My son, Alan, teamed up with his best friend, David Mifsud, whom heвЂ™d met while volunteering as missionaries in Kiev, Ukraine. Shortly after setting up our small shop, we decided to take our new business online. Little did we know that within a few short years, weвЂ™d be offering over 30,000 bolts of fabric, along with hundreds of our own quilting patterns, quilt kits, our very own quilt magazine called BLOCK, and a huge selection of precut quilting fabrics!

So, in November of 2008, on a shoestring budget, we bought a small brick building in Hamilton that would fit a longarm quilting machine and the Missouri Star Quilt Company was born! At first, we only offered machine quilting services and sold a few quilt fabrics and quilting supplies. The idea of sewing quilts for a living thrilled me-they say that if you do what you love, youвЂ™ll never work a day in your life. You should start your own machine quilting business!вЂќ Two of my children, Alan and Sarah, told me, вЂњMom, if you have to wait that long to have your quilts quilted, thereвЂ™s gotta be a lot of demand. It was so much fun! Then, one day I brought in some quilts to be machine quilted at a local quilt shop and I was told IвЂ™d have to wait a year for it to be finished. I quickly began stitching up quilts for friends and family from whatever fabric I had on hand.

Previously, I had designed costumes for the theatre, but when we moved to Missouri the theatre scene wasnвЂ™t very big-it was all about quilting! I took a local quilting class and was immediately hooked. The idea for the Missouri Star Quilt Company came out of the blue.

Hearts of iron tutorial