Celebrating 10 Years!
This January, TCQ celebrated 10 years in business. Can you believe it?! It feels like a good moment to reflect on that journey, give thanks, and think a little about what is to come.
In 2015 we were expecting our second child. My son was the first kid dropped of at day care in the morning and the last to be picked up at night. I worked in a declining industry, my husband got a really good job, and my mother bought herself a longarm quilting machine. So I asked my mother if the machine could live at my house and my husband and I agreed I could take one year and see what sort of business I could build. On January 1, 2016, after about 4 months of practice, planning, shifting things around, research, and nerves, I filed paperwork for Trace Creek Quilting, LLC.
Those first months I was taking all sorts of projects. I’m pretty sure I made some curtains, did some quilt repair, discovered memory quilts and took some longarm orders. I had 43 customers overall in 2016. HA! But I got the hang of it, started weeding out the things that weren’t my jam and came into 2017 a bit more focused.
My second year I still did the occasional odd job, but was really focusing on two services - memory quilts and longarming. I helped 29 people with longarming and took on 75 folks’ memory quilt projects. At some point in the year I took on my first employee - a friend who had no quilting experience but was amazing at prepping t-shirts for the t-shirt quilts. My mom was also pitching in regularly because, hey, that’s what moms do. Late in the year I upgraded the longarm from being hand guided to being mechanized. Game. Changer.
This photo was my very first post on Instagram, my how far we’ve come!
By 2018 I was still working off one big spreadsheet and luck but with the machine going on its own I was getting more sophisticated. My goals and vision were changing in bigger and better ways. The website was up and running. I started to say ‘we’ instead of ‘I’. We got up to 228 orders, of which 78 were for longarming services. I took on two more employees to help piece all the memory quilts we were making.
In 2019 we had totally gotten the hang of things. By the end of the year I had 7 employees, including an excellent admin, and we were cruising right along. We made memory quilts for 214 people (mind you, that’s the number of customers, some of them ordered multiple quilts!) and took 185 longarming orders. It-Was-Crazy, but in the best possible way. It’s worth noting at this point the entire business was running from a 24 x 12 foot room in the lower part of my home. Some of you may remember! Folks are coming into my home for drop offs and pick ups and my husband and I had to go through my work space to get to our bedroom.
2020 was something else - remember? HA! In May we moved down the street to a home that included a dedicated studio space. We took memory quilt orders through August of that year but had to discontinue the service because my son stayed at home for virtual school and it was all just too much for me to manage. It was heartbreaking to give it up. We had to shuffle the staff and not everything worked out how we had hoped but we found our way. We still managed to make memory quilts for 120 folks throughout the year. On the flip side, the pandemic had folks hunkered down and sewing so the demand for longarming exploded. We pivoted to make our drop-off process contactless which also worked well for mail-in customers. Things took off and we serviced 205 longarm customers.
In 2021 I purchased a second machine, another game changing move for both the business and my family life. I was able to do more during the day and spend less time in the evenings away from the family. While growth was always welcomed, I felt like we were finally settling in to that right balance between supporting my business and supporting my family. I had 5-6 employees throughout the year, one of which was a dedicated photographer. We switched over to a new tracking and invoicing system and it was easier to run the numbers. We had a huge bump that year and have really settled in since then.
This chart shows how the longarming side of TCQ has evolved. Unfortunately, my homegrown spreadsheets from the early days did not track the number of quilts, just customers and invoices but the overall picture is still clear. This slow but steady growth has been lovely. Not too much, not too little and not too fast. We are happy to continue to grow but are really content with the balance we’ve reached between supporting our employees, serving our customers, and being there for the family.
Throughout the last 5 years we’ve shipped quilts all around the country and even around the world. We’ve had the honor or working with many pattern designers, fabric designers, and fabric shop owners. These folks push this industry forward and have helped TCQ grow into what it is today. We’ve seen our work at QuiltCon, started (and stopped) offering quilt photography, ran several partnership projects and began designing our own quilt patterns. It has been wonderful to be able to test our creative ideas and see what works for us in each moment.
I want to make it very clear that while I’m the face of this operation, I do not do this alone. Back in the day, Jen M and Mr. Tim prepped t-shirts and memory quilts for us. Sarah S and Kathy M were some of the first to piece t-shirt quilts for me. Heather G and Julia N joined the team for the t-shirt quilts and then evolved with us to do longarming and binding. Angela A has been my photographer, graphic designer, and business idea generator and Kristin B my web and social media master. Jen R keeps the studio in line and production moving forward and Allison K packs up all the quilts every week. Gayle L is admin extraordinaire - that’s a short statement but she looms large in TCQ. My mom is unwavering support, sounding board, and overflow labor all in one. My husband is the VP of shipping and the steady rock upon which I can crash. Currently, TCQ runs 4 longarm machines and has 5 part time employees.
Folks I don’t pay regularly but who play a huge part in my forward progress are my local quilty babes - Jess S, Kristy D, Gina S, Sarah H, and Christine B. Leila G, Octavia P, Pam H, and Tess M are in the sphere of those I hold dear and who support me without hesitation.
There are a select few who truly speak my language and whom I’m not sure how I’d survive without even though we only see each other once or twice a year. Melissa K, Ashley P, Enjoli S, and Emily H - mwah. Jess, Josh, and Cheryl - you too! There are several others, some in the Longarm League, some not, but you know who you are.
I don’t know exactly what the future holds for Trace Creek Quilting. We could hold steady for another 10 years, contract a little to focus more on the family, or build a quilting empire that is recognized throughout the land. I don’t know. But I do know I’m along for the ride, I’m enjoying the ride, and I appreciate so much more than is possible to express all of you who have chosen to be a part of it. Celebrating 10 years isn’t just for me or for TCQ, it is for everyone who has played even a small part in our existence. That includes you. Thank you and I can’t wait to see what is ahead!
