it's a family affair

one of the many things i love about the quilting industry is the number of families that are involved. there are many, many, many quilt stores owned and operated by husband and wife teams. there are even on-line stores such as fat quarter shop run by kimberly jolly and her husband. there are several mother/daughter design teams too. bonnie and camille and lauren and jessi jung come to mind. then there is jean wells, a shop owner for 35 years and her daughter valori who has become a designer of fabric collections and patterns. and i just recently read about jan and brian hill, a mother/son team in west linn, oregon.

being a part of a family business is not new to me. from the time i was a little girl, i worked in my grandparent's hardware store in sidney, new york. i observed the balance of responsibility between the two of them. i also watched their middle son help out each summer, once his duties as a math teacher at the local high school came to an end.

a decade or so later, my husband and i found ourselves in a business situation that required both of our attention. never did we set out to be entrepreneurs. it took a health care crisis with our daughter to set that ball in motion. there were a few times that i thought it was the worst thing that could have happened to us, but hind sight being what it is, i now recognize it as another facet to his mysterious ways.

and that is exactly what is leading our newest venture, divine intervention. the thrill i experienced having my husband and daughter by my side as we introduced jellen's house of fabric to our community, will long be a memory of extreme pleasure. i am guessing that sarah and i are the first mother/daughter with down syndrome, team in the quilt shop owner category. which just gives this project all the more excitement and a unique quest for success.