She Came. She Saw. She Conquered.
“Stop the car,” Cheryl Sleboda shouted to her friend as troves of vehicles continued to jet by on North 4th Street in downtown Paducah. “There’s a building for sale.” After navigating through the out-of-town quilters to find a parking spot during the American Quilter’s Society QuiltWeek, Cheryl walked to the former Quilt in a Day building. It was large with plenty of display real estate. “I don’t know,” she hesitated in her own personal caution, as she looked around to the surrounding buildings . . . when another for sale sign caught her eye. The building right next door was also for sale—a former lawyer’s office, prime for a remodel into the perfect sewing emporium. Cheryl quickly found her phone and called the realtor on the sign. “When can you give me a tour?”
After spotting the building in April of 2022, Cheryl and her husband Charlie had packed, sold their house, and moved to 117 North 4th Street in Paducah by the first of June. Chicago to Paducah in less than two months. “I don’t recommend it,” she shared with a light laugh of reflection. “Zero out of ten stars.” While it may seem impulsive to some, Cheryl put a bet on a little big town, with a dream to square up her own corner in the quilting industry in Paducah.
Before her big move, Cheryl had become a star in the quilting world. After shifting away from the Chicago theatre scene and pivoting toward a career in comic book distribution, Cheryl started a blog, discussing her weekly project of creating a unique 6” square quilt each week. After three years, she decided to change it up a little. “I decided I was going to do a series of fabric-manipulated quilts, and right in the middle of it I thought, ‘This is all I ever want to do again.’”
People were intrigued by her creations, growing her following exponentially. Soon she was traveling the country, teaching at conferences and retreats, and found herself on television shows and hosting her own YouTube series, leaving comic distribution behind. “God bless PBS—I wouldn’t have a career if it weren’t for PBS,” Cheryl believes. Cheryl’s influence continues to grow with books, patterns, and even her own set of tools.
Cheryl’s move to Paducah wasn’t just a whim. It was a strategic move after witnessing the economic stability of quilt tourism in Paducah with the return of QuiltWeek in 2022. “A lot of [quilt] shows haven’t come back,” Cheryl shared. “But the AQS show had completely come back.” That mattered. The quilt industry’s rebound in Paducah meant it wasn’t just another stop for quilters, but rather a destination; a home for creativity and community. That boom in tourism is exactly the clientele Cheryl wanted to serve.
“What I see in my store every single day is someone who comes here from more than a hundred miles,” Cheryl related. “Today I’ve had people from Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio—locations that are not close.” Muppin’s Sewing Emporium is a quaint, intimate shopping experience. There aren’t ceiling-high shelves and back storage 15 feet in the air. Rather, all the fabric bolts are at eye level, with a few peg boards and custom-built bookshelves that line the wall to store products. “My goal is to specifically service the quilt tourist,” Cheryl shared. Though small, the thoughtful and connective space allows Cheryl to really get to know her customers and tailor their experience to them. “My goal is to give you a little cool taste of something from Paducah.”
Her statement to her fellow industry peers is quite simple: you don’t need to be monolithic to thrive. “I wanted to show the quilt industry that you don’t have to be the size of 5,000 plus square feet to make it in this industry.” Cheryl is a living testament to that. Running an in-person store with a continually thriving online business while creating her own resources and tools, Cheryl’s vision of a small boutique has a big impact—something that she hopes the rest of the quilting industry and Paducah can continue to embrace.
While Cheryl is contributing to business development in downtown Paducah, she hopes the rest of Paducah will continue to embrace quilt tourism for years to come. “Quilting is a $4 billion industry slated to become a $5 to $6 billion industry in the next five years,” Cheryl explained. “More people are quilting than you think. Paducah can be that center for that type of creativity. In the meantime, if you’re an artist and you cater to that quilt tourist, you’re going to have an easy market.”
Even as the quilting industry continues to grow here in Paducah, Cheryl is grateful for the creative community that continues to make it possible and wants to see it grow. “Paducah has a lot of incredible ability. It has the ability to be the superstar,” Cheryl reflected. “Paducah has a strong reputation as an art-friendly, art-centric community, and I have felt verywelcomed by that art community. I’m here to stay.”
