Frustrated by the lack of resources for supplies and quality fabrics, she decided the only thing to do was to open a quilt shop! Of course her family thought this was crazy, but they knew better than to try and stop her.

She decided the best way to start was by gathering inventory. As she found good deals on fabric and notions, she stocked up and when there was enough, she would look for a location for the shop. So I am sure you can already imagine what her house looked like for the next few months! She made regular trips to Los Angeles to the Textile mart and found that if she bought "flat fold fabric" right from the manufacturers and rolled it on the bolts herself, she could get it cheaper and in smaller quantities. This allowed her to offer a bigger selection of more affordable fabric to her customers. I have to say this is when I began to hate fabric! Many hours were spent at Mom's, rolling fabric on bolt after bolt after bolt...

Finally, there was enough to start the location search. We settled on a small shop in Alta Loma, CA in a corner shopping center. We painted, hammered,   built shelves, and hung peg board for days until finally we were ready to bring in all that hand-rolled fabric and the big box of notions and quilting books that would no doubt amaze the people when they saw the awsome selection! Ok, here is where I have to stop and laugh... really hard. You see, we are talking about 1983. We carried every known notion made for quilting at the time. It took up a space on the vast wall of peg board that measured about 3 feet wide by 4 feet tall. Next to that was the entire library of quilt books... about 12. (Thank goodness for Blanche Young!) And last but not least, all that fabric that we rolled for days on end - well, let's just say it was a lot, but our little shop wasn't that little when we started trying to fill it up. Needless to say we had a nice BIG class area! Oh, and about that hand-rolled fabric -  (calicos only, remember - 1983) the most expensive, highest quality fabric that we stocked was $3.99 a yard. The times certainly have changed!

Quilters Haven has also changed alot since that fateful day in November 1983 when we opened our doors for the first time and framed our first dollar made. We went on to move 4 times until we landed in the "big store" in downtown Upland, CA. It was a wonderful 4500 square feet with 2/3 rds of that dedicated to class rooms. We had over 250 quilts on display so a visit was like a personal quilt show. We also went on to open a small satellite store near Hemet, CA and voila...we were a chain! During our growth Charlie also began designing patterns and we branched out and added a wholesale division of the business which led to doing a few quilt shows now and then to help promote our patterns. Today we have over 40 original designs with many more coming and we do more than 40 shows a year.

You may be wondering how she does it! Two shops, designing, and extensive travel from coast to coast? Well, after 13 years of trying to do it all, she decided working 10 days a week was too much, so she closed the retail stores so she could devote more time to the things she loves most:  teaching, designing, and traveling all over to shows to meet other quilters, and of course the grandkids, Sarah and Trevor. (Who knew working only 7 days a week would give you so much free time!)

The patterns she designs are aimed at finding fast and easy ways to make beautiful quilts. This is because she herself is not exactly patient when it comes to sewing. For example, when my sister and I were young my mom made all of our clothes and when she would lay out the pattern on the fabric instead of pinning it down like a normal person she would use things from the cabinet like the salt and pepper shaker, the steak sauce, a bottle of ketchup, etc. to hold the pattern in place while she cut it out. Pinning took too much time!! When I demo our patterns at shows I always say that if she tells you to pin something down in one of her patterns, do it! She would not have said to do it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Charlie loves to teach and is one of the most patient (I know hard to believe) teachers you will ever know. She can take a group of people at varying degrees of skill and make everyone feel like a pro! If you are interested in any of her workshops, trunk shows, traveling quilt shop, etc. just send an e-mail and I will make sure she gets it the next time she stops by to fill up the van for the next show!