Passion, timing inspire fabric and quilting shop

Ashley Heun has taken her passion for sewing to another level, opening the Plaid Cardinal quilting and fabric shop in downtown Port Washington.

“I’ve wanted to do this for so many years,” she said.

Heun opened the shop, which specializes in fabrics, primarily cotton fabrics, and patterns for quilts, last week, a year after she and her husband Anders Dowd bought Candid Forms boutique.

In late December, she told her husband she wanted to switch to a fabric store.

“He’s supportive of my ideas but sometimes skeptical,” she said.

But she believed this was the right time to open a fabric and quilting shop, Heun said.

After all, the national chain Joann Fabric and Craft Stores had gone out of business and several boutiques had opened in the area, she said.

And there are a number of quilting groups in the area, Heun said, as well as the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts in Cedarburg.

“Anders said this might be a destination-type place,” she said.

At the beginning of the year Heun started buying fabric after reaching out to Moda Fabric, which helps fledgling shop owners get started, and made plans for her new store, which combines her existing business making colorful pet accessories with her love of quilting and sewing.

It’s a natural extension for Heun, whose grandmother taught her to sew when she was a teenager and in the process inspired a lifelong love of needlework and a passion for creating.

There’s a long history of sewing in her family, Heun said.

“It runs in my blood,” she said.

The first thing she sewed was a quilted wall hanging made with black and white fabrics that she made with her grandmother.  She was a senior in high school.

“I wish I still had that quilt,” Heun said, adding it was lost in a move years ago.

Then she made a diaper bag from a kit for a friend of her mother, which kicked off a handbag business that she and her grandmother operated.

While an English literature major at Lawrence University, Heun worked in the costume shop and got an advanced education in sewing. Later, she had a internship at the Santa Fe Opera House that she called “incredible.”

“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” she said. “It was amazing, bringing these characters to life in costume.

“I like creating, taking parts and pieces and making something from them.”

She then moved on to work for two shows at the American Players Theater, then for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater for a few years.

After that, she started making costumes for shows at University School of Milwaukee and opened her pet accessory business.

When the pandemic hit, there were no shows so Heun pivoted, making masks that she sold on Etsy.

“It kind of exploded,” she said. “I did that for four month straight.”

As the pandemic waned, so too did the mask business. Heun continued to run her pet accessory business, selling items through a downtown Port space as well as Etsy and at farmers markets in the area, but when she and her husband decided to operate Moonlight Tavern in the Port Hotel building in 2024, sewing took a back seat.

“I really loved running the restaurant,” Heun said. “I miss Friday nights and Saturday nights, the buzz.”

The couple stepped back from the restaurant in July and Heun said it was time to go back to her passion, quilting and sewing and taking advantage of the Candid Forms storefront.

“This is my niche,” she said. “I feel revived.”

The restaurant business has helped her in an unexpected way as she planned for her shop, Heun said.

“Having the restaurant helped me roll with the punches,” she said. “I realized you just have to figure it out.”

Heun has taken advantage of the character of the former boutique space, adding unique pieces to bring her personality into the store — including a quilt hanging on the wall that she created.

She filled the space with colorful fabrics with a luxurious hand, some of them seasonal, others with timeless patterns and colors. There’s batting and fat quarters — fabric pieces used by quilters — and Heun is keeping a list of fabrics customers request for consideration.  Flannels are high on the list, she noted, and she’s also considering fleece.

Patterns and threads are on display, although Heun noted her selection of threads are limited but will expand, as well as other sewing and quilting notions.

Heun said she will probably begin offering classes this fall, including an introduction to quilting, and she would like to have sewing camps for children as well.

“I think we have to get the younger generation involved in sewing,” she said.

She is also looking at holiday craft classes and project-based classes that don’t involve sewing, such as ball ornaments made using the Japanese folded fabric art of kinvsaiga.

Quilting, Heun said, is intimidating to some people, but it need not be. It can be as simple or as detailed as someone wants.

“I really enjoy the things that are really intricate, where there are a million pieces,” she said. “To me, it’s kind of Zen. I like the challenge of it. I like to push myself that way.”