There is a new group in town! The National Upholstery Association is looking to gather the professionals in the Upholstery Industry and support and encourage them.

Rachel Fletcher and Audrey Lonsway are the new President and Vice President of the NUA.

Rachel Fletcher owns Knox Upholstery in Knoxville, Tennessee. With a bachelor's degree in communications from Millikin University, her career before upholstery included marketing, advertising and promotional events. Rachel learned how to upholster while working as a theatrical Props Assistant at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville. After falling in love with the trade she began her upholstery business out of her home in 2010. Rachel is a very active participant in the upholstery world. She is the President of the National Upholstery Association and a co-moderator of the Professional Upholsterer's Network on Facebook, which boasts over 2,100 upholsterers globally. Audrey Lonsway owns Sewing Den LLC in Ashburn, Virginia. Providing both upholstery and workroom services, she enjoys the variety in her shop. Audrey has a degree in Music Education from Shepherd College and spent ten years as a National Park Ranger (complete with the Smokey the Bear hat!) at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts as well as two other DC area National Parks. She's a mother of two young and wife to a tall Ranger husband.

Resources;

Cynthia Bleskachek of The Funky Little Chair

Kim's Upholstery

Susan Woodcock's Workroom Tech

Window Covering Association of America (WCAA)

An interior designer's best friend! Julie began her career as an Art Educator. An avid interest in interior design led her to enroll in the Interior Design program at New Hampshire Institute of Art. While at NHIA, her love of fabric and sewing translated perfectly into a career creating window treatments. Since she launched her business in 2006, she has specified her services largely to the interior designer. Julie enjoys assisting designers in creating spaces for clients that far exceed both client and designer expectations. Julie understands the importance of fresh and unique treatments and continues to enhance her knowledge through webinars, workshops, and classes. She is constantly learning new methods and techniques to incorporate into products, and she often passes along those tips to her interior designers.

Renee Rucci Design serves residential and commercial clients throughout the northeast. Renee's love for design reflects in her diverse style that she brings to her clients home. After being an art educator for 11 years, Renee opened her design firm in 2010. Her award-winning designs have been featured in New Hampshire Home magazine, Maine Home and Design and Visions Magazine. Travel is one of Renee's passions and she loves to bring elements from her many adventures into her clients home. In 2017 this love along with her fascination of antique maps helped launch a new addition to her brand. Traveling Textiles Home is her exclusive line of charming home accents that celebrate the spirit of place.

Renee Rucci Design

Renee's Facebook Page

The Leading Edge Drapery

Julie's Facebook Page

Resources;

Adaptive Textiles

The Woven World Facebook Group

Linda started sewing Home Decor because there wasn't anyone else in her community doing it. Shortly after starting to sew home decor, she took the New York Institute of Art and Design course and was then able to offer design, construction and installation services which she continues to offer today. In the last few years, she has added color specialist to her portfolio. She also writes a home-decor related newspaper column, has written 3 decorating made simpler books, over 700 How-to shorts, and is currently at work on the 'big course;' Learn to Choose Window Coverings.'

Resources; Your Business Right From the Start by Michele Williams The Library Susan Woodcock's Roman Blind Method with Iron on Buckram The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by; The Workroom Channel Scarlet Thread Consulting The WCAA

Joining me today on the Podcast today are Renee Williamson, Executive Director of the Window Covering Association of America and Susie Tanner, Marketing and Membership Director.

Whether you are a member of WCAA or not, I loved learning more about how our association is run.

Renee Williamson is a native of Augusta, Georgia and now lives in beautiful Wilmington, NC. With over 20 years of leadership experience in the non-profit and for-profit sector, Renee brings a wealth of knowledge to the WCAA.

Previously she was the Executive Director of a community organization in Murrells Inlet, SC, where she lead the organization in a new Strategic Plan that they continue to use today.

After becoming the Executive Director of the WCAA, Renee began working with the Board of Directors on a new Strategic Plan as well as rebranding the organization.

Susie Tanner brings more than 17 years experience working for non-profit organizations at the state, national and international levels to WCAA.

Her past work in the areas of communications & marketing, education, fundraising, member relations, technology initiatives, and youth programs has allowed her many unique opportunities to serve various associations and their members.

She holds a bachelor's degree in Public Service and Leadership and a minor in Communication from the University of Kentucky. She and her husband have two sons and own a small farm in Versailles, KY.

Resources;

I do use Amazon Affiliate links for the books I list, so I am grateful if you click through to purchase.

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Beneath A Scarlett Sky by Mark Sullivan

The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;

The Workroom Channel

Scarlet Thread Consulting

The WCAA

Christine McLean, Owner, The Red Pincushion- An interior Design workroom, Christine never imagined, in a million years, that she would own a workroom. A graduate of Michigan State University, with a degree in Biology, she spent 14 years between Pharmaceutical Sales and Medical Software, even starting her own electronic claims processing company. A native of Detroit, she has lived in Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas before being transferred to Birmingham, AL in 2002. She met her husband in 2003 when she opened a Franchise of the Dating Service, It's Just Lunch, in the same building as his practice, when she feigned a foot injury to try and recruit him as a client. After their first child, she sold the business. As a full-time mom she took up sewing again, a skill she learned from her mom, making clothes and elaborate Halloween costumes for her kids. She decided to tackle her bedroom drapes after a meeting with a decorator. A year later she took a class from a local workroom on how to make a bench cushion. The owner mentioned that she was thinking about selling her straight stitch and she offered to buy it. Five years later, Christine has built a dedicated client base of decorators and has found her true passion. She works out of the backhouse of her 100-year-old home with her two rescue dogs, Beau and Ollie, as company.

Christine is on Facebook

Resources;

CoStarters

Shasta Breitkopf - DrawMatic

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

Will Lynch - President and Owner of Safe T Shade, and Jacquelyn Weber - Vice President of Sales and Marketing visit us on this OPPORTUNITY THINKING Series to talk about the products that Safe T Shade provide for our industry.

We talk about the steps necessary to get a product to market, what do they do with prototypes and how long does all of this take??

Meet Jacquelyn and Will at The Custom Workroom Conference in September.

Resources;

Sandra Van Sickle's Live With Sandra V Facebook Page

Patent Trademark Office

Camile Moore's first love was fine art and oil painting. She looks at a client's home through the eye of an artist, as a work of art .. and window treatments are an artistic element. Camile attended Harris School Of Art and Watkins Art Institute as a young adult. In 1989, she took Advanced Custom Curtain, Drapery & Roman Shade Fabrication classes at Watkins Art Institute in Nashville TN, and business started blossoming soon after she completed the courses. Since then, Camile has taken hundreds of hours of custom and couture window treatment, drapery, curtain, pillow, bedding & slipcover workshops. She enjoys meeting designers and clients, creating custom designs, fabricating beautiful window treatments and bedding, and helping to install the finished work. Camile believes that God has truly blessed her with wonderful clients and a strong, talented, happy team. 2019 marks her 30th year in business!

Camile Moore Window Treatments and Custom Bedding

Resources;

Minutes Matter

Patti is the owner of Pillows & Pleats, LLC, a drapery design and fabrication business located in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Patti's journey began when she studied Interior Design in college some 33 years ago graduating at the top of her class. Two weeks after receiving her bachelor's degree, she married her high school sweetheart and supported his career path which involved several moves across the country. As a stay at home mom, she raised four children, spent years volunteering in the school systems and sewed countless costumes for community theater.

It wasn't until her youngest child reached middle school that Patti decided to marry her love of sewing with her degree in Interior Design and launched Pillows & Pleats, LLC in 2016. Patti specializes in fine custom window treatments and soft furnishings with a focus on quality and outstanding customer service. She has grown Pillows & Pleats organically with referrals from satisfied clients and serves Northern Virginia, DC and Suburban Maryland.

Patti is the current secretary of the WCAA Northern Virginia Chapter, a member of the Virtual Chapter, and is the 2019 recipient of the Jill Robson Memorial Scholarship for new businesses.

Patti is on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Resources;

The Curtains and Soft Furnishings Resource Library

The Custom Workroom Conference

Boots to Business

SCORE - Service Core of Retired Executives

The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;

The WCAA

The Workroom Channel

Scarlet Thread Consulting

Diana Hershey, the owner of DBH Designs, provides custom furnishings for the home, office, or business. The services offered to clients include draperies, valances, cornice boards, bedding, pillows, roman shades, blinds, slipcovers, and re-upholstery, just to name a few! Diana takes the time to thoroughly guide her clients through the process of uncovering their style and selecting the optimal fine decorator fabrics and hardware for the space to pull their room together and showcase their exceptional style to all those who enter the room!

Diana is on Facebook and Instagram.

Resources;

Kim's Upholstery

Scarlet Thread Consulting

The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;

The WCAA

The Workroom Channel

Scarlet Thread Consulting

Having a sewing business had been Doshie Witcher's dream since her mother taught her to hold a needle and thread. While in elementary school, she was sewing clothing for herself and others. In 1990 she opened Doshie's Custom Sewing and began specializing in alterations, custom work, and bridal designs. After making her first window valance, she decided that making window treatments were her passion and she spent the next 15 years working with interior designers to create custom window treatments. This led her to want to create her own line of valances so she designed Hidden Pocket Rod valances, which allow intricate curtain designs to be hung using a basic continental curtain rod. With these designs, Doshie expanded into Etsy in 2012, and now sells her Hidden Pocket Rod valances on her Etsy shop nationwide and internationally under the business name Black Belt Home Decor. Doshie is a second-degree black belt in Shorin Ryu Karate and spends her spare time training others in karate, singing in her local church choir, and spending time with her family.

Doshie is on Facebook and Pinterest.

The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by; The Workroom Channel Scarlet Thread Consulting The WCAA