What’s a gal like this doing here?

Claire’s Needleworks

For supplies, framing and fellowship

[JULY 20, 2000]  What’s a woman born and raised in Hawaii who traveled 200,000 miles a year to call on customers like Chase Manhattan Bank doing in Lincoln, Illinois? Exactly what she’s always wanted to.

Claire Rawlins-Sniff’s love of needlework started early in life. Her mother believed that all of her seven children, including the boys, should know how to do everything. Claire learned to crochet when she was 9, and as time went by, other skills like sewing, cross-stitch, quilting and sewing were gleaned from her mother and grandmother. Claire enjoyed the activity so much that her lifelong career goal was to "do something that included sewing" or "be a pastry chef." However, the realities of being a single mother with college and braces to pay for put Rawlins-Sniff on the road marketing to the financial services industry. She crisscrossed the country for 15 years and admits that she always enjoyed her Midwestern stops, especially Illinois, best.

 

 

When Claire married David Sniff and settled in Lincoln two years ago, it meant the opportunity to leave the fast pace behind and "retire." Retirement didn’t last long. While shopping in Sit ’n’ Knit a little over a year ago, Rawlins-Sniff made an offhand offer to buy the shop to then-owner Linda Schneider, when she was ready to sell. Schneider took her up on it. Claire reflects that at the time, she was really joking, but the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to do it.

 

 

Consequently, Claire’s Needleworks opened its doors on Aug. 15, 1999. The store had operated as Sit ’n’ Knit since the early ’80s, when opened by Bonnie Welch. Linda Schneider owned the business for 13 years prior to Claire’s purchase last year. Rawlins-Sniff felt it was time for a name change to better describe the store’s current inventory. That inventory has tripled in the last year. Almost 5,000 charts and patterns are now available. Accessories, notions and specialty threads have been added as well. Yarn, an expensive inventory to carry, is still available, as Claire likes to knit. She notes that you can pick up a skein at a discount store for 88 cents but it won’t be the long-lasting quality you’ll find at Claire’s.

 

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In the framing area, new designers have been added to give a wider price spectrum. Rawlins-Sniff has been told by customers her regular prices are up to 30 percent less than sale prices of big box stores. Plus, turnaround time is shorter – usually seven to 10 days instead of three to four weeks. Though customers are used to coming to the store to have needlework framed, Claire’s can literally frame anything. All work is done in the store, and Claire recently completed a framer’s school in Chicago. Now she’s working on her designation as a Certified Professional Framer, a process that will take about 16 months. The framing business now comprises about 60 percent of the store’s income, greatly increasing since the closing of Painter’s Art and Frames.

 

 

Of all that Claire’s Needleworks has to offer, Rawlins-Sniff’s favorite is the counted thread work in contemporary styles and designs. Though there is still some inventory carry-over, she says she hasn’t purchased anything for the store that she doesn’t personally like, so the store is truly a reflection of her.

The reflection extends to the Stitcher’s Group, which meets on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. until everyone goes home. Anyone is welcome to drop in and join in the fellowship. This was common in Hawaii, she says, where handwork was an important element of socializing. When visiting friends or relatives, you always took whatever you were working on, and visited while keeping your hands busy. Another element of Hawaiian handwork was the incorporation of nature, usually represented in a solid color. Quilts in the Midwest are heavily batted pieces of art, while in Hawaii there’s no need for heavy batting, since it’s so warm.

Rawlins-Sniff says she likes the concept of retail, and it – along with the Stitcher’s Group – has given her the opportunity to meet many new people and friends. After working so hard to take care of her children, she feels richly blessed, and that the store is God’s reward for a job well done. As Claire says, "What can be better than coming to work to do what you love to do?"

[Wendy Bell,
program manager for
Main Street Lincoln]

 

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