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The whirr of sewing machines and scissor snips on fabric that have brought joy to downtown Eudora for nearly 30 years will end in December as a favorite hangout closes the door on a storied career.
The decision to retire is a bittersweet one, but Quilting Bits and Pieces co-owner Christina DeArmond has nine grandchildren, events and mission trips that she’s ready to focus on. Overall, she’s happy for what comes next, she said.
She’ll miss the people and their joy the most, she said.
“Just to hear the laughter. It’s really fun to hear them having a good time. That’s the part I’ll miss, is hearing other people having a good time and knowing that I had a little part in it,” DeArmond said.
After opening Quilting Bits & Pieces in 1997, DeArmond was once told by a fabric sales rep that her store would never stay in business in a small town. Almost three decades later, she’s proved him wrong and is proud of the business and community she’s helped create.
“We had one guy who said, ‘Well, I’ll come see you,’ and he did, and we ordered fabric from him right away. He said, ‘Well, you won’t be here in another year,’ I said, ‘Well, I think we might,’” DeArmond said.
She’s proud to have created a shop that was successful in drawing in customers from all over. That sales rep later became one of her favorites, and later told her that she had impressed him.
DeArmond opened the shop in downtown Eudora with her sister, Amy, after she’d moved back following 16 years in Minnesota.That’s because the whole time she was gone, her quilt-loving younger sister was begging to open shop when she returned. DeArmond said she prayed about it the whole time she was gone, and asked God if he wanted her to move them back to Kansas to open the shop.
She was not a quilter or sewer growing up, but while in Minnesota she took up some classes and realized she enjoyed it.
Now the shop’s been open for 27 years, and she’s made friends and seen friends turn into employees because they’re in the store so much they might as well work, too.
“It’s amazing because they come in as customers and they leave as friends,” she said.
She said God brought many good people into her life, as well as good blessings into the shop.
“It’s just been overwhelming at times,” she said.
She’ll miss sew days with her friends and getting to participate with them.
“Sometimes I make it a priority to be out there with them and goofing off, but I have to be in here doing the book work the majority of the time,” she said. “But I hear the laughter and that’s the important part.”
DeArmond has seen the cycles the store has gone through. When they first opened, there was a lot of excitement, then the recession hit in 2008 and people started saving money and not spending on hobbies. During that time, she took up twilling, a special embroidery stitch that no one else in the area was doing.
She started teaching the stitch and it took off during the recession because it was cheaper than doing a whole quilt and could be used in a lot of different projects, she said.
Her shop became known across the nation for doing that kind of stitch. That sustained the business for a long time.
When the economy picked back up, quilting became popular again. Over the last few years, it’s also been a similar cycle. During the pandemic, more people were crafting and staying at home, which helped the shop. As inflation grew, though, people started saving for groceries and the shop slowed down through last year. Since then, it’s rebounded. The shops survived through all the ebbs and flows.
Frankie Lister, a regular and friend to DeArmond, said the store has been a “lifeline” after she recently lost her husband.
“I started coming here about the time we moved, which would be 17 years,” she said. “They’ve just been awesome.”
Lister said there’s been many friendships and fun that have come out of the shop over the years and is sad to see it go,
“That’s what I told my daughter last night. I said,” Oh man,” I said,” I need you guys more than ever now,” Lister said.
Years ago, Kaye Spitzli was out of the country with her family when she received a letter from her mother saying there was a new quilt shop opening in town. She sent back a letter telling her mom it was her job to keep the store open until she got back.
Now, Spitzli has been working at the shop for most of the time it’s been open, starting part time, then moving to full time and now being a shop partner. The shop has two other partners, Faith Gorden and Eula Lang.
Spitzli has always been a quilter, along with her mother and grandmother. She remembers going to her grandma’s house before she started school and playing under the quilt frame as they worked on quilting on top.
“I can remember my grandma saying, if you don’t get your noggin down, you’re gonna have my needle in it,” she said.
So quilting has always been a part of her life, but she knows now is time for them all to retire, she said.
The friendships, the Christian fellowship and the connections to people with shared passions will be missed most, she said.
“It’s just been a special place. We’ve had numerous people come in that were good customers, and they would come in and say, ‘I just need a little bit of prayer’” Spitzli said.
She teared up as she recalled one customer she didn’t know well coming in to ask her if she’d pray for her after she received her breast cancer diagnosis.
It’s always created a close connection with others, and she has a lot of memories to show for it, she said.
“We had a lot of late nights, in the beginning, late nights could go till three in the morning,” Spitzli said.
Having had a successful business in a small town has been exciting, she said. Seeing the store bring customers from all over Kansas has felt good.
Being born in Eudora, Spitzli has a special connection to the town. What makes it even more special is her connection to the building, though.
Her father had bought the building to run Pete’s Garage for many years, she said. When the shop moved into the space, she was painting and saw some grease leftover from the garage. Her great-grandfather was the one who initially poured the foundation for the building in the early 1900s.
When the shop was up the street where Main Street Scoops and Sweets is now, she remembers a lady coming in and just looking around the place. Spitzli remembers the lady showing her an entire bolt of fabric she had picked out from the general store that was there before.
The woman said she had to buy the entire bolt because there were only two options, and she didn’t want everyone else in town to have the same clothes.
Becky Piland has been visiting Quilting Bits and Pieces to meet up with a group of friends during sew days for several years.They gather together in the classroom space, work on their projects and just enjoy each other’s company. They come from all over the area to meet in Eudora.
It’s sad to see a small business go, but she’s happy to see them retiring, she said.
“Even though it’s an individual thing, and everybody does their thing, because we’re all working on our own projects that we like, it’s still a community event,” Piland said. “It kind of harkens back to the days in the church basement where the women got together and did their quilting bees and stuff.”
It’s nice to have encouragement, camaraderie and support with a healthy community like hers, she said.
Sales will continue until they close in early December, DeArmond said. She and her husband own the shop, and are undecided if they will keep or sell when December comes, she said.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].
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