New quilt shop replaces SLO County institution that closed after 56 years

A new quilt shop has opened in Morro Bay — in the same location as the 56-year-old store that recently closed there.

The Quilted Otter held its soft opening Oct. 4 at 2380 Main St. in north Morro Bay.

That’s where The Cotton Ball, a quilting and sewing mecca for decades, had been in recent years. The store, which opened in downtown Morro Bay in 1969, closed in late August, much to the dismay of area seamstresses, quilters and fiber artists.

The news about the incoming Quilted Otter helped assuage fans’ angst about the demise of their favorite textile store and the lack of a local place where they could find quality quilting fabric, take classes and be part of their craft’s community.

From Cotton Ball to Quilted Otter

September was a very busy month for The Quilted Otter’s owner, Sue Johnston, with only a month between The Cotton Ball’s closure and The Quilted Otter’s opening.

She’d recently retired from 35 years of teaching mostly calculus and physics in Livermore. She holds a master’s degree from Texas A&M in the latter topic.

In May, she and husband Tim Johnston moved to Los Osos to live closer to their daughter, son-in-law (both Cal Poly profs) and 2-year-old granddaughter, she told The Tribune.

Then in June, the Johnstons learned that The Cotton Ball, a shop Sue Johnston treasured, was closing.

“I immediately felt a loss, not just for myself but for the entire quilting community, not to have a local quilt shop,” she told The Tribune.

So, she did something about it.

“I had always wanted to operate a quilt shop, and so with my family’s support, I decided to dive into it,” Sue Johnston said.

“I spent the summer planning, buying fabrics that we stored in our living and dining room ... and we didn’t even have furniture yet!” said with a laugh.

Owner has big plans for her new Morro Bay quilt shop

As a lifelong teacher with a lot of quilting, sewing and fabric knowledge to share, Johnston has an ambitious goal of offering products, yes, but also classes, workshops, lectures, retreats and “quilting circles” designed to build — or rebuild — the craft’s community on the county’s North Coast.

With more than 500 bolts of fabric, notions, tools, patterns, books, kits, panels and pre-cuts in the store already, she aims to have something for anybody with a yen to quilt or sew.

She also stocks small quilted goods that customers can buy, from potholders and sachets to art quilts.

The Quilted Otter has a wide range of interesting fabrics

“They say quilting and buying fabric are two different hobbies,” Johnston said, and she aims to supply them both.

“I adore nautical and ocean-themed fabrics. Birds are high on the list. Batiks are definitely a favorite, particularly the ones with ocean themes. And we have flowers, lots of flowers. Sunflowers and dahlias are some of my favorites,” she said.

Top-brand fabrics will be available there, too, she said.

“Soon, we will have 30 new bolts by Kaffe Fassett. (He’s the) the popular British designer known for large, often flowery prints. Fassett was born in San Francisco and spent significant time on the Central Coast,” Johnston said.

Fassett is the son of Bill and Lolly Fassett, who built Nepenthe in Big Sur, according to a youtube video about the resort restaurant’s 60^th anniversary.

The Quilted Otter’s fabric stock also includes space-themed textiles, a whole line celebrating Caterpillar Tractor’s 100 years in business and lots of so-called “blender basics,” which are the solid and tonal colors that accent, offset and contribute to a pattern.

Johnston also is applying her innate commerce savvy to her new enterprise, having drafted a detailed business model that identifies her customer segments, revenue streams, channels and customer touchpoints and more.

“My plan is to have a hub for quilting, one where local residents feel comfortable dropping in for a class, to use our space for quilting with new friends,” Johnston said.

The teacher said she also hopes to “teach a whole new generation on the Central Coast how to quilt and sew,” especially now that schools no longer teach home economics and sewing.

Sewing has been a big part of quilter’s life

Johnston, born and raised in San Jose, was one of 11 children.

“My dad was one of the first nuclear engineers in California,” she said, and he told his offspring a lot about the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and the area.

With so many youngsters to clothe, Johnston’s mother taught her daughters to sew.

“We soon were creating doll clothes, Halloween costumes and clothes,” Johnston said.

Her first quilt? She was 22, and it was a hand-quilted, queen-sized “Double Irish Chain” made for her best friend’s wedding gift. “It took me the entire summer,” Johnston said.

In her years of teaching, Johnston earned many local, state and U.S. awards for programs she launched or helped to start. She also founded “Calculus Camps,” with up to 200 students at a weekend retreat.

She married Livermore native Tim Johnston, a civil engineer, in 1989. They have three children, including Cal Poly mechanical engineering professor Amanda Emberley. Her husband, Richard Emberley, is also a Cal Poly professor in that department, specializing in fire science.

Their other children are Kevin Johnston, a civil engineer tin Anchorage, Alaska, and Katie Johnston, a math teacher in Claremont. Both girls are skilled quilters with work on display in the store, and the latter plans to teach classes there, their mom said.

After Sue Johnston retired, learned The Cotton Ball was closing, and negotiated to replace it, she purchased fixtures, shelving, racks, etc., from that store and finalized The Quilted Otter’s lease on Sept. 15.

She’d looked for other locations, Johnston said, but felt the Main Street shop’s history as a quilt store was a great advantage, as were its easy access to Highway 1 and central location for the quilters and sewers from the North Coast, the rest of the county and even the Central Valley and beyond.

For more about The Quilted Otter

The Quilted Otter has a website for information and ordering fabrics, patterns (including “cheater” and custom ones) and more, and is also online on Facebook and Instagram.

For now, the shop is open noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

“Soon, starting Nov. 1, we plan to be open every day,” she said, to share vast knowledge, ideas and lots of enthusiasm to help keep quilting alive on the North Coast and beyond.

Kathe Tanner

The Tribune

805-781-7904 (voicemails only)

Kathe Tanner has been writing about the people and places of SLO County’s North Coast since 1981, first as a columnist and then also as a reporter. Her career has included stints as a bakery owner, public relations director, radio host, trail guide and jewelry designer. She has been a resident of Cambria for more than four decades, and if it’s happening in town, Kathe knows about it.