from the heart...

when i walked away from a long and rewarding career three years ago to take care of our sweet sarah as her health was deteriorating before our eyes, i had no idea what the future held. today i have a small glimpse...our second year in the quilt business has come and gone.  a super quick twelve months filled with bright and beautiful fabric, appreciative and returning customers, new friendships, and happiness galore.  we are sincerely grateful.

as with any new venture, there is a certain amount of uncertainty. will it survive? maybe even thrive?  i'd like to think we have passed the infancy stage, chugged into the toddler phase and there we sit in the midst of the sandbox. observing, learning, and anticipating our next steps.  it has not all been easy. we have certainly had our share of growing pains. we've identified somes obstacles. questioned the intent of a few. had our hearts broken a time or two. 

we've had our vision questioned.  our mission doubted.  there have been temper tantrums, by both us and a visitor. we've had checks bounce and products stolen. we've been lied to and had untrue rumors spread. 

but in the end, the challenges do not come close to the fun we've had and the laughter we've shared. the greatest gift of all...sarah is still by my side...alive...which i am grateful for each and every day.

thank you so very much for helping to make our dream come true.  thank you for sticking with us. we look forward to the excitement of a new year!

no rulz art...

love the name. love the mission...

and now we love the fabric!!!  the crew over at no rulz art, llc are happy to announce they have started to hand dye fabric in addition to their socks and headbands. and we are so happy to tell you it is in our store!!  

if you're not familiar with this creative group of young adults, click here and read a story sarah wrote on her blog last year (wow the store sure looked empty then:) the fabric is cut into pieces approximately 18 x 18 and sell for two dollars each with 100% going directly back to no rulz art to help keep their program rolling.  the fabric is moda bella solid pfd (prepared for dyeing).  no two pieces will ever be the same.  

sunday sweetness...

i'm so excited to share this next photo...

meet kirill and his brother clayton. the journey for kirill to reach his forever family was not easy. his new mom and dad were tenacious in their fight to be sure he lived a life full of love and hugs away from the orphanage he resided. you can read more about sarah's work on kirill's quilt and pillowcases here.

thank you suzy...

a few months back sarah and i had the pleasure of speaking with a delightful woman who writes a column for quilts inc.

we were not sure when the article was to publish, so it truthfully went to the back corner of my mind.  then i receieved word it went live.

as i first read the story, i cried. it was as if i was reading the tale of a stranger. then i blinked twice at the picture and realized that truly is sarah and sari standing there. in our store. this really is our story. it still doesn't seem real for some reason when i see it in print.  yet, we have so many wonderful new friends, i am quickly reminded that indeed it is real. still, i pinch myself every so often. 

thank you suzy for capturing our mission so perfectly. (click the picture to read the story)

sunday sweetness...

from the creatively loving hands of our very own sarah...

...to eva noel hook...now with her graciously loving forever family. to read more...click here.

priceless rewards...

if you were anywhere near the shop this afternoon, you probably heard our screams and shouts. you would have thought we hit the mega lottery.  actually, we did.  now i've never actually won the lottery before, so i have nothing to compare it to...yet the feeling of supreme happiness that sarah and i experienced when we saw this...

truly cannot be defined.  i can't imagine there is a greater happiness. meet jax and arina. you can read more about the two here. some of you reading this have watched our quilts go together. they start with nine blocks that sarah and sari work out on the design board and then they sew the blocks together. i help pin the sashing and then sarah sews it together. once that part is complete, off they go to diane at longarm legacies for quilting.

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our goal is to have a quilt ready for each reece's rainbow kiddo that comes home to their forever family this year.  arina is the first to receive hers. as soon as we knew she was coming home we started sewing her squares together using pink, pink and more pink from kate spain's first collection called verna...

she is the first girl in a family of four boys so her mommy was so looking forward to girly things. can you imagine this sweet angel living her life in an institution, never having her own quilt or her own family?

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and we certainly could not forget about her big brother jaxson. so he received his own version of our four square in make life by sweetwater...

mr. jaxson is a cutie of a fellow. he has been through more medical ordeals in his short life than most in a long lifetime, yet he keeps on smiling...which is why we thought this collection would be just perfect for him...he makes life sunny, makes life colorful and makes life beautiful.

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and finally the package would not be complete without a matching pillowcase in memory of our shining light...kristen ann kirton.  

each pillowcase has been lovingly stitched by either sarah or sari or one of our volunteer sewers.  this project has been such a blessing in so many ways and we are just getting started. we already have the next quilt boxed up and ready to ship.
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please, please, please...if you know a family who has opened their hearts to bringing home a child with down syndrome through reece's rainbow, let us know by sending us an email to jhillely@gmail.com.

perfect pathways...

never have my paths crossed more perfectly than in this new quilt shop of ours. i never set out to own a fabric store. but then who ever really knows the exact path their life will take. i'm often asked about my background by new customers. i've been sewing since i was seven. i started quilting as a teenager. mostly self taught. by degree, i am a social worker. i earned my bssw from bowling green and my masters from ohio state. i have worked with abused children, battered women and victims of rape. for years i raised money for united way to help support social service programs. i have been the executive director of the american heart association in cleveland. in each one of these jobs i found a way to incorporate fabric and thread into the lives of the ones we served.

today tom gregoire, the dean of the college of social work at the ohio state university came to visit our new shop. i have been sharing some of what we have been doing...employing young adults with developmental disabilities, stitching pillowcases for young cancer patients being treated at local hospitals, making quilts for families who have adopted a baby living in an orphanage, and appliqueing sunbursts onto onesies for new parent visits by a local support group. we are not alone in this endeavor. quilt shops for years have been a place of social support and friendship building. women have been hosting quilting bees for centuries for the same purposes. i know that intellectually, it's just i've never before witnessed the interaction so closely. with my own eyes. on a daily basis. how enriched and blessed i am. and how aware i have become of the human importance of local quilt shops.

autism helps

...i was excited that the furniture arrived on a day that sari was working. i knew that she would enjoy getting it prepped and ready for fabric.

sure enough. she got right to work dusting to be sure it was clean before we put our fabric on top.

if you have been over to our website you may have read our mission statement: to provide competitive employment in an entrepreneurial setting for young adults with Down syndrome and other developmental disabilities. sari just happens to have autism.

i was recently asked what i know about autism and my reply was this, " not very much." i do know sari though. as an individual. i know she is very punctual. has never called in sick. she knows how to do her job. without repeated instruction. she works very hard and she takes pride in her work.

and best of all...she loves our fabric. most of the fabric in the store sari has opened. she was told only twice that the moda labels all need to be facing the same direction. and now they do.

she is learning to create displays. here she is contemplating how she is going to line wee woodland, our newest collection in house, in the crib. many have heard of the organization autism speaks. i am here to tell you that autism helps too. in a very big way.