Meredith-Willett
Meredith Willett joked that women giving up their needlepoint hobbies during a financially stressful time would be like men giving up golf. In other words, her business is recession-proof.
The owner of M’s Canvashouse on Kentucky Avenue has built a needlepoint empire since opening shop in Lexington in 1990. Willett now is the owner of a Louisville branch of M’s Canvashouse, as well as the Elizabeth Tuner Collection Needlepoint and Finishing (a wholesale company) and Designer Belts Unlimited. She employs nearly 30 people, and her business is only getting bigger.
“I think more people staying home really has a lot to do with that,” she said, adding that many people who are into needlework are not as heavily affected by the economy. “It’s a very expensive hobby.”
It’s also addictive, she said with a laugh, “and it’s really just so fun and enjoyable.”
Willett, who started to learn needlepoint at the tender age of 6 from her friend’s mother, said “I loved it from the minute that I started.”
“My best friend’s mama did everything,” she recalled. “She was a quilter, she did heirloom sewing, she was very good with her hands — she did everything. And I spent a lot of time at her house. So we had gotten a lot of snow one winter, and I pretty much lived at her house, because I had three older sisters. Her mom said, ‘Go home and get a pillowcase and come back.’ So we did the little iron-on transfers and I just covered that pillowcase, front and back.”
From then on, Willett said she had needlepoint on her mind all the time and collected pieces and materials everywhere she went. As an adult, Willett began her working life at the French Quarter Suites, a hotel that was located in Lexington on Richmond Road. But it wasn’t long before she said she was “sick of working that hard for someone else” and decided to open a needlepoint store.
“I truthfully didn’t know an ounce of what I really probably should have known when I opened,” she said with a laugh.
But the business took off, due partly to Willett regularly sharing her passion with others through teaching classes.
In Louisville, several needlepoint businesses had closed before M’s Canvashouse opened, and she credits her educational business model for helping sustain the niche market. The store in Louisville opened nearly three years ago in Westport Village. Before she opened that location, Willett said she had many Louisville customers driving to her store in Lexington.
“I knew that if I was there teaching that it would help grow it,” she said. “The education and keeping people learning more all the time helps keep them coming back.”
Now she teaches nationally for the American Needlepoint Guilt, the National Needlehearts Association, Embroiderer Guild of America, other retail shops in addition to her own and in online classes for the Shining Needle Society.
Willett, who studied needlepoint in England, was the president of the National Embroider Teachers Association from 2008-’10 and is the author of Knots, Fur and Turkey Work. Her work has been featured in numerous needlepoint magazines, and she is preparing to teach her first class overseas.
She will travel this summer to England and Scotland and will be teaching people from all over the world as part of the Lady Anne Tour. For her national classes, Willett is responsible for proposing classes two years in advance, and she is booked for many of her classes three years in advance.
The customer base that Willett sees is anywhere from teens and twenty-somethings all the way to the elderly.
“I think that my clients are a little bit different than most because in Lexington I have a really, really great young following,” she said, adding that the amount of college girls who shop at M’s Canvashouse is surprising. “They love those needlepoint belts for those college boys.”
She joked that the expensive, time-consuming needlepoint belts are often dubbed the “break-up belt” — since they take so long to make, the couple breaks up shortly after completion.
Willett said holiday decorations are also very popular. She is currently teaching a class series online that is working on an elaborate Halloween decoration (she took 160 hours to complete her version). And Christmas decorations are a year-round pursuit.
“It takes about a year to do a Christmas stocking,” Willett said. “You’ve got to be dilligent.”
Willett called the process “mathematical” and “time-consuming,” which also contributes to the high cost. Needlepointers go through many yards of thread, and many of the templates are custom-designed and drawn by hand. Willett said her favorite style is silk and metal embroidery, where pieces of medal covered in gold are sewn into the pieces. One of her silk and metal pieces was featured on the March/April issue of Needlepoint Now magazine.
Despite her business’ success, Willett claims she is still always learning and is just one of many needlepoint pros around the nation. She said her Chevy Chase business location has been an ideal one. Originally opening on Clay Avenue, she expanded to her Kentucky Avenue location for more space and even now barely has enough room for all of her inventory and classes.
“It’s really busting here, and a lot of people are here from out of town,” she said about her store and its Chevy Chase location. “When they come in here, they’ll leave and walk all through this area.”