|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Dana Miller started the new Pacifica business with an aim to ‘bring together a community of creatives.’
A quilt is a multilayered thing, both physically and, in many cases, metaphorically. In the right hands, it can be a functional, warm blanket, a work of art, and a way of stitching together memories and nurturing community all in one tidy textile project.
That’s the philosophy of Dana Miller, who recently opened Coastside Quilt Studio in Pacifica as not only a spot to make and sell her own designs, but also as a gathering place for quilters and crafters – and those who are interested in learning those skills.
“I had always wanted to do something like this but never actually thought it would happen,” she said. “It’s a hobby that has turned into a business.”
Miller has been sewing since childhood, learning around age 9 or 10, inspired by her mother and grandmother. But she didn’t venture into quilting until 2009, when she suddenly had the thought one day, “‘You know, I really want to learn how to make a quilt.’ Literally, it was random,” she said with a laugh. She enrolled in a class at Joann Fabrics in Redwood City (where she ended up being the only student) and has been quilting ever since.
“I don’t know what it was about it, but I absolutely loved it,” she said. “It came very naturally to me. I kind of got hooked.”
When her three children were little, Miller quilted on and off during those busy years.
“I just kept making quilts and I thought, ‘What am I going to do with all of these?’” She started participating in craft fairs, starting with Pacifica’s Fog Fest in 2011 and selling via Etsy, and was heartened by the response.
And though she never expected to become a teacher, shortly before the pandemic she began leading a beginning sewing class and found it extremely rewarding.
“Something I’m so passionate about, seeing the enthusiasm and the light in another person’s eyes when they walk in not knowing how to use a sewing machine at all and then walk out with a pillow they made,” she recalled. “That sense of accomplishment. I just love that feeling.”
After the pandemic years, Miller thought her brief teaching days were done, but last autumn a post popped up on a Pacifica locals Facebook page, looking for a local sewing instructor. To her amusement, friends repeatedly began tagging Miller on the post, and while she was hesitant at first, she found herself mulling the possibilities. The space in which she had previously taught had closed, and she began to consider the feasibility of opening a place of her own someday.
In the meantime, her custom quilt business was taking off, especially once she got into making T-shirt and memory quilts. For these projects, she takes a collection of T-shirts or other items of special significance to a client and turns them into a one-of-a-kind memento quilt. She often makes quilts from outgrown-but-beloved baby clothes and then, with the help of her mom, makes a special teddy bear from the leftover scraps.
Especially meaningful to Miller is when she is able to create a comforting memorial quilt for someone whose loved one has died.
“As sad as it is, I’m really touched by people who bring me clothing from someone who’s passed away,” she said. “I love listening to their stories, to see the other person pull out each shirt and look at them and read them. It’s really special, to be able to take that box of shirts that’s been sitting in a closet and turn those into this treasured keepsake.”
By last winter, she’d outgrown her small home studio, with boxes of fabric and quilts in progress crowding her in and leaving her little room to maneuver. She also taught a few very successful classes at Sanchez Art Center. The timing seemed right for expanding into her own space where she could both work on her own projects as well as invite others in.
“I was really sensing a strong need for something like this here,” she said, noting that quilt shops are few and far between around the coast and in San Francisco these days (with Always Quilting in San Mateo being the closest). Getting involved with the San Francisco Quilters Guild and Pacifica Quilter’s Club helped bolster her desire to “bring together a community of creatives.”
Coastside Quilts opened in August, conveniently close to Miller’s home and housed in a former construction-company building.
“I walked into it and I felt immediately that this was it, this was my space,” she said.
The grand opening was held in September.
The experience so far has been “absolutely fantastic, and a bit surreal,” she said. “The support I have seen from the quilting community alone has been tremendous.”
The business serves mainly as the headquarters and studio for her custom quilt projects, as well as community classes. She also offers a small selection of fabric for sale.
One of the other offerings that makes her space especially useful to local quilters is its longarm services. The longarm, as she described it, is a large, computerized sewing machine that can hold up to a king-size quilt and significantly cuts down the amount of hours it takes to put a quilt together.
She also offers the option to book open studio time for anyone looking for space to work on their own creative projects.
In terms of classes, she offers introductory sewing and quilting and also invites friends to lead monthly craft sessions. With refreshments provided and a convivial atmosphere, she said, it becomes a fun, social hangout in addition to a learning experience. Past classes have included beaded bracelet making, wreath making, and mosaics. Coming up are workshops on macrame, Christmas shutters, no-sew fabric ornaments and another (already sold-out) mosaic class, and the schedule for 2024 is in the works.
“I invite anybody who teaches any aspect of sewing, or any type of craft, to come in,” she said.
Coastside Quilt Studio, 1305 Palmetto Ave., Unit E, Pacifica; 650-733-7200, Instagram: @coastsidequiltstudio.