After More Than 20 Years, Susan Is Putting Down Her Needle

The quiet story behind Susan's hand-quilted sheep baskets — and why the pieces she once stitched for pleasure are becoming harder for her to make by hand.

I first noticed one of Susan's baskets at a friend's house. It was sitting beside the bed with two folded blankets inside, and I remember thinking that it was far too pretty to be called a laundry basket.

The outside was softly quilted, little sheep wandered across a meadow of flowers, and the whole thing had the slightly imperfect character you only seem to get from something that has been worked on by hand.

When I asked where she'd bought it, she told me about Susan and Nancy — two sisters in Miami whose boutique began in 2005 with a dream that originally belonged to their mother.

1 A dream their mother never got to finish

Susan and Nancy's mother had always dreamed of opening a boutique of her own — somewhere warm and personal, filled with beautiful pieces and the sort of small details that make women feel genuinely welcome.

Sadly, she passed away from breast cancer before she was able to see that dream through.

Susan and Nancy decided it shouldn't end there.

In 2005, the sisters opened their boutique in Miami and carried their mother's idea forward together.

The boutique is still going today. Susan isn't saying goodbye to it.

But there is one small part of the story she is beginning to let go.

2 The little quilting project that was never supposed to become a product

Susan had always enjoyed sewing and quilting.

It was something she did slowly, often between everything else that came with helping run a boutique.

One of the pieces she made for herself was a soft fabric basket covered with sheep and meadow flowers.

It wasn't intended to be merchandise.

Then a customer saw it.

She wanted one.

Susan made another.

Then somebody else asked.

And over the years, a little collection quietly grew around the idea.

3 The detail is in the stitching

Look closely and you'll understand why they feel different from an ordinary storage basket.

The quilted outer layer gives the basket softness and structure, while sheep, flowers and other countryside details create the little scenes across the fabric.

And because so much of the character comes from the individual details, they don't have the cold, identical appearance of something designed purely for mass storage.

• Soft quilted exterior: Warmer and more decorative than plastic or wicker storage.
• Signature sheep designs: Sheep, flowers and meadow-inspired details give each design its personality.
• Soft-sided around the home: No hard wicker edges rattling against furniture or scratching floors.
• Practical handles: Easy to carry between bedrooms, bathrooms and laundry rooms.
• More than laundry: Towels, blankets, toys, knitting, pillows and throws all fit comfortably inside.

4 Watch the kind of work that goes into the details

It is the sort of process that looks simple until you watch it.

A small section at a time. A little adjustment. Another stitch. Then another.

And that is also the reason Susan has started making fewer of them.

5 Her hands simply don't want to do eight-hour sewing days anymore

Susan can still sew.

She simply can't sit for hours with a needle in her hands the way she once could.

Years of fine, repetitive handwork catch up with you. Her fingers tire more quickly now, and long quilting sessions that once felt relaxing have become something she needs to limit.

So she made a decision that Nancy understood immediately: the boutique continues, but Susan is gradually stepping away from this labor-intensive little basket collection.

6 The kind of basket people end up using everywhere

The funny thing is that almost nobody seems to use them for only one purpose.

One woman fills hers with towels. Another keeps blankets beside the bed. Someone else uses hers for knitting. Another gave one to her daughter for a nursery.

What customers are saying

7 There isn't just one sheep basket

Over time the original sheep basket grew into a small family of designs.

Some are brighter. Some are quieter. Some lean into meadow flowers. Others are more playful.

That's part of the fun of the current collection: you can choose the design that actually looks like it belongs in your home.

Why the offer is different this time

Susan doesn't want to spend the next year trying to slowly work her way through what's left.

So rather than treating these like an ordinary sale, Susan & Nancy decided on something much simpler:

For every basket you buy, they'll include another one free.

That means you can keep one and give one away, choose two different designs for two different rooms, or split an order with a daughter, sister or friend.

One basket turns into two

I think this is the part that finally convinced me.

I didn't actually need two laundry baskets.

But I did immediately know where the second one would go.

One beside our bed for blankets. One in the guest bathroom for towels.

And if I'd only wanted one? My daughter would have claimed the second before it reached the house.

The little imperfections are part of it

I don't think I'd want mine to look perfectly factory-made.

A flower sitting a fraction higher, a sheep facing slightly differently, a little variation in the stitching — that's part of what gives the whole thing its charm.

It looks like fabric, thread and a pair of hands were involved, rather than a plastic mold.

The end of a little tradition — not the end of Susan & Nancy

Susan and Nancy aren't disappearing.

Their Miami boutique — the dream they built in memory of their mother in 2005 — continues.

Susan is simply accepting that some kinds of work are harder to keep doing forever.

Fine hand stitching takes patience. It takes time. And it asks a lot of your fingers.

After years of doing it, she is ready to let this chapter become smaller and spend less time with a needle in her hand.

I can understand that.

And somehow knowing that makes the little sheep sitting in the corner of my bedroom feel even sweeter.

I don't usually write this much about a basket.

But perhaps that's the point.

It doesn't really feel like the kind of thing you buy, use and forget about.

It has become part of the room.

And when somebody asks me where the little sheep basket came from, I now have quite a story to tell them.

— Carol Whitmore · Naples, FL

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