Page 43 - The Digital Cloth holiday issue

This secret scintillating & stunning shop in Coramba, a short drive west
of Coffs Harbour needs to be on everyone’s list to visit!
Meet Lisa Petersen, owner and quilter extraordinaire …
Lisa - tell us a bit about yourself. Sharing

Have you always lived in Coffs Harbour?
No, I haven’t. I was born in Coffs Harbour and moved abroad at the age
a lovely environment to bring up children in. Family reasons also - my the
of 23, first to the UK and then to Canada. I stayed abroad for quite a
few years. I had my children – Isla is now 15 and Reynold is now 12 – in
England and then I moved back here when I was 38, as Coffs Harbour is

parents were getting elderly - plus it was nice to be somewhere sunny
and warm.

What made you become interested in fabric and sewing? Secret
I’ve always sewn, since I was a little girl. I had a sewing machine even
before I went to school. I had an old singer sewing machine – not a
treadle – it was very modern for back then with a foot pedal. I had all
my Mum’s bags of scraps – Mum was a great sewer – and I have always
made my own clothes.

How did you learn so much about quilting?
I became involved with quilting when I was living in Canada and there
was a store around the corner from me, and I was looking for another
interest so I signed up for a beginner’s quilt class just to see how it went.
From then I did lots and lots of courses in Canada and in the UK and
learnt a lot from the many different teachers I’ve had over the years. I
also learnt by trial and error, especially once I knew the classic basics of
accuracy and knew where I could push the boundaries and try something
different.

What is the secret to running your business successfully?
Creating a welcoming happy place and teaching great classes with great
students. I try to always have good customer service and have an in-depth
knowledge base of my products and quilting in general. Also, I have a lot
of fabric as “you can’t sell it if you haven’t got it” – and I want it to be a
worthwhile drive to come out to Coramba and visit the shop.

Coramba is a lovely day out destination – we have a husband babysitter
at the pub – lots of ladies come out with their husbands and after they
spend time in the shop, they have lunch at the pub. There is a wonderful
coffee shop which does great cakes and light food plus next-door to
Nesting Needles is an equestrian shop which has lots of bric-a-brac items
and beautiful baby and children’s clothing. As well, we have an art gallery
here which offers lessons for children as well as adults, with lots of
activities on weekends. And of course, we have the Coramba markets on
the fourth Sunday of every month.