Company
History
As
a leader of two Girl Scout troops, I was always looking for community
service projects for my girls. During a training seminar, another leader
mentioned the ABC Quilt Project. I have always enjoyed sewing but I had
never quilted. Making quilts to brighten the lives of sick children appealed
to the girls in my troops. I located a quilt store; the shop owner was
willing to help me learn to quilt and to help teach my sixth-grade girls
to make quilts.
I
was hooked after making my
first quilt in December 1999. Fortunately, the sixth-grade girls enjoyed
the process and were willing to help teach other girls (Kindergarten
through ninth grade) in our Service Unit to make baby quilts. That first
year, we made 35 quilts.
My
younger daughter’s fourth-grade troop wanted to make a “real
quilt” as opposed to a baby quilt. The girls made a sampler, displayed
it at a local quilt show, and then donated the quilt to the branch library
where we met.
Even
after “retiring” as a scout leader, I have continued to
quilt and to share my love of quilting. I have offered curriculum-related
quilt classes (demonstrating how quilting relates to math, art, history,
home economics) to fellow teachers and started a quilting group for
students, faculty, and parents at my high school. One fellow teacher
had never sewn on a button before she took my class in January 2002,
but by that December, she had made 19 quilts to give as gifts to her
family.
My
friends and colleagues have encouraged me to enter quilt shows and contests.
My first entry was to the State Fair of Texas (my home state) in 2007
where I received an Honorable Mention for a bed quilt. I entered the
North Georgia State Fair earning a First Place for Empress Garden, a
wall hanging, a Third Place for Not Everyone Sees Eye to Eye, a wall
hanging, at the State Fair of Texas, and had a quilt juried in to the
East Cobb Quilters’ Guild Show.
In
fact it was a good friend who encouraged me to start this business.
I was visiting with her when I began to seriously consider the possibility
of a business and we started tossing around ideas for a name. Miele
is honey in Italian and I am tall but “Tall Honey” did not
sound like a great name. We finally settled on Honey Mountain Quilts.
Fortunately no one else was using that name so I was literally “in
business.”