By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
After 44 years as a mainstay downtown shop, Abby’s Reflection Apparel and Quiltworks is closing its doors at the end of the season.
“I’ve just always kind of known when it’s time to move on from something,” owner Jill Scheidt said. “And I just really feel like this is a good time.”
The store’s inventory includes quilts, fabrics, quilt supplies, Alaska- and Sitka-theme clothing, original designs, original Alaska patterns, and other items for visitors.
Jill Scheidt welcomes costumers to her shop, Abby’s Reflection and Quiltworks, Saturday morning. After 44 years as a mainstay downtown shop, Abby’s Reflection Apparel and Quiltworks is closing its doors at the end of the season. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Among the store’s signature items are Alaska- and Sitka-themed fabrics, a line Scheidt, Lisa Moore and other Sitkans built.
Scheidt, 71, said she had been thinking about selling or closing for some time, but a few things became clearer in recent years, including her desire to work on her own projects and “visit my own sewing room.”
“It kind of hit home a few weeks ago,” she said.
Scheidt and her friend Kathi Goddard opened the business in September 1978, hoping to offer new women’s clothing options to locals. Her first location was in the Sheffield Hotel, next to the lobby (currently the Totem Square Inn). There is no Abby, but she wanted her store and decor to evoke a bit of old time-iness and homeyness, similar to Nordstrom.
“I bought some beautiful antiques and I had mirrors in all of them, so I thought Abby’s Reflection – it’s old-fashioned sounding – and we just went with it,” Scheidt said. “We were young – 28 years old – and you really couldn’t buy cool clothes that we wanted to wear.”
Getting started proved to be tricky when the bank told her and Goddard, “We don’t loan money to women. You’ll have to bring your husbands down.”
Eventually they were able to get enough to start, went to their first apparel market in Seattle, and came back with the latest fashions. Scheidt said Jessica McClintock, Esprit and Gunne Sax were among the brands they carried.
The store was there until the late 1980s when the building started leaking, and another space came open on Lincoln Street. Those were the days when cruise ship tourism and other tourism started picking up. One day Scheidt, who was the sole owner by then, was watching a tour bus pass, when she spotted a visitor pointing toward her store window, at a pajama-like outfit with polar bears and glittery icebergs on the front.
“I saw everyone in the bus was pointing as they went by,” she said. “I had six, and they bought them in an instant.” The few dozen more she ordered also sold quickly. Abby’s added a number of Alaska items, and put their own designs in the mix.
When Calico Cross Stitch owners were getting ready to retire, they reached out to Scheidt to see if she wanted to buy the business, located two doors down on Lincoln Street.
It worked out well, Scheidt said, particularly since quilting was her passion and she felt like she was getting old enough to not connect with young people’s fashions of the day. People her age were wearing turtlenecks, khakis and Patagonia sweaters.
Scheidt liked this idea since it meant Abby’s could be a year-round business, focused on Alaska items in the summer and quilting and sewing in the winter.
“It’s turned out perfect,” she said.
Scheidt noticed the number of questions that came in from quilters and sewers wanting Alaska patterns, which became a big part of the business once she figured out how to make that happen.
“This quilting thing just burst wide open,” she said. “Lisa Moore started designing patterns, we’d design a quilt with Abby’s fabric and Lisa would custom design the pattern. We started realizing the success of having regional designs. That led to the creation of the Sitka fabric which is exclusive to my store and has been an ongoing success story.”
The Alaska fabrics in the store include designs with totem themes, salmon, whales, other Alaska wildlife, trees. Sitka fabrics include images from town such as the New Archangel Dancers.
Scheidt said the store has enjoyed the support of the Ocean Wave Quilters over the years, and she said she will miss interacting with the sewing community at Abby’s.
Scheidt has lived here since she was 12, when parents Pat and Ted Fredrick moved Jill and her five siblings to Sitka as a “family adventure.” Ted worked at Alaska Lumber and Pulp as an engineer, and the family had a lot of outdoor adventures.
Jill married Tom Scheidt, another Sitkan, and they have a daughter, Tanya.
Scheidt worked at local businesses, including the Sentinel, and became interested in running her own. She took college business courses to work toward that goal. After more than four decades in the business, she said there are many things she’ll miss.
“I’m very super thankful for all the support I’ve had locally, the wonderful support from Visit Sitka, the media, from my wonderful customers,” Scheidt said. “It’s been a lot of fun and that’s why I’ve been here so long.”
Julia Smith, a longtime quilter, said Scheidt’s store will be missed.
“She provides lots of advice,” Smith said. “If you have a question she knows the answer. It’s one of those things where we won’t know how much we’ll miss her until we miss her. But I’m happy she has an opportunity to enjoy retirement. I’m excited for her for that. There are stores you go into just because you feel good. Her store is like that.”
Scheidt said even though it’s been 44 years, she still enjoys coming to work, being surrounded by light and color and beautiful fabrics.
What does she hope people will remember about the store?
“I just want people to remember all the great times we had,” she said. “The Quilt Guild, of course, was highly supportive of my business. We had different instructors that would come and we had great classes. It was just a lot of fun when we were all young and buying lots of fabric and just ... it’s been a lot of fun.
“I still like coming in here in the morning, it’s – wow – color,” she said. “It’s kind of a cheery place to work, the sun comes in the window. A man yesterday asked, did it rain yesterday, and I’m like, I don’t know, because in my store it’s always sunny.”
