Stitch’n Quilt, located in the K-Mart shopping center on Mableton Parkway, opened its doors in 2009 and quickly made a name for itself with dedicated quilters from South Cobb to Kennesaw and beyond.

“When serious quilters find a store they like, they become very loyal customers,” said Pat Yearwood, owner of Stitch’n Quilt.

Born in Pennsylvania and transplanted to Georgia in 1972, Yearwood and her sister, Linda McGrann, spent their youth in the quiet town of Columbus where their father was serving in the military.

During this time, Yearwood decided to take up a hobby and started quilting and monogramming. Her sister, McGrann, decided to concentrate on sewing as a past-time.

Yearwood went on to acquire a nursing degree while liviing in Columbus,  but never gave up the love of quilting which she was still actively involved with during her spare time.

In 2000, McGrann decided to move to the Mableton area due to a lack of employment opportunities in Columbus. Yearwood followed nine years later, after the sisters decided to combine their skills and open a quilt shop.

“We originally opened in a smaller space in this shopping center,  but within a year or so business had grown so much we decided to move into the larger space we are in now,” said McGrann.

Quilters from all over Georgia visit the shop regularly due to the variety of fabrics, notions, quilting kits and classes that are offered. It’s also one of the few shops around that has a long-arm quilting machine.

Yearwood uses the long-arm machine to quilt a customer’s hand-stitched top layer together with the middle and back materials that are required to complete a quilt. Some stitching patterns are particularly intricate and can take many hours to apply.

Yearwood explained, “I feed a pattern into the machine and guide the arm to make sure the design is applied properly. It’s painstaking work, but the results are well worth it.”

Along with working in the shop most days until noon, Yearwood, who has been in the nursing profession for 34 years, also spends her evenings working at Kaiser Permanente.

McGrann, runs the shop full-time Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m until 4 p.m. Customers can also find Yearwood at the store on most Saturdays as well.

Stitch’n Quilt periodically holds evening quilting classes, along with regular daytime happenings such as the “Block of the Month” club.

Each January,  the shop chooses a new quilt design for the upcoming year. Customers sign up for the class and every month the participants create a new quilt square. At the end of the year, each customer will have a completed quilt top cover.

The club is limited to 25 participants and costs $14.99 a month along with the price of the design book and supplies. When completed, the customer can stitch together their own quilt or pay an additional fee to have Yearwood stitch it on the long arm machine.

Yearwood also helps out with children’s charities throughout the year.

In 2010 the shop joined in with the American Patchwork and Quilting publication and participated in the “One Million Pillowcase Challenge”.

Free pillowcase designs were provided for the participants and 1,028 homemade pillowcases were collected and donated to children undergoing cancer treatments. The kids can choose the pillowcase they want and keep it for their own.

Yearwood also donates sample quilts she makes herself or those brought in to the shop by customers, to the Paulding Police quilts for children program. At-risk children who are brought in to the precinct or who have been involved in traumatic situations receive a free quilt to keep.

Stitch’n Quilt’s customer base continues to grow at a steady rate, which Yearwood partly attributes to the exceptional customer service they offer along with a large product line.