After being “In Stitches” for 33 years, Marilyn Sampson has decided to hand over her thread, embroidery machine, customers, and In Stitches business to a fairly new Eagle Grove business owner, Tiara Paul of Red Head Tribe Logo. Sampson says she has always been a crafty person, and in 1988, she found herself looking at an empty nest situation. Although she did some work at her husband, Mel’s, accounting firm, she wanted something else to keep her busy during the slow times of the year.
“I didn’t want to be a mom at home without kids, not being productive,” she admitted.
That’s when she started looking into embroidery. She loved sewing and figured it would be a great way to stay busy and provided a local service that was in high demand. She started small, with a one-needle machine. She attended training classes in Minneapolis and Chicago, and from there it didn’t take her long to buy a six-needle machine. In 1994, she took the plunge and bought “the big machine” with 12 needles.
“We hauled it all the way home from Kansas City in our horse trailer,” Sampson said of the obviously fond memory.
It was a big investment, but worth it. Sampson took care of that machine like it was her prized possession, having it service on a regular basis. In return, it has worked like a charm all these years, and still works like brand new despite having made countless numbers of items for people all over Eagle Grove, Wright County, and beyond.
“I can’t even count how many logos I’ve done or businesses I’ve done work for,” said Sampson with a big smile on her face.
One piece of her work that many people in this area might recognize are the black AGP jackets with their yellow and green logo sewn by Sampson on the left front chest.
But over the course of the last few months, Sampson started to think about spending less time meeting order requirements, and more time doing things just for fun. She wants to have time to do more volunteer work, like when she made roughly 800 masks for Wright County Public Health. She also wants more time to just enjoy life and do things when and where she wants to. So when Paul called her up and said she was looking to expand her Red Head Tribe Logo (RHTL) capabilities and wondered if she could buy her embroidery machine, Sampson was thrilled.
“You have to find just the right person to take (the embroidery business) over because it’s not just a hobby…you either love doing it, or you hate it,” stated Sampson.
It made her happy to know her machine, and her customers and the quality they are used to, was being handed over to someone who is as passionate about embroidery as she is.
Likewise, Paul was happy to not only get the machine, but the advice and expertise of Sampson who has so much knowledge about the trade.
“It’s nice to be able to talk to Marilyn instead of just watching a how-to on Youtube,” said Paul.
For the past couple of months, Sampson has helped her set up the large embroidery machine in the RHTL store and taught her how to run it, given suggestions of when and how to service it, and even given her tips on where to get supplies for the machine.
“It’s so rewarding,” Paul said of running the embroidery machine and seeing the results of the items they have made thus far.
She added that it’s also rewarding for her to be able to give 10 percent back to local school sports teams who place their orders with her. It’s her way of giving back to the communities that support her, and she hopes this new embroidery machine will attract even more of them.
“It’s awesome to be able to offer everyone – individuals, businesses, teams…something of this quality that is done locally,” said Paul.
“I just hope Tiara enjoys (the embroidery process) as much as I did…and I think I can already tell she is,” said Sampson with a look of approval and a big smile.
