Susan Dunn, 58, is a “wizard with the thread,” according to her business partner, Ellen Hey.
Dunn, originally from Greenville, moved to Carrollton more than a decade ago. Her family had been from Carroll County. This past March, she decided to finally pursue her long-time dream of opening up a quilt shop.
The shop, In Stitches, does more than just quilts, though. In fact, Dunn laughed, the big quilts that she loves to do aren’t among her bestsellers. Instead, people most often order baby quilts for the new infants and toddlers in their lives. Other crowd-pleasers include embroidery and monograms.
Dunn seems to know how to do it all. She can either monogram a store-bought item that a customer brings in, or she can completely hand-make the item herself.
The arts and craft “wizard” taught kindergarten for just shy of 30 years. She has been retired for almost 10 years now.
Dunn went to the University of Mississippi and majored in Elementary Education. When weighing her grade-level options with that field of study, Dunn said she decided that “five-year-olds were more fun” so she chose kindergarten.
Dunn has always loved arts and crafts so she, of course, found ways to incorporate her interests into the classroom. Her big thing was making quilts with her kindergarteners. She would teach them how to use the sewing machine and how to quilt by hand. One of the quilts became so beloved by her students that they would fight over who would sleep on it during nap time, Dunn said with a laugh. Now that she has retired, the quilt is draped over her couch at home.
Dunn began sewing when she was about seven or eight years old, she said. Her great aunt is the one who taught her. At one time, Dunn was even making all her own clothes. She doesn’t do that anymore, but she is still known to be sporting her own work every now and then.
Sewing is her oldest craft, but she doesn’t have a favorite thing to make or do, she said. She just likes to dedicate herself to learning something new and then perfecting it.
“If I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it right,” she said.
Her latest ongoing project is a 5,602 piece quilt pattern from 1863. She has been working on the quilt for about three years now. The pattern has so many pieces because each square of the quilt must have a different design. Her personality is woven all throughout the quilt, with some squares designed with the Grinch, Hotty Toddy and the tiny Whos from Disney’s Horton Hears a Who.
Dunn’s baby quilts are full of personality, too, with designs ranging from cute phrases to baby duckies to Bible verses. An occasional item will have a Mississippi State emblem on it. Hey and Dunn joked that those are usually left to Hey.
Most recently, Dunn taught herself how to do Bobbin lace. Bobbin lace can be used to make a variety of intricate thread patterns. Dunn creatively used the thread to make a book “worm” bookmark that has eyes and antenna.
What has kept her busy all these years is that if she gets bored with something, she just moves along and starts something else, she said.
To be sure to seal the deal on earning the “Jack of all trades” title, Dunn is currently serving her second term as an alderman for the Town of Carrollton, with this being her fifth year on the board.
Despite her incredible craftsmanship and years of service to young children and her communities, Dunn remains humble. When asked what was something that made her special, she decided to turn to her business partner for help.
Ellen Hey replied, “She is a hard worker and a good friend.”
Dunn added that she also loves to read. But, after all those years of kindergarten teaching, the book must be just a little silly, she said.
