Riverview Radiologic Technologist Pivots to Increasingly Popular Quilting Business
MONCTON – Vickie Quigley watched sales double after taking over ownership of The Covered Bridge Quiltery months before the start of the pandemic.
She bought the business in October 2019 – just in time for things to get dicey five months later.
Early pandemic restrictions forced her to lay off the entire staff of eight and go it alone until the first Covid-lockdown was lifted in May.
“We had to be extremely inventive on how we’re going to manage to keep the store afloat. It was difficult, a new person taking on a company who wasn’t necessarily a businessperson by trade,” she said.
Quigley said the first thing she did to keep the store going was to purchase 1,500 packages of elastics.
“I saw there was going to be a need and I just bought them right away. My husband thought I was crazy and asked me what I was going to do if I couldn’t sell them and I said, ‘I’ll be stuck with 1,500 elastics,’” she said.
But those elastics sold – they were pre-ordered before Quigley even received them.
“From there, people realized I was still going to be open and still going to do sales from the store, with curbside pickup and every day I’d answer emails and send pictures and FaceTime people, cutting fabric for them,” said Quigley.
Doing that, Quigley kept open The Covered Bridge until she could hire back her staff. Demand has continued to grow, pushing her to make the decision to move The Covered Bridge to a larger 5,000-square-foot footprint across the street at 631 Pinewood Rd., from its current 1,500 square foot home at 630 Pinewood Rd.
“There’s a need and want for something to do to keep your hands busy, and a lot of people have told me sewing kept them sane during the covid lockdowns,” she said.
Quigley told Huddle she “absolutely” sees demand increasing.
The Covered Bridge provides the materials and tools to make quilts, from elastics and textiles right up to sewing machines from the Pfaff, Husqvarna and Singer lines – and hosts shows and classes to make the craft doable for newbies.
With a 10-foot Gammil–brand longarm sewing machine named Violet available for rent, while staff use Stan, the in-house 12-foot longarm to sew bespoke quilts for customers, The Covered Bridge has styled itself as a one-stop-shop for quilting.
“They’d make the top and I’d kind of sew it all together,” she said. “Or you bring us your quilt top, back and batting and we quilt it together for you to pick up.”
“Basically, I’d do that part-time on the side for customers to owning a quilt shop.”
A Passion for Quilting
Before buying the business, Quigley would sew quilts for other people on her 12-foot longarm quilting machine at home. But it was necessity, as well as her passion that brought her to purchase the shop.
Quigley had to leave a former career as a radiologic technologist with Horizon Health Network at the Moncton Hospital after experiencing a heart problem after the birth of her youngest child Emma that left her unable to return to her usual duties.
“I chose to not take another job, and leave altogether,” she said.
“For a long time, I’d be shopping at the store, I told the previous owner that I would buy her store when she retired – and she realized I was in this position, needing a new job and she was ready to retire,” said Quigley.
“When she heard I couldn’t go back to my old job, she approached me and asked if I still wanted to buy the store.”