Quilt shop owner Christie Hughes worked as a police officer for 6 years, leaving the field shortly after 9/11. After several years working in the technology field while running an online quilt shop, she took the leap to open Christie’s Quilting Boutique in Norwalk, Connecticut 10 years ago. This career shift was the change of pace she needed and allowed her the flexibility to give her young children the time and attention that the traditional 9 to 5 couldn’t offer.

“I first learned to sew as a kid when my mother taught me,” Christie explains. “We sewed together for many years.” Christie opened an online fabric store in 1998 and then opened her quilt shop in 2003. Though her sewing background was strong, Christie came in with no retail experience, which presented some challenges. “It’s hard to know what fabrics people are going to buy,” she says. “It’s a lot to learn, but we do our absolute best every single day and keep our community happy, and I think that’s what it’s all about!”

Her favorite part of owning the quilt shop is the strong community created around a shared hobby. “Everybody here is like one big family, and we all keep in touch,” Christie says. In fact, Christie and her most devoted customers have a group text thread that they use to communicate daily. “There are probably a dozen of us on the text. Every morning, I get up and the first thing I say is ‘Good Morning, Sunshines!’ Then everyone replies to say if they’ll be in the shop that day or if we won’t see them until next week. We’re a family! If we don’t hear from somebody in two or three days, we find out what’s going on.”

This strong and loyal customer base has allowed the Christie’s Quilting Boutique customers to accomplish wonderful things together, including their charity sewing projects. “We do so much work in the community, supporting Quilts of Valor, 1 Million Pillow Cases, and Dress a Girl Around the World,” Christie says. “We’ve always got so much charity work going on and it just keeps everybody together, whether they attend our in-person sewing days or bring in a project they made at home.” From offering a 24-hour sew-a-thon for 1 Million Pillowcases to presenting 20 quilts a year for Quilts of Valor, the shop supports these projects whole-heartedly. “Everybody is working on them all of the time. We are always looking for ways to help out in our community, and we also teach sewing at a local after-school program.”

The shop offers a variety of classes, but the crowd favorite is Open Sew, offered on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 10am to 1pm. It costs $20 and attendees get to bring a project from home and work on the shop’s BERNINA machines. “Some of the people who come have been sewing for 20 or 40 years, and then a new person will come in who has never sewn before,” Christie says. “And we all help teach them. Then, by the third or fourth time that new person comes, they can now teach another new person coming in the door. It’s a full circle—it’s really quite amazing.”

Five years ago, Christie became a BERNINA retailer, adding another key element to her fabric shop. But it’s the longarm quilting services that really pays off in supporting the business, she says. The longarm services are so popular that they have a continual stream of quilt tops to work through, turning them around in less than 2 weeks. They also make custom quilts for customers.

Classes are another part of the shop’s livelihood. As a member of SIY-Sew It Yourself, Christie has offered several patterns from the SIY program. “Last year when we did our shop hop, I used 2 or 3 apron patterns from SIY, and we’ve also done some of the bags,” she says. Though it can sometimes be a challenge to get new people in the door, having a core group of regulars who attend classes like this makes it a fun and welcoming environment for all.

After welcoming a thousand people through their doors over 10 days during the Connecticut Quilt Shop Hop here last September, the shop looks forward to participating in the first ever New England Quilt Shop Hop this fall. “It will go from Maine to Connecticut and there are already 57 shops participating,” Christie says. “It will last throughout all of September and October, so it should be a beautiful time to visit the region!”

Christie’s Quilting Boutique
176 Main St.
Norwalk, CT 06851
1-203-80QUILT