Dori Starr sees her job as more than selling quilts. She even jokes she is saving lives.
By helping families find commercial quilts for bedcovers, she can help preserve family heirloom quilts as decorative hangings. Thus, children and pets won’t get reprimanded — or worse — for spoiling a rug that was supposed to last for generations.
“We’re saving children and dogs,” she said.
More concretely, her business is Dori Quilts and Lodge Furniture, a Colorado Mills store that claims to be the nation’s largest quilt showroom.
She runs the business with her husband Steve. Though they have eight employees, the Starrs are in the store seven days a week. Dori designs and maintains all the themed areas of the store and works with customers. Steve, a former information technology executive, handles the business and technology side.
Three years ago, the couple decided to launch a business together. The store opened as a 900-square-foot Christmas showcase for Dori’s homemade potpourri. The couple was looking for something to brighten up the space and cover the walls when they brought in quilts. Quickly learning not to display anything in a retail store that is not for sale, they put price tags on the quilts that soon became the focus of the business.
Dori has been in the fabric and needlework business since she was 18. Her first job was in a sewing supply store, which she convinced her parents to buy. She later owned other stores and met many quilt designers at trade shows and other showcases.
“When you have a needlework store and you’re buying yarns and threads and fabrics and things, you’re crossing paths with all the crafters who are selling their finished handmade crafts. So I had known a lot of the nice quilt designers since they very first got started.”
She started making calls from her address book full of quilters and designers, and filled the store.
The store has moved twice within the Colorado Mills mall and expanded its offerings to include several lines of rustic wood furniture.
Last July, the store expanded to 10,000 square feet and moved from the center of the mall to a location across from Borders. Mall management suggested the move. Steve Starr said he resisted at first, but now says it was a good move
“I put my foot down and said absolutely not, but here we are and it was absolutely the right thing to do,” Steve Starr said.
The expanded store has become a stop for area quilting tours. If tour groups visit local shows and quilting stores, they will also stop at the mall store, the Starrs said.
“It’s so exciting for all the quilters to see this many quilts in one place,” Dori Starr said.
She said many of her customers are quilters looking for ideas. Though Dori doesn’t sell any quilting supplies, the designs on the walls inspire their work. Other customers are often looking for unique, custom-made bedcovers.
The couple was inspired to start their own quilt collection after moving to Evergreen and decorating their homes with quilts.
“It’s sharing that warmth that I like,” Steve Starr said. “We’re able to turn this whole store into kind of that same warm, cozy feeling that we have in our own home.”
The couple said they are equally happy if people use their quilts as bedcovers or wall art.
They also encourage quilters to document their crafts and write notes about each completed quilt. And, of course, put it on the wall and keep the kids and dogs out of harm’s way.