I will say that uh honestly

49:06 the demographic of quilters these days you know is such that there there's a lot of people that'll

49:14 be retiring out of it you know it's you know from time to time so what you said really does bring

49:20 true you know yeah and they're going to continue to be opening opportunities right and I think you

49:27 know for me I think a lot of people think that quilters in general not the long armor but just

49:35 the quilter who creates that top are of an older generation and I find that that they're not all of

49:44 an older generation so I think that that it's a hobby or a craft or an art that you know a younger

49:52 generation is getting interested in and so I think is that grows too um you know that's just going to

50:00 keep your business thriving yes and that's true we are seeing a lot of younger people uh coming in

50:07 and becoming uh quilters running a business quilting so I've seen a lot of that just just

50:13 since we've been doing uh this podcast so yeah so you also so I think that's you know it's helpful

50:21 for people who are thinking oh you know but like I said I I really think if you love doing this

50:29 if you want to make this a business I encourage you to um to jump in you know and go for it don't

50:37 wait because like I said I just in the two years that I um you know we purchased the ascend and

50:44 I could just feel be able to do more I've grown my business just in two years and without

50:51 advertising and you know doing the things that a lot of people do so it's what I'd like to do but

50:58 it's grown without that so you can do it too yeah that's awesome well Sandy and Doug who's

51:06 hiding off on the side there um thank you very much I I do want to give you the opportunity can

51:12 you uh is there a way that people can uh get in touch with you with your business I um I have a

51:19 website it's cool kuhlstitches.com so coolstitches.com I like that kuhlstitches.com

51:31 right it's a it's a great name to uh play off of things like that right yeah yeah I like that

51:38 I love that okay well Sandy I really appreciate it I know that um your uh sharing has has uh

51:48 touched a lot of people you know as evidenced by a lot a lot of people just um uh putting a

51:54 bunch of questions on here so that is um well if anybody wants to reach out um on my website I have

52:00 an email too on that um sandy at coolstitches.com feel free to email me and I'll try and help you

52:08 with what I can and answer your questions okay you can find your email on the on that website

52:14 yes okay coolstitches.com kuhlstitches.com right and um also hey you can uh okay yeah it's posted

52:27 on the uh website here so um yeah well Sandy thank you very much and Doug for uh thank you

52:36 for having me it's been wonderful and uh with that we're going to go ahead and wrap up another

52:43 episode of uh Quilting Business Success and we will see you next time thank you very much bye