Linda Foulk stepped into a back room at Specialty Quilts on Sept. 7 and prepared for a long night of work.
Around the room sat scraps of fabric of various colors and patterns and padding for quilts. In the middle was a giant industrial sewing machine. With the tap of a keyboard, the machine, attached to a computer, began sewing stars into red, white and blue fabric.
“I started out non-computerized, but when I got 100 quilts behind, I went computerized,” Foulk said.
Specialty Quilts, now located at 2115 Industrial Drive, moved into the building June 30 after spending about 15 years at 2709 Industrial Drive. The company will hold a grand-re-opening Sept. 22.
Foulk’s love of quilting dates back to her childhood in St. Louis when she learned the skill from her grandma.
“I was this skinny, non-athletic kid that didn’t want to do softball with all my friends because I was so bad at it,” she said. “So I would spend my whole summer with Grandma to get out of being on the softball team.”
She fell into her current business by accident. Foulk worked for the state of Missouri from the late 1980s through the early 1990s. She began making handmade quilts for her coworkers for fun.
By 1993, Foulk was a single mother. To make extra money, her parents helped her buy her first quilting machine. She sold the quilts to quilt shops in Branson.
After getting married in 1999, she moved into a small studio shop as the business continued to take off. Four years later, she moved into the space at 2709 Industrial Drive, where the shop grew for the next 15 years.
“I never thought that I would have a quilt shop,” Foulk said. “It just happened.”
Today, she employs herself and six part-time employees. Foulk makes 1,200 quilts per year and usually works 16-hour days, she said.
During the past two decades, she gradually tripled her revenue streams. At first, she simply sold quilts. Then she began carrying fabrics, threads and other things to make quilts. Now, the shop hosts quilting clubs that serve as a third revenue source.
Inside the new location at 2115 Industrial Drive, quilts of all colors hang on the walls. In the front of the store hangs a black and orange Halloween quilt. In a meeting room are a pair of green Christmas tree quilts. In the bathroom even sit a pair of celestial quilts with patterns of the solar system that glow in the dark.
The new 5,200-square-foot space features skylights that highlight Foulk’s products and will allow the store to hold more classes.
Foulk said her products are designed to last generations.
Theresa Black, of Hermann, swears by Specialty Quilts because other stores don’t sell as nice of products, she said.
“She’s got a very nice selection of stuff,” Black said. “I like coming up here to see what’s new.”
Central Bank moving into Neef Terrace
A pair of financial advisers with Central Bank will move into the historic Neef Terrace building at 105 W. High St. in Jefferson City this week.
Charlie Frank and Kevin Callaway of Central Bank Investment Advisors will relocate to High Street from their current office at 510 Jefferson St.
Their phone numbers and email addresses will remain the same, according to a Central Bank news release.
Built in 1892, the Neef Terrace building is named after German immigrant Henry Neef, who originally designed the building’s first floor for commercial use and its second and third floors for use as a hotel. The building most recently housed Press & Port’s Eatery, which closed in summer 2017.
Central Bank, which owns the building, spent at least $80,000 on the project, according to building permits filed in May with Jefferson City. Central Bank’s travel division, Central Travel, has an office next door at 103 W. High St.
Central Bank’s main office is at 238 E. Madison St. in downtown Jefferson City.
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