Creations history Highlights, February 26, 2022 Recent Newsletter Highlights

Creations moves into a new Century

Our business began in 1978 and it somehow the years passed until it was almost a new century. By that time we had 22 years of experience behind us. Our dad, who was also our CPA, always pushed us to purchase a building for our business instead of renting.

We purchased the Rawson Home in the late 1980’s. We ran a second business for 11 years called “From Our House to Yours”. We specialized in home dec fabrics, antiques, eclectic junk and other great stuff. It was never financially successful and we often referred to it as our little albatross. However, when we needed to move from our downtown location, we had a place to go. (Thank you Daddy!) Without a place to go we would have closed.

The Rawson Home was built in the late 1800’s so when we decided to move Creations to this location we knew we had to renovate the house and enlarge the space.

As they started on the renovation, we discovered lots of issues as anyone does in an old building. We used our entire renovation budget on the front porch.

It was worth it as we have now been at this location for 22 years.

The house was so precious and we wanted to be known as the “Turn of the Century Add On”. We were determined for visitors to see our beautiful house and not know where the add-ons occurred. The wonderful group of people helping us did just that. No one ever says “Oh – that’s were they added on”!

We moved into our new location towards the end of 2000. We loved the challenge of display with all the high ceilings and rooms.

In those early years, we made sure we put everything we could think of in the store.

What a display challenge. We loved the mixture of garments, quilting, and gifts.

Over the years, we have definitely refined our look.

In 2008 we had been travelling for 10 years to quilt shows around the state. We did 15 years at the Houston Quilt Festival with the same 6 people going each year. What a crew we were. After 15 years, we knew it was time to stay closer to home and we purchased the building across our parking lot with the intent of building a retreat center.

It was quite a sight with the orange shutters and aqua paint!

We decided to tear it down and start again. Certainly glad we did!

It took nearly a year to get the permit from the city to build and another year to complete the job.

The day we bought the building

We tore down the old building and started again. The second story is being added here.

Finished 2010

We were blessed to have been able to bring some great national and international instructors to The Main House. Such well known instructors as Kaffe Fassett, Jen Kingwell, Gloria Loughman, and Sue Spargo taught for us. With the arrival of COVID we are no longer offering sponsored retreats, but The Main House is open for private rentals. Each group can set their own standards of safety. If your group is looking for a place to retreat, you can check the availability: Rent The Main House

Our goal is to continue to provide our customers with a great shop and retreat center. With your help, we will continue to write the next chapter, although it will be much shorter!!

We are always so grateful to those who have stood by us through the years.

1. Two of the gals, Corine and Val, were working with us before we moved to our current location. (That’s over 22 years.) A special “thank you” to Ginger Cullins for keeping pictures. If it was left up to us, this post would be much shorter and without any pictures! (She was part of Creations for over 20 years)

2. To Linda Coffee, who was our Project Manager at The Main House and who is still here as the property manager.

3. To our Mom and Dad who made it all possible with their support.

4. To Sharon Dinsmore who has kept us up with technology for over 30 years. Believe me, we would have folded many years ago without her support.

5. To Maisie Meredith who worked with us for 36 years.

6. To all our wonderful customers and friends who have gone with us on this “adventure”.

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Creations history Highlights February 13, 2022 Recent Newsletter Highlights

Creations – The Early Years

We thought you might like a little background on the beginnings of Creations. We are two sisters, Kathy & Julie, who have been partners since the late 1980’s in this “adventure”.

I, Kathy, started this journey on February 13th, 1978. Who knew that it could possibly last this long or take so many twists and turns. Most people can’t believe we are celebrating our 44th Anniversary. (Neither can we!)

In 1978 I had been living in Hawaii for 5 years working for Talon zipper company. It was a fun, easy time. I had a convertible sports car (the Midget) and my job took me to all the islands! There is a whole story how I got there, but how far back can we go?

I came back to Kerrville for a visit. Little did I know that mom was plotting to get me home. I was grilled about what was I going to do when I grew up. The answer was always that I would open a fabric store, maybe in Houston, where my sister, Julie, lived. The dream was to have the shop in an old house.

Mom suggested it would be fun to ride around and just look at locations. She said that Kerrville didn’t have a fabric shop. I should have been suspicious then.

We came across this building, of course, without our sign on it. How funny it was that it belonged to one of my parents friends. He just happened to be in the neighborhood and came by to let us in. How convenient! I think there was a plot being hatched.

We looked and somehow it got a bit more serious about actually opening a shop in Kerrville.

I went back to Hawaii with a big decision to make. Was I going to leave my new home, my great job and my friends to come back to my hometown on a business venture. On the airplane ride I decided what the heck and went for it. I quit my job, shipped my car back to California and drove it home in December of 1977.

This is a picture of the opening day at Creations on February 13th, 1978.

There was no business plan, just do it! Without the support of my parents this NEVER would have happened.

This was at the end of the polyester double knit era and we opened with all natural fibers. We had silk, cotton, linen and wool. It was definitely a rough beginning.

On August 4th, 1980 someone broke into our store in the middle of the night, stole a total of $146.28 (our daily total) and set the building on fire. We never did find out who the burglar/arsonist was. Probably for the best. The smoke damage ruined most of our fabric, patterns, notions. Jana Drane, a local customer from day one, and her hubby were there with their Volkswagen van (remember it was the 80’s) to help us remove any salvageable merchandise. As a side note, Jana is still our customer and friend. He hubby still laughs about the van full of fabric that he took home.

This was our opportunity to give it up and go a different direction or just hunker down and start over. We chose the latter and I am so grateful we did.

We began to thrive and in the late 80’s my sister, Julie, joined me as my partner. We were invited to be one of the top ten quilt shops in the country in 1996. We could say the rest is history, but thought we would include a couple of pictures.

Julie – Great Hair!

Julie is the one with the “business savvy” to keep us on the right path all these years. Without her, this ship would have sunk many years ago.

Kathy – Great Glasses!

Kathy is the one with the fabric, machine and sewing knowledge.

Remember, these photos were from the 1980’s!! We have changed a lot since then.

If you enjoyed reading this, next week we’ll look at our mid-years and our move to The Main Street location.

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