026. Running an Online and Brick and Mortar Quilt Shop with Amy Johnson

Meet Amy Johnson, the creator of Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures where she's shared many videos on machine quilting with rulers. She's was one of the first quilters to try longarm rulers on her home machine and she's taught two Craftsy classes on this topic as well: Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine and Creative Quilting with Rulers.

She started by simply blogging her quilting adventures, then taught the Craftsy class and opened an online store to carry the tools, rulers, and feet that support the classes. I send everyone to Amy's website for ruler feet because she will know what foot will fit your machine the best.

Amy was a stay at home mom, but then her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and this changed their lives completely. Now he works repairing the sewing machines at Sew Simple, the machine dealership they own in Lynchburg, VA. They've just recently moved the shop to a new building that has a separate classroom so Amy has space for teaching and machines.

We worked together last year on the Tunic Challenge. Each week we shared our progress on a tunic from The Tunic Bible in blog posts. Come to think of it, I need to make another tunic for the summer!

We talked a bit about the challenges brick and mortar quilt shops are going through with competition from online stores. Many store owners feel like people are "show running" the shop and looking and checking things out, but then buying online to get a better deal. That trend is driving brick and mortar shops out of business because it is VERY expensive to run a physical quilt shop.

Amy is working so hard to manage her two businesses and we talked a bit about burnout. Working super long days, taking care of three kids, a household, and a storefront is so much to manage. I've struggled with burnout myself and I know there's only so long you can run fast and hard before something breaks.

Moving forward, Amy wants to focus more on her online business, be able to spend more time quilting and be able to step away from cutting fabric in the quilt shop. I keep telling her she needs to write a book, but as you'll see from the intro - that's a lot of work too!

This episode was sponsored by April Wells from SewDarnCuteQuilting.Blogspot.com. April is a longarm quilter who can help you finish your quilts with beautiful machine quilting.