May 16

We are 16

Posted by on May 16, 2015 in I <3 my job | 7 Comments

Today is the 16th anniversary of the day Bill and I started our business. It was started at the Javits Center in New York with the ink on our business cards barely dry. We had gotten through the screening at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and were showing our very different-looking modern quilts to buyers from around the world. While we were setting up our booth someone official stopped by and said, “You can put your press kits in the press room when you’re ready.” Bill and I looked at each other panicked. “Did you bring the press kits?” I laughed. He responded, “What’s a press kit?” As we walked through the doors of the convention center that morning Bill said to me, “If this flops, we never tell anyone we did this.” We flew by the seats of our pants for four days. At one point I heard a woman say to Bill, “I’ll look for images of those pillows and a press kit next week.” To which Bill responded, “Sounds good.” I said, “What pillows? We don’t make pillows.” He said, “We do now. She’s a writer for Home magazine and she needs modern pillows for an article she’s doing and wants 5 of them by next week. She’s going to include us in the article.” “I guess I’ll figure out what a press kit is once we’re done sewing all of those pillows,” I mumbled back. 16 years later and about 100 magazines (including a full page in Country Living not too long after, above) and newspapers later we have a business that has changed, grown and continues to challenge us. Bill is at another trade show today but at least press kits are now obsolete.