Enterprise ENCORE
Anticipating a Vivid Future
Fabric and quilt shop thrives by being colorful by
Tiffany Fitzgerald
L
ucy in the Sky Quilts and Fabrics opened a storefront at 839 Gull Road three years ago, but not because of the need for a walkin store or even to attract more foot traffic. “My husband retired in September three years ago, and I bought this house in October,” owner Billie Gunderson says, laughing, as she motions around the shop, stuffed wall to wall with fabrics. “I needed my own space.” Gunderson began her business in 1987, when she and a friend purchased a wholesale license together to attend a quilt market in Boston, where her friend lives. After they bought the license, Gunderson and her friend started buying fabrics wholesale and selling them. A decade later, Gunderson and her partner decided to form separate businesses to alleviate the stress of co-owning a business from two states. That’s when Lucy in the Sky became its own business. The name of the business is a tribute to the Beatles, whose song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”
appeared on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. “I’m a big Beatles fan,” Gunderson says. “My youngest child was going to be named Lucy, but then I changed my mind. The next thing to be named was this store.” There’s been only one drawback to the name so far. “A lot of people think my name is Lucy,” Gunderson says. “I go ahead and answer to it.” The store name isn’t the only tribute to the Beatles. Rita, the shop cat, can be found strolling the floor, looking for a comfy place to rest in the sun, and she’s often joined by the house cat Prudence — Gunderson lives just a few doors down. She named Rita for the meter maid in “Lovely Rita,” a song that was also on the Sgt. Pepper’s album, and the other cat after “Dear Prudence,” on The White Album of 1968. There’s a certain feel about the store — a brightly painted green and blue turn-of-thecentury home — that is also reminiscent of
the Beatles, who produced colorful album covers and movies. The fabrics Gunderson carries are deep blues, greens and violets and bright reds, oranges and yellows. It’s not your average fabric shop. “Some people come here and they don’t like anything I have,” Gunderson says. “For instance, I have no brown section. If your taste is like my taste, then you love this place. And if not, you hate it. I’ve heard people say that every quilt shop has its own personality, and I think they do because the owner picks the fabric.” So how does a small-scale quilt and fabric shop based solely on the owner’s taste and nestled away in an area without foot traffic survive? Gunderson does a lot of her business on the road, at shows in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan, and Owner Billie Gunderson (working on a quilt), daughter Willow and Rita the cat all have a hand in managing Lucy in the Sky.