Keeping family together

There aren't many jobs open to young Amish girls, so Mary Detweiler went into business to keep her five girls at home.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
MIDDLEFIELD -- Once Amish children complete the eighth grade, they go to work. Typically, they spend a year or two working at home, then they get paying jobs away from the family homestead.
Mary Detweiler didn't want her daughters working far from home, cleaning houses in Chagrin or Solon, the most probable places to find work. By chance, a family who had operated a nearby fabric and quilt shop for years decided to close just as her oldest daughters were approaching the age when they would be looking for work.
"Maybe you're the one to buy this shop, with your five girls," the owner suggested one day when Detweiler was shopping for fabric.
The thought hadn't occurred to her, but it wasn't a bad idea. She didn't want her girls working in the city. The oldest one had already finished school and taken a job at Byler's Freezer Meats in Middlefield and her second daughter was completing eighth grade, her final year in school.
After discussing the proposition with her husband, a carpenter, the couple decided to transform his workshop into a store.
Detweiler bought the fabrics, quilts and notions remaining at Amish Home Quilt Shop and opened Mary D's Fabric-N-Quilt Shop behind her Hayes Road home last October.
Balancing act: Operating the shop while keeping up with household chores hasn't been easy, Detweiler said. She'd worked in a restaurant before but hadn't had any experience working in a fabric shop. Plus, her youngest daughter was only 2 years old, so putting her down for naps and keeping her entertained became especially challenging when business was steady.
This year should be easier. Her oldest daughter, now 16, can run the store by herself and her second daughter, who is 14, is almost to that point. It's also the first year daughter No. 2 hasn't returned to school in the fall. With three people to share the work, Detweiler said, keeping house, operating the shop and looking after the youngest children shouldn't be as difficult.
Operating hours: Detweiler opens the shop at 8:30 a.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. Saturday. Then she returns to the house to finish dressing her youngest daughters. They eat breakfast keeping an eye out for customers. When one comes, "whoever is ready will run out and wait on them," she said.
Then, one of the girls will clean house, sweep the floors and do the dishes while the other one tackles the laundry and mom watches the shop. The girls watch the shop while their mother sews.
All five girls like working in the shop, Detweiler said, the youngest ones bag customer purchases and return bolts of fabric to their proper places.
Plain fabrics sell best, and most of those sales are to local Amish and Mennonite women. "All of the quilts go to the non-Amish because they don't make them themselves," Detweiler said. Many of the non-Amish customers, commonly referred to as "English" or "Yankee," are tourists. "For a while, my quilts were all going out of state," she said.
Quilts range from $500 to $800. Five or six local Amish and Mennonite women sell their quilts at Mary D's on consignment, the shop owner said, and made-to-order quilts are available.
Detweiler's oldest daughter has also sold items she's sewn -- custom-made curtains and baby blankets.
Although the girls are content working at the shop, Detweiler said once they turn 20 she will no longer tell them what they must do. Then, she said, it will be up to them where they work.
Eventually, her husband may take an interest in the business, she said, maybe after the girls have grown and he is no longer interested in the labor-intensive work he does now, framing in new houses.
kubik@vindy.com