In Your Space: Spool

I was so happy when a friend told me about Spool, a fabric and notions shop at 1420 McCallie Ave. As I love to craft AND it's in my neighborhood of Highland Park, I headed right over to check it out. What I found was another female small business owner, Maddie Kertay,  bringing her passion for quilting to life in a wonderfully colorful and inviting space that got me really wanting to pull my sewing machine out and get to making something...like those curtains for my bedroom that I've needed for a year...

Check out what Maddie is doing here http://www.spoolquilt.com/index.htm, here https://www.facebook.com/BadAssQuiltersSociet and here:

How and when did you learn to quilt?

Being  a rather stubborn autodidactic I taught myself to quilt about 4 years ago. I have sewn since I was about 9 years old but quilting was not on my radar until I ran into some of the wonderful progressive quilting blogs that are out there today.

Why Chattanooga, and why Highland Park?

We have made Chattanooga home for the last 17 years so it was a natural for a place to open my business. The creative bent of Chattanooga is very strong and I love that vibe. The space I found in HP was just the right fit for who I want to be hanging out with and the statement I want to make about my business. Above all I want to be accessible to anyone with a desire to create.  The vibe is HP is so welcoming and genuine that it just felt right pick the area for my store.

What is the best thing about owning your own business?

Connection with people and helping them embrace their creative nature has always been my passion, my business just lets me do it in a bigger way!

If you weren't afraid you would...

I would have a second..errrr.. third? ( I really have a second—The Bad Ass Quilters Society) business. My pet project with my husband (Physiologist Dr. Les Kertay- Marriage and Sex therapist) is a project called   A Daring Marriage, it focuses on what it take to create and maintain and  dynamic marriage – so sexuality, commination, and growth.   I really think that Chattanooga NEEDS a classy, quality resource for information, products and support of sexuality.. Yes I said it .. I think Chattanooga needs a REALLY NICE sex toy shop J  ( you can decided to leave that out.. I know it might be a bit much for this blog interview)

If you could collaborate with any one, who would it be? Why?

Oh wow… hmmmm Right now I would really love to work some more with Erica Napolatano  ( red head writing) or Maria Forelo to bust some moves on my web presence.

If you had an extra hour in the day, what would you do with it?

Well I should say exercise.. but in truth having a business that has a creative focus means I don’t get to do a lot of creative stuff for myself so I would have to say that I would take that hour and have personal studio time each day to feed my soul

              

 Your favorite place in Chattanooga right now

Today is totally beautiful so I would have to say that place is my front porch.

How would you spend a perfect day in Chattanooga?

We have a lot of people to travel from states around here to come to the store so I often get asked what to do here in town while they are in for the weekend... I tailor my answer to each person based on what I know about them.  IF they are the outdoor type I tell them about the river walk.. if they are funky food people I point them to Aretha Frankenstein’s or Champy’s chicken. If they have kids I point them to the Aquarium or the Children’s museum.  I love sending people down to the main street to check out what is going on down there or  even Warehouse row to shop.  I think there are SO many ways to have a perfect day in Chattanooga.. I can’t pick just one!