THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510120155
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Can you believe that the art of needlework dates to ancient times?
Carol Williams, 26, of Manteo, said folks were making all those little stitches as far back as 500 B.C.
Williams began stitching after she was shown how by a school volunteer while taking a junior high school careers class.
When not taking care of her duties at her family's Dare Haven Motel on U.S. 64 in Manteo, she stitches.
Williams has enhanced bibs, hats, a quilt, mugs, magnets and wall art with brilliant threads. The trusty little cross marks she makes on the cloth become ducks and deer, fish and names and anything Williams can find a pattern for or designs herself.
She says it's simple.
``If you can sew on a button, you can cross-stitch,'' she said, ``because all you're doing is making an X.''
Well, the folksy craft that usually is credited to grandmothers, housewives or pregnant women is far more than a bunch of therapeutic X marks.
After Williams' mother-in-law said, ``It's a shame that you can't make money with this hobby, as much time as you spend doing it,'' Williams simply thought, ``Well, OK.''
That's when she took over a tiny little room attached to the motel and claimed it for her shop. She ordered two display cases full of thread, patterns and kits, filled the room with local crafts and opened the doors to Crafts Galore.
But that's just the beginning of the evolution of Carol the Cross-Stitcher, for buried within this vivacious young lady is a tenacious entrepreneurial spirit.
If there were an Olympics for small-business owners, Williams would be a gold medal contender.
It wasn't long before Williams realized there was a big hole in the pattern market. She could find patterns for the Outer Banks to stitch - coastlines mainly - but Roanoke Island was overlooked.
Williams, who has been living in Manteo since third grade, saw an opportunity. She sketched out a design that included historic spots like the Elizabeth II and ``The Lost Colony,'' got permission to reproduce their logos and turned it over to a local artist to put on graph paper.
Susan Vaughan not only graphed the design but chose the colors to go with it.
There was no stopping Williams. Next came Ocracoke Island, Hatteras Island and then the coup de gras: the North Carolina lighthouses, South Carolina lighthouses, Currituck Beach lighthouse kit and the Virginia lighthouses.
Williams doesn't take full credit for the blossoming business. Eddie Green at The Christmas Shop has given her ideas and advice and is the top seller of her lighthouse patterns. In fact, Williams says, he sells more than her two national distributors.
Yes, that's right. Williams went national. When she contacted one of the top distributors of cross-stitch leaflets and books, Hoffmans, she was told there was no room for her product.
After all, Williams said, ``I was an unknown.''
After that conversation, Williams did a statewide mailing to retail shops that might be interested in her work.
``A lady in Maggie Valley didn't even wait to fill in a credit application,'' Williams said. ``She just called me right away.''
The lighthouse patterns sold like hot cakes. In fact, the shops began asking Hoffmans to carry her product. So they picked it up.
Williams has a big project in the works. She has acquired the rights to reproduce in needlework a lighthouse poster created by the artist famous for his U.S. postage stamp series of lighthouses, Howard Koslow.
The poster, featuring 11 American lighthouses, was created by Koslow for the Lighthouse Preservation Society. Williams will immortalize it in thread. Profits will benefit the society.
Williams calls her business C Stitch - C for cross, Carol and perhaps the sea motifs she specializes in.
``As far as I know, I am the only one in this business who has a retail outlet and is a manufacturer and a distributor,'' she said.
While Williams' husband is happy because he no longer has to drive long distances to pick up thread for his wife, local needlework artists also benefit.
If you run out of green, red pink, purple or chartreuse thread at an odd hour, Williams keeps a light burning.
Give her a ring. MEMO: C Stitch patterns and kits are available at Crafts Galore, Manteo; Joy
by the Sea, Nags Head; Old Christmas, Rodanthe; Buttons and Bows,
Buxton; Lighthouse Gallery and Gifts, Nags Head; The Christmas Shop,
Manteo. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
Carol Williams, 26, of Manteo, has designed many cross stitch
patterns of Outer Banks lighthouses and tourist sites.
by CNB