Two Bean Quilts

I am asked at least once a week, where I came up with my name for my business, so, here you go!  Two of my most recent bosses are my inspiration, "Beanie" was the instigator for me, she told me I needed to follow my passion, (quilting).  Of course, I was raising young children and couldn't afford to completely go out on a limb and start up a new business, so I said it would have to wait. I left Beanie and went to work for a Lady who had the last name of Bean, she was very passionate about her job and loved everything about it; late nights, early mornings, Federal Grant writing and compliance, going to court...it didn't matter, when I thought it was getting really bad, she was in her glory days.  I was in awe watching someone work in their passion and I knew it had to happen for me and SOON!!!!  I bought a hand guided Gammill longarm and attempted to start my own business.  I started out in my garage which we had insulated, re-wired, drywalled and painted.  I began my journey of quilting for people.  While that wasn't yet paying the bills, I found odd jobs cleaning homes and businesses and babysitting to keep my schedule as flexible as I could be for my business.  But my real passion was in teaching people to cut up perfectly good fabric and sew it back together!  So, I would load up as much as my van could hold, go to trade shows to get my name out there.  And then I found a place to rent on Saturdays to hold sewing classes.  After about six months of spending most Saturdays hauling everything I had that was sewing related back and forth to a classroom, I knew I needed to find a place to really venture into my passion.  I rented a large classroom space with a friend, she painted in the evenings, I quilted in the day time.  It worked great for a while, but both of our businesses were taking off and schedules were hard to manage.  She moved into a new space in the same building and I began to expand. Little by little (or I should say bolt by bolt) I began to slowly bring in fabric.  Fabric wasn't really my passion, but we had no where in Butte to buy good quilting fabric.  As my fabric selection grew, I knew I would need more space and knew what I wanted.  I found the perfect spot!  I had room for a separate classroom and a retail floor. Thus began my journey of really bringing in a fun selection of quality fabrics, while still finding time to teach classes and sew a bit myself!  I currently have two computerized Gammill Longarm machines that run almost everyday!  I have the most amazing customers and am so fabulously blessed to get to actually follow my passion!  They say if you love what you do, you'll never consider it work.  I do love what I am doing and love to share my passion with anyone who wants to learn!  But none of this would have come to be, if I didn't have the most amazing husband and supporter in so many ways.  He has been my banker, therapist, tear dryer and my biggest cheerleader through all of this adventure!  With support from him and my "Quilting Queens" I get to live the dream (literally) everyday!  Well, I hope that answers some of the question about my name, if you haven't yet, stop in and say Hi, peruse the great fabrics we have in the shop and don't forget to get your name on my mailing list!