I am a wife and a mom of three adult children and one high-schooler. I’ve always been interested in doing crafts & sewing, but as I get closer to being an empty nester I find myself with more and more free time for those things. Even with a large extended family, there’s only so many things you can make and give away as gifts. So I wanted to come up with a way that I could use my crafting and sewing to earn an income.
I grew up in a large family I have four brothers and four sisters. So, as you can imagine, my mom did whatever she could to cut costs. One thing she did was to sew a lot of our clothes. From her, I learned to sew clothes for myself. My older sisters also learned to sew and when older, to embroider. I have such wonderful memories of being taught to embroider by my sister, Ann. I even kept that first project and few others of my early projects. When I was in my teens, I passed that skill on to my younger sister.

When my children were young, I too sewed some of their clothes. As a military family, we moved often. To save money, I often made curtains for our home and embroidered decorations and gifts. As the children got older, I continued the tradition of teaching sewing, embroidery and other crafts to them. One year my 10 year old daughter sewed doll clothes as a gift for her younger sister. As my daughters got older, they went their own way in their crafts and art. One daughter learned to knit as a 14 year old at a birthday party. She then taught herself how to crochet also, and has made gifts for our large family for many years. My other daughter also sews and embroiders, but her true loves are drawing, painting, and writing. Our home has many items that were lovingly painted by my daughter. My younger son loves to craft. As an avid fan of cosplay, he decided he needed to learn to make costumes to maximize his spending. He’s only 16, but has his own sewing machine and is getting pretty good at not only designing costumes, but making them also.

Together with my children and my husband, I put together a company called Kell Creations. It’s truly a family endeavor. My daughters, both talented in their arts, have contributed items to sell, but more importantly, they offer advice on current trends, color choices, and general design. My husband has done all the computer work thus far, even teaching himself to digitize embroidery patterns. My sixteen-year-old son provides a young person’s perspective as well as being a great sounding board.

Our little company offers photographs, glass and ceramic decorative items, and lots of fabric goods. These range from bags and totes in all shapes and sizes, to kitchen and dining room items like placemats, pot holders, and coasters. We also make smaller items like bookmarks and Christmas ornaments. Many of the fabric items are embellished with machine embroidery. Of course, we don’t leave out the four-legged family members. We make lots of bandannas for dogs. All items are created in our smoke-free home.