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 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 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.