Ground Floor: Stitch Together offers place for crafters to meet

Kayanna Nelson envisions her new business as much more than a craft supply store.

'My goal is to carve out a community for fiber arts in the area,” she said.

That vision is embodied in the business' name: Stitch Together Needle Arts Studio.

Nelson and her business partner and mother, Reba Winter, opened Stitch Together on Oct. 2. Located in Uptown Marion, the studio offers a warm, homey environment for crafters to come together to learn from and inspire one another.

'I've met so many amazing people through crafting and knitting,” Nelson said. 'I want to give that back to the local community.”

Nelson has been working with textiles since she was young, learning to sew from her mother and grandmother. After moving to Chicago about 12 years ago to pursue a career as an art director for an advertising agency, she took up knitting and crochet because she didn't have room in her tiny apartment for a sewing machine.

'I was self taught to start,” she said. 'Eventually, I started to meet other people who knitted and found some awesome stores where I took classes.”

It was those stores that served as inspiration for Stitch Together, which Nelson describes as an urban needle and fiber arts studio. On the retail side, Stitch Together offers hand-dyed yarns and fibers not otherwise available locally, as well as a variety of needle arts supplies and specialty items.

'Our focus is on sourcing from small and women-owned businesses and providing unique and fun things that you can't get anywhere else,” Nelson said.

The shop also offers classes in knitting, embroidery, crochet and cross-stitch for beginners and more advanced stitchers. Class offerings will expand to weaving, spinning and, when a new dye studio is completed over the winter, dyeing yarn and fabrics.

A community room, or 'stitch lounge,” offers a comfortable spot for crafters to work on their projects in the company of others.

Nelson decided to open Stitch Together about a year ago after she was laid off from her job. She brought her mother, a retired executive, on board as her partner because Winter had once aspired to open a quilt shop with her own mother but never did.

'It was a natural thing for us to do this together,” Nelson said. 'She has an awesome business sense and we have a shared interest in creative things. It's a nice complement.”

After looking at a few different locations, the mother and daughter duo selected the Marion location because of the support they received from the Marion Uptown District staff.

'They are trying to be the go-to place for artistic people,” Nelson noted. 'It was the right fit.”

Winter added that the community's response to Stitch Together has been so great that the business already has expanded its hours.

' Know a company or manager who has been in business for less than a year that would be ideal for 'Ground Floor”? Contact Francie Williamson at francie.williamson@thegazette.com

At a Glance

' Owners: Kayanna Nelson and Reba Winter

' Business: Stitch Together Needle Arts Studio

' Address: 720 10th Street, Marion

' Telephone: (319) 200-4445

' Website: www.stitchtogetherstudio.com