Three years ago this month, I did something a little bit brave and a little bit foolish, depending on who you ask. I opened the doors — even if only the digital kind, at first — to a small business built entirely around a love of needlepoint, the story it tells and the memories and community it creates.
I still remember being laid off in January of that year with no idea as to what the future looked like. I just knew I loved this hobby and had some ideas for canvases that didn’t exist that I dreamed of stitching.
So here we are. Three years in. I’ve been sitting with that thought over the last few weeks, and I wanted to take a minute today to tell you what it’s actually meant.
When I started, it was just me — I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going. I didn’t know if anyone beyond my own circle of friends would ever want one.
You did. And that means the world to me.
Three years of your orders, your kind notes, your photos of finished pieces propped up on mantels and hung in nurseries and given as gifts to people you love — that’s what’s actually built this. Not a marketing plan. Not a big launch. Just one stitch, one canvas, one person telling another person, over and over, for three years.
Some things have changed, of course. We went from selling canvases only, to selling threads to kit our canvases, and now we have an open studio that’s open to the public a few days a week.
But the heart of it hasn’t moved an inch. I’m still designing canvases I’d want to stitch myself, that I can’t find in the market place. I’m still trying to make things that feel classic rather than trendy — things you’ll want to keep, and maybe hand down one day. That part was true on day one, and it’s true today.
I don’t say thank you often enough, so let me say it plainly: thank you. For being patient with me while I figured this out, and especially during the last few months when turnaround times for restocking canvases, threads and finishing has been longer than I’d like. For sticking around.
If you’ve been here since the beginning, you already know what this means to me. And if you’re newer to MKND, welcome — I’m so glad you’re here, and I hope this gives you a little sense of how we got to now.
Here’s to three years, and to whatever comes next. I have a feeling it’s going to be good.
With love, Mary Katherine