What’s happening: What’s being touted as Detroit’s only quilting business has opened in the Nardin Park neighborhood. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and city leaders joined Umi’s Comfort founder Kecia Escoe for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the new store on Thursday, Nov. 10.
What it is: Umi’s Comfort offers handmade custom quilts and pillows, as well as quilting classes for the community. Additional services include incorporating pieces of memorabilia into custom quilts, quilt cleaning and restoration, and offsite quilting classes. Umi’s opened in a small building at the intersection of Petoskey and Richton, away from the main commercial corridors and within the Nardin Park neighborhood itself.
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Business owner Kecia Escoe hopes to bring back the lost art of quilting at her new business, Umi's Comfort, where she hand makes custom quilts. (Courtesy of City of Detroit)Why it’s important: "I want to bring back that creativity, the history and significance of everything we do as humans so that we may slow down and appreciate the lives we live," Kecia Escoe says. "Quilting is a lost art that holds value to any and everyone involved in the process, whether that be giving, receiving, or creating one."
How she did it: Umi’s founder Kecia Escoe successfully applied for a grant through the city’s Motor City Match program, ultimately winning a $50,000 grant to help renovate her new storefront. It’s the 141st brick-and-mortar business that the Motor City Match program has helped opened since the program’s launch in 2015.
The application window for round 22 of Motor City Match opens on Thursday, Dec. 1,
and can be found online.
What they’re saying: "Part of what makes the Motor City Match program special is the diversity of ideas that business owners develop to cater and serve the residents of our community," says Sean Gray, vice president of Small Business Services at the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. "Umi's Comfort is a great example of this. They are providing a service that helps residents learn new skills and challenge themselves."
Umi’s Comfort is located at 12200 Petoskey Ave. in Detroit.
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