Quilting B & More in Charlottetown is our regional winner for Prince Edward Island, Canada!
A love of quilting has been passed down in this shop owner’s family. Read on to learn more!
Please tell us your store’s story.
Suzanne Lane is a wife, mother of 6, and grandmother of 6. She loves music and has played piano since she was a child.
She also loves sewing, quilting, knitting, cross stitch and more. Her grandmothers were quilters and her mother loved to sew garments for her and her siblings when they were young children.
Two of her four daughters have developed a love of quilting and both have worked with Suzanne in her shop. Suzanne loves to see the creations her customers make with the supplies they purchase at QBM.
The store has been in business since 1992. A friend of Suzanne’s (Karen Beauregard) started the business in a small shop in downtown Charlottetown. Karen wanted to provide good quality products for the quilters of Prince Edward Island. She moved the store in 1998 to a larger spot still within downtown Charlottetown.
Suzanne became a partner with Karen in 2007/2008 and became sole owner of QBM in 2009. Suzanne has moved the store twice to accommodate the expanding inventory. The store houses over 2,500 bolts of fabric, threads, books, patterns (sewing and quilting), batting, wide backing, wool, floss and pearl cotton, monks cloth, BERNINA, Brother, Singer, Husqvarna Viking, and PFAFF sewing machines.
For those who have not seen your store, please describe it.
The store encompasses 3,000 square feet. The retail area is an open concept layout, with slat wall on both side walls.
The Bernina Q24 longarm lies to the right, immediately inside the front door. The classroom, about 700 square feet, is located behind the retail area in a separate room.
There is another small room off of the classroom for a sewing machine service area.
We are located at 61 Capital Drive, a throughway into the city of Charlottetown. Our shop is a more traditional style quilt store, however my daughters are having a more modern influence on the products on the sales floor.
Please tell us about your staff.
My daughter, Christine MacDonald, is my social media gal. She amazes me at the creativity she comes up with in her posts. Her love for working with all kinds of fabrics excites me for the future of my store.
Catherine Winter is a longtime employee and has soooo much experience in every fiber art known. She has an answer for every question people throw at her.
Joyce Doyle has been with Quilting B & More for 30 years. She is a home economist by training and has taught classes for Quilting B & More to present day. She also worked on the sales floor for over 20 years, which she retired from and focused on just teaching classes. She is an impeccable teacher with immense patience.
Please tell us about any upcoming special events at your store.
We have a new class list starting in January and our Open House for this class list will be January 6th. This is a chance to see class samples and register for the upcoming classes this winter.
In closing
When asked about the impact of the LQS Contest on the store, Quilting B & More said:
It has brought people to know that we carry ByAnnie products which a lot didn’t seem to realize. We have also offered a lot of classes using ByAnnie patterns.
Congratulations to Suzanne and staff! A lot of my customers shop in her store.
It is a lovely quilt store!