Dyed and Gone to Heaven – An Online Magazine and Needlework Resource

Back to Shop Visits Main Page The CARON Collection is pleased to feature one of the outstanding shops who so ably provide stitchers with not only supplies but guidance, technical expertise, and inspiration. We hope you'll support your local shops and browse through our extensive SHOP LISTINGS to find a shop near you. Stitcher’s Workshop 104 Kennedy Road, Norphlet, Arkansas 71759 Our interview with Pat Dugan sheds some light on this wonderful shop. We hope when you are in the area you'll stop in for a visit. The front porch is a great place for your guests to wait while you shop. Dozens of hummingbirds visit the flowers and the feeders. How did you become involved in needlework or quilting? I began stitching at a very young age by doing the handwork for my mother who loved to make clothes but hated the handwork. I hemmed at age 8! My career with needlework began as a teacher at the Fuzzy Penguin in Sacramento in the early 1990’s. Caron Collection Watercolours are hung to help in choosing the perfect color! Was there anything – an event, a particular person, another shop, or a piece of handwork – that influenced or inspired you along the way? I’ve been fortunate to have several mentors along the way, suppliers who were gracious enough to give me advice when needed, other shop owners who were willing to listen to my ideas and offer suggestions and a class I took from Shay Pendray when I first opened my shop that told me it was ok to expect to make enough money to take home a salary! My friend, former shop owner, and past President of EGA, Jeanette Lovensheimer really encouraged my first years in the shop and introduced me to the Guild at the national level making it possible for me to compete for the National Seminar Boutiques. That encouragement opened the way for my current marketing efforts. Caron Collection Impressions are a featured thread at Stitcher's Workshop. Tell us about yourself, where you grew up, your life experiences and what prompted you to open your own shop. I was raised in a suburb of Denver in a family with 5 younger brothers. I married my best friend with whom I’ve moved around a bit. While in Sacramento, California I became involved with the business end of needlework. First teaching for and then working in the Fuzzy Penguin. When we were transferred to South Carolina I thought I was moving to the mecca of counted thread and would have many teaching opportunities. I started my shop in the tiny town of Clio because that was not the case and if I wanted a place to teach I was going to have to provide it myself. What an adventure that turned out to be.   Custom finishing and framing services are available for local customers and mail order customers alike. When did you open your shop? I opened my first shop October, 1995 in Clio, South Carolina in the carriage house adjacent to the plantation owner’s town home we leased there. In 1998 my husband was transferred to El Dorado, Arkansas and the shop moved to the historic district in Downtown El Dorado. Three years ago we built my existing shop building in Norphlet.   Everything you need for making all your Christmases special is available in the Christmas Room. How would you classify your shop (needlepoint, cross stitch, quilting, etc) and what are your specialties? I market to the Guilds by supplying Boutiques to their Seminars. I’ve done three National Seminars and close to a dozen Regional Seminars for EGA. As a consequence I carry a full range of supplies, counted thread, counted canvas, painted canvas, crewel, surface embroidery, all the necessary supplies, and thread. We’re pretty crazy about thread around here and a real favorite is the Caron line. Counted Cross Stitch, Counted Canvas, Blackwork, Hardanger, Crewel and Bead Embroidery projects are available here! What makes your shop stand out from all the rest? I just attended a marketing class where the presenter said customers don’t care about customer service anymore but we do care here. We go out of our way to find whatever it is the customer is looking for and if that means sending them to another shop that’s what we do. We have a very loyal customer base that is dedicated to helping us stay in business. They help all they can with information and of course with their dollars. We love what we do here and I think that shows in the way we interact with the customers. It surely shows in the way the customers treat us. You'll find canvases around every corner and hanging from the ceiling! Does your shop offer classes or teach new customers? We do offer classes and we have the Thursday Bunch, a group of stitchers who stitch at the shop on Thursdays either morning, afternoon or evening. Once a month we have a mini class where we try a new technique and the rest of the month we have Sit-n-Stitch. Whether you need a lamp or magnifier, stretcher bars or Q-Snaps, fabric or canvas, you'll find it at Stitcher's Workshop. What do you do to entice children to try needlework or quilting? We have Kids Stitch, classes that offer kids a chance to try their hand at any technique that catches their fancy. Some of our kids have won ribbons at the County Fair with their work and two were invited to show their needlepoint in an EGA National Headquarters exhibit. Boy, were we excited about that! Do you offer custom designs in your store? A former employee is now a professional needlepoint designer so we do have custom design service. We do simple samplers for those who have a special occasion and cannot find what they would like. Large windows and a long table make the classroom the perfect place to work on your stitching project. And as a bonus, you can take your break in the shop like these students did! Do you hold special events for your customers or the public? We hold Market Madness nights, we support local community programs with booths or make-it take it projects, and we celebrate the “Luck ‘O the Irish” each year with sales and fun activities. Tell us about some of your success stories. I was lucky enough to meet Sue Jennings of Needlewoman East early on. As I listened to Sue’s stories and met the people who she had inspired to move on in needlework I decided I wanted to be that kind of shop owner! One of the things I’m most proud of is the growth of Pamela Hill Designs. Pam was first a customer who wanted help with a cross stitch project, then a regular at the table when the Thursday Bunch met in the evening, before I hired her as one of my first employees. Pam was already an artist so I can’t take any credit for that but I do know that she became a needlepoint designer because of her exposure to the shop and the enthusiasm and encouragement she received there. She’s experienced some real setbacks along the way but we refuse to allow her to become too discouraged because she is very talented and the needlework world needs all the talented people we can get. What do you think customers appreciate most about your store? My employees enjoy stitching and they enjoy showing the customers the new merchandise when it arrives. There’s a lot of enthusiasm here and customers get excited just coming in. We take our customer's work seriously, are always ready to offer help with a problem and encourage them to try their hands at something new. How has technology impacted your own stitching or business? The website has had the biggest technological impact on our business. Because the Boutiques bring us lots of new customers from all over the country we see them returning to the website to order those items that they saw at Seminar but didn’t know they wanted. Learning to support the site has been a challenge as I upload all the products myself. We have a good webmaster and he has set up a really good system for me to do that but it does take a bit of time. What or who has been instrumental in the success of your business? I think the what is that I’m just too stubborn or too dumb to quit when things get tough. The who is my husband. He has been supportive all the way, financially as well as physically by helping at Seminar and by building this wonderful new building. How has your business or clientele changed since you first opened your shop? I’ve been a Guild shop almost from the beginning so I’m not sure the clientele has changed all that much, just grown. Since I started with $3,000 and a 21 foot square space and I now have 2800 square feet and way more dollars than that in the shop, I guess you could say the business has grown! What future plans do you have for your shop or your business? We will continue to work with the Guilds supplying Boutiques and work harder to expand the online business. I think in this business you can work as long as you want so as long as my health holds I’ll be selling thread. When did you first learn about, or use, The CARON Collection threads? I was lucky because Jackie at the Fuzzy Penguin bought Watercolours the first year it came on the market so I’ve been able to play with the Caron thread almost from the beginning. What CARON threads do you carry and how have they helped your business? The Caron threads are a mainstay in the shop as they are used by every facet of the business, painted canvases of course but counted thread, crewel, counted canvas all use at least one of the threads. Right now counted canvas is hot and several of the designers are using the Watercolours line as the basis for their designs so that thread is selling well. We stock the entire line of Watercolours, Wildflowers, Impressions both solid and overdyed, Waterlilies, Snow, and Soie Crystale. What is your favorite CARON thread and why? It’s hard to choose one because they are all good for a particular technique and I love all the different techniques. I do love Watercolours and Wildflowers for Hardanger. Right now I’m stitching and writing stitch guides for our canvas of the month and I’m using a lot of Impressions on these 18m painted canvases. It’s perfect for that use and the color line is incredible. If you don’t carry the entire line of CARON collection threads, are you willing to special order items not in stock for customers? So long a Lois is willing to sell it to me I’m willing to buy it! Do you also offer handpainted needlepoint designs or patterns from the CARON collection? My handpainted business is just now building so I’ve not stocked any of the canvases but I have had a trunk show at Seminar and will hope to do so again. Contact info: Stitcher’s Workshop 104 Kennedy Road PO Box 415 Norphlet, Arkansas 71759 Phone: 866-862-2239 Hours: TUE-THUR 10am to 5:30pm, Fri & Sat 10am to 5pm Email address: pat@stitchersworkshop.com Web address: http://www.stitchersworkshop.com

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