Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Residents of Northern Kentucky! Based in Union, KY....The Good Neighbor Podcast helps the residents of Northern Kentucky get to know local business owners as people. We allow the business owners and influencers in NKY to tell the stories of how they started their business and why. We hear about their families, their personal interests and why they love living in and serving resident of Northern Kentucky!
Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Handmade Heirlooms: The Art of Custom Textile Creations
Step into the world of Kentucky Home Creations, where fabric becomes family legacy. Ed and Shannon Sowders craft textile treasures designed to be cherished for generations – from personalized baby blankets that become childhood keepsakes to custom handbags that make a statement wherever you go.
The magic of their craft lies in the details. Their signature baby blankets feature thoughtfully designed two-sided patterns with embroidery carefully placed to ensure comfort against delicate skin. Using premium 100% cotton materials, they create items built to last, not just in construction but in meaning. Each creation tells a story – your story – through customized embroidery, carefully selected fabrics, and personal touches that transform ordinary items into extraordinary keepsakes.
What truly sets Kentucky Home Creations apart is their commitment to creating exclusively one-of-a-kind pieces. "We only do one-offs," Ed explains, emphasizing their dedication to making each item unique for each customer. Whether crafting a beach tote with a matching backpack, a sports-themed stadium bag featuring your favorite team, or a personalized holiday decoration, everything is created individually with attention to both aesthetics and functionality.
Shannon's sewing journey began as a way to connect with her mother, a lifelong seamstress with over 50 years of experience. That personal connection infuses every stitch of their work, bringing warmth and authenticity to each creation. Their product line evolves with the seasons – from summer beach accessories to winter blankets, holiday decorations to Super Bowl merchandise – always maintaining their dedication to quality craftsmanship.
Perhaps most surprising is their commitment to keeping custom craftsmanship affordable. Standard baby blankets typically range from $19-20, with embroidered versions around $30. These reasonable prices make heirloom-quality, personalized items accessible to anyone wanting something truly special.
Connect with Kentucky Home Creations on Facebook, visit them at local craft shows, or call 916-532-1075 to discuss your custom creation. Share this podcast with friends who appreciate the value of handmade quality and personal touch in a mass-produced world.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, mike Murphy. Thank you, charlie. Yes, I'm Mike Murphy, host of the Good Neighbor Podcast. We interview local business owners and influencers. We like to allow listeners those of you here in Northern Kentucky to know local business owners as human beings, not just a logo on a business card. So today I have with me a gentleman named Ed Souders, correct, ed Ed Souders? He and his wife Shannon are the owners of Kentucky it's Seth Kentucky Home Creations. Ed, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Murph, thanks so much, glad to be here. Can't wait to dig into this deeper.
Speaker 2:So let's start digging in Kentucky Home Creations. If somebody were to ask you in the elevator hey, what do you do? What's your little elevator pitch on Kentucky Home Creations.
Speaker 1:So Kentucky Home Creations. We create handmade hair loom blankets, baby stuff, bibs and et cetera. We also perform machine embroidery, professional machine embroidery. We're able to create things from scratch, such as handbags, also totes receiving blankets, place mats, tablecloths, a lot of stuff for the home, pillows, etc. Pillowcases are a big thing right now, but that's pretty much to run the gambit of things that we have done over the past few years. We also do some repairs. It depends upon the situation. We don't really take on all repairs, but we can take on some things for our customers. We can take on some things for, you know, for our customers.
Speaker 2:So, if I'm hearing you right, everything is basically textile driven, correct? It's fabric, yes, sir. Okay, and you're customizing things. So one of the things you mentioned there is blankets baby blankets, you may have said. I could see that being a very nice gift to give to somebody. So do you do one-offs like that or do you prefer things to be done in mass?
Speaker 1:Well, to be perfectly honest, we only do one-offs. We don't really mass produce anything. Because we don't really mass produce anything? Because we we're requested to create things that are unique in nature. You know, not only is it a baby blanket, but it's something very personal. I mean, it's a in the in the world of, of heirloom baby blankets, that's something that you know, you look back upon. You know, that was my baby blanket when I was a child.
Speaker 1:It has my name on it. It has as a saying that my grandmother picked out for me. We have a lot of folks who will choose a phrase hey, I want to put this phrase on the baby blanket with their name on it. Okay, we can do that, no problem whatsoever. One thing that makes us unique is that we do our best is that on our baby blankets they are two-sided, so there's one pattern on one side and there's a coordinating pattern on the other side. My wife, shannon, is fantastic at coordinating and we will actually embroider one side of the blanket and then cover it with the other so it doesn't rub on the baby's skin and the stitches themselves are soft, so everything is unique and one-off on every single thing we do.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't just look nice, it's very functional too. Okay. So those are things I hadn't even thought about. You know the rubbing on a baby's skin. So you guys have thought about that. Okay, we have. So I asked about baby blankets just because that's what stood out to me. But if somebody so any given week, is there a most popular category? What do people come to you for most often?
Speaker 1:It is a run of the gambit. We also make unique handbags and purses. We've had some requests for a specialized material to make a purse out of, or maybe a special type of tote to carry to the beach. Hey, I want, I want this thing to stick out so that I can find it. You know, I want it to be mine. Hey, can you make that out of this type of material and put my name on it and put a panting dog on the side of it? Absolutely, no problem whatsoever. Hey, can you make me a matching backpack? Absolutely, we'll make you a matching backpack and you will have definitely something unique a beach bag with a matching backpack. We got you, we got you covered, no sweat whatsoever. So, yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:All right, that's very cool. Do people ever either deliver to you to incorporate in something, or can you provide a photograph transferred onto fabric that becomes a part of a collectible? Is photograph a part of things that you do?
Speaker 1:It is possible. However, though, the issue with transferring a photograph onto embroidery, the problem is that most photographs are very detail oriented, you know, lines and such. If it is small, it doesn't transfer very well, it doesn't do a very good job. However, though, if it's very large, you know we're talking like a, like a jacket back, you know, like across the back, that does okay. We would prefer that, if you were to select an icon you know and that may it may not be an icon that we currently own, we may be able to reach out and find an icon that they're looking for, you know, such as like an eagle, you know, maybe they want to eagle with their spread or something like that. We have multiple resources where we can go grab an item like that and we can kind of mock it up and then the customer can review it. Look at, hey, yeah, that looks great. Well, then, we'll stitch it out and make it happen. Okay, but, like I said, you talked about pictures. It doesn't really transfer very well, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, that's good to know. It's nice that you can at least do a little consultation and somebody comes to you with a vision and you're able to give them options and figure out a way to provide something that I think you know your stuff's intended to last a long, long time. Keepsakes that maybe stay in the family for a while, huh.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and we use high quality material. We're always using 100% cotton. We very rarely use polyester just because polyester shrinks a lot in a wash. Use polyester just because polyester shrinks a lot in a wash? You'd think cotton would shrink, but the quality of cotton that we use? We don't experience any shrinkage whatsoever.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah. Well, my wife kind of is always looking at labels and saying no polyester in the house because polyester ends up stinking.
Speaker 1:It can, indeed, it can. Yeah, I feel your pain there, for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so she's 100% cotton person and I'm sure a lot of people who are going to listen to this are feeling the same way. So what about? You know? You mentioned, I think, like beach bag stuff or just things that are going to be outdoors Are some of these fabrics? Are they color fast or is fading just an inevitable part of what you got going on, like what's that look like?
Speaker 1:Well, it, once again, it kind of depends on the usage and the application. You know, if we're, if we're going to be using something, there's going to be outside a lot. You know we have a coating that we can actually spray on it. That'll help prevent it and it's something that's readily available. I mean you can buy it at anywhere. I mean I would recommend it for anything that's outside for any length of period of time. And if you wash it, you've got to recoat it, spray it on, let it dry. It's good to go. We also do a lot of sports teams hats and such like the Bengals and the Cincinnati Reds, and we do a lot of Steelers. But but you know we, we can't, we can't be, we can't be team loyal around around the Souders household, that's for sure you know. But yeah, I mean we, we do a lot of a lot of scenarios. You know that we can actually put a put a protective coating on the material. We don't like to do that per se because over time it does kind of take away from the actual.
Speaker 1:You know the actual item but we will do it upon request and plus it's quite expensive to do as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, so, again, you know I'm I'm learning right along with our listeners. So this, this is all new information to me. So you know I speaking of sports stuff, you know I'm a Michigan football fan. So you mentioned earlier that you've got acres and acres of fabric that you've invested in. I would assume that some of that is maize and blue. Go, blue Michigan colors. But you know, I would imagine that because people are just so passionate about their sports that that is, or at least could be, a very big category believe it or not, it is one of our biggest sellers, uh, as the Bengals, and anything Bengals here in the North Kentucky area is just huge.
Speaker 1:Um, my wife makes a couple different of the uh of the Bengals totes. They're uh, they're a tote bag, you know, carry your stuff in and out of the game. We, plus, we have some clear bags that are stadium friendly with the Bengals logo on it. Um, and you know that. That way you don't have to get the search thing going on when you go through the metal detectors. Same thing for the reds. We've got some. We've got some stadium friendly bags as well for the reds. But yeah, the sports teams are just, you know, they're huge. I mean, we've done, we've done the. What was it done? We did Miami, miami Florida university, university of Miami, the Gators down there. We also did Georgia Tech and we've done a Duke and we've done a. I mean, those just went right off the top of my head. I mean we've done so many that it's beginning to lose my track train of thought.
Speaker 2:Well, possibilities are endless. Yes, yeah, if somebody wants a special keepsake, you know, geared around their, their favorite team point is, they can come to you and you'll you'll have plenty of options for them to choose from. Do you have a? Do you have a favorite category in terms of you know what you and Shannon have produced for people?
Speaker 1:My favorite thing to create myself is I really enjoy making the purses and bags, and the reason why I do is because sometimes they're a little tedious to work with because, depending on the size of the bag plus, the material is really thick. A lot of this, a lot of it's made of vinyl and canvas. You know, like I said, really durable, you know stuff these items are made, you know, for for ladies to carry. You know back and durable, you know stuff these items are made you know for for ladies to carry. You know back and forth. You know and and and utilize on a daily basis. But that's kind of my favorite thing to create.
Speaker 1:Shannon enjoys making the baby blankets and the placemats and she also, she also likes making the bags as well, but she's always coming up with something new. Like you know, uh, what is? Uh, the um? She's working on um, uh, she's working on a dish towel pot holder thing, now that you hang over your your stove handle, and it's more decorative but it's also functional in the same way, um, and she's trying to put that together, trying to get that idea off the ground as well, um, but, like I said, there's so many, many things because we run through so many different times a year.
Speaker 1:You know, obviously this time of year we're beach bags and backpacks and stuff like that, you know. But as we get into the colder months people start talking more about blankets and we also have pet blankets. So for your dog or cat or whatever animal you may have, we have blankets that are suitable for them in a, in a, in a pet pattern, you know, so that you know they can have their own blanket when it gets cold out. So I mean, it just kind of runs the gab of different things that we run through the year. You know, especially now, once we get into September, we'll start pushing the Thanksgiving and the and the Christmas stuff and then, once we get through that we're about midway, we'll start pushing Superbowl stuff, and we have some pretty neat Superbowl stuff as well too.
Speaker 2:So, okay, well, that's. That's all very cool, and I think you know, as we talk, people are imagining some of these things and they would like to see them. I know you have a Facebook page, is that correct? We do, yes, we do People go to your Facebook page? I'm assuming is it Kentucky Home Creations is the name of the Facebook page.
Speaker 1:That's correct.
Speaker 2:And Facebook, yes, indeed, just search it out, we'll come, we'll pop right up, ok good, so people can see some visuals of what you're producing, but you have a website that's kind of on the near horizon, correct?
Speaker 1:That's correct, we're. We're currently in development stage. We're almost finished with it. We had the domain purchased, we had that all squared away. All that technical stuff is ready to go. Right now. We're merging the online store and also the website together so folks can buy directly from the website. We've got a little hurdle to kind of get over that because of our program that we utilize to accept credit cards. There's a little bit of a disconnect with our Web site platform. But it's just. It's going to take another little bit to get squared away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, e-commerce is great, but you know it's it's also got to be done right, because it can be a very frustrating experience for the consumer if it's not. So, yeah, make sure you've got all your ducks in a row before you go live with that. But that's good to know that people will be able to come and actually see things, good ideas, and then purchase directly right off the website. Sure, and you live here locally. You're in Independence, correct?
Speaker 1:That's right, beautiful downtown, independence, kentucky, right here. I was born and raised literally about three miles over my shoulder. My dad's place was, as a matter of fact, where my home sits right now. I used to bale the hay with my uncle and my uncle, my cousins and my dad in this field where my beautiful home sits right now.
Speaker 2:Wow, OK. So there's going to be a lot of people who know you very well because you're homegrown.
Speaker 1:My wife gets very frustrated at me when I'm out and about, People say, Ed, oh my gosh good to see you. I haven't seen you in forever. I know man, Always somewhere. Somebody knows me for something.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, that could be good or bad, but we'll just put that in the good category. You seem like a great guy. I appreciate that. Thank you, murph. So, shannon, you and Shannon, you live locally. I assume that you've got children, is that correct that?
Speaker 1:is exactly right, yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Probably not little children. No, you and I appear to be close in age, so your kids are probably grown, eh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as a matter of fact, my youngest one has finally flown the coop, as they say. She just recently graduated high school and she'll be headed in the armed forces. I'm so proud of her. She is, like I said, the youngest of the brood and, like I said, she's moving on to greater, on to her own life and better things. Okay, my oldest, my oldest, he lives here, right here in Crittenden, kentucky. He did used to live in California for a hot minute and he recently moved back out here to a beautiful state of Kentucky because, you know, we have a much better philosophy on life. I'm still trying to get my middle son to move up and move out here to Kentucky, but it's a little bit harder for him to move out because he does have a. Our granddaughter is out there. She's only pushing three and they have some stability issues out there that would not really prevent them or not really provide them an avenue to move here to Kentucky. But hey, hopefully one day.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, that's what cell phones and computers are for to be able to at least stay in touch. When somebody is halfway across the, or actually all the way across the country, you can stay in touch with them All the time. Yeah Well, maybe you'll get him back in Kentucky again, because you're you're right this is a beautiful place to live.
Speaker 2:we came down here from Michigan 20 some years ago gosh, about 30 years now, I guess and uh, wow, love, love, love Kentucky, love Michigan, but love Kentucky as well. Beautiful place, absolutely. So what is Shannon's background that? I know, you know she is kind of the owner of the business You're the face of the business on this podcast today but it's her business. So what got her into this?
Speaker 1:Well, that's a little bit of a lengthy story. I'll try to make it brief. Her mom is a seamstress by second trade and she has been into sewing and embroidery for probably more than 50 or 60 years. Her mother has actually worn out three or four multi-needle embroidered machines over the years. Shannon has recently got into it in the past seven years I guess about seven, nine years now and she's kind of been doing it on the side because mainly because it was a connection point with her mom and it just made sense.
Speaker 1:Well, she began to be very astute and very good at it and she decided to make the leap and buy her first embroidery machine, which was a single needle Basically, wore that thing out and we decided to make the jump into buying a professional grade 10 needle embroidery machine. And that just kind of veered the ship down the road of textiles. And you know, we had the collective idea of, hey, let's see if folks want to buy this stuff that you know that you create, because it's beginning to pile up around here and I know you like making it but it's kind of you know, kind of getting in the way around here. So we started selling some stuff at shows and there we go.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of the story of it. Yeah, sometimes a business finds us. You know, something that you enjoy doing and you're passionate about just eventually becomes a business. I can imagine, you know, if you're a creative type and you're making these things and you're carrying them about the community, people say, hey, where'd you get that?
Speaker 1:I want one too, and so hence the business is born the, the ladies at church, you know we, um, well, we attend seven hills church over here in florence, okay, and um, the, uh, the ladies at church, you know they, I don't know how many bags and purses that sh has, you know, created for folks. Basically, you know she, individuals, will come to her, hey, can you make a bag like this, you know, and with this pattern, and Shannon will go, well, let me look, let me see what I have available. And once again, the creative, you know the creative juices start going between the customer and her and they start working it out. And when, the, when the technical details come, or we, well, hey, we can't figure out how to get this handle on here, or we can't figure out how to put this. And that's when they come see me and I can usually figure those things out for them. To get those, you know, get the pieces of it to make a, make a strap or make a handle, or get this bottom skirt or whatever.
Speaker 1:But, but I mean baby blankets and I mean everything I mentioned before. You know, the folks at church have just been very great gracious as far as you're supporting us in our business. That's the great, great area that we enjoy. I would imagine that you would attend local craft fairs and things like that. Right, we most certainly do, we do, we do. We were most typically at the big one at the Ryle High School for the cheerleading, a cheerleading event, and then we're also, a matter of fact, coming up on August. The second will be in Florence at the festival that's going on there in the car show there in Florence on August 2nd. We'll be there. We'll also be at the Boone County cheerleading event coming up in. I believe it's at the end of October, I believe. Don't quote me on the date on that one, but we typically are both of those shows every year.
Speaker 2:Okay, so people can go to your Facebook page and you'll make sure that they know where you're going to be upcoming when you get that website launched. You'll do the same, I'm sure that's exactly right.
Speaker 1:As a matter of fact, the uh, the show here in florence. It just kind of popped up on us here. We actually forgot about it shame on me, webmaster. So I need to get that up. I need to get that up over the weekend so folks know they can find us out there and, um, so yeah, we'll, uh, we'll, we'll have updates, you know and, and produce them on Facebook before they go anywhere else.
Speaker 2:Okay, so when you go to a craft show, since so much of what you do is kind of customized, do you just sort of have a few samples that you carry around, or do you have a photograph, pitch, book? How do you operate?
Speaker 1:So ultimately we do have some stock items. I mean, they are all unique, they're all one-offs. And basically they were scenarios where my wife Shannon would look at it like, well, those two would look pretty good together. I think I'll make a baby blanket out of that. But then she would create it and she goes you know what? That looks fantastic. And then she would fold it up and stow it away and then she'd move on to the next one and that's kind of how it kind of snowballed.
Speaker 1:And you know, we do a backlog of, like I said, custom, unique stuff. There are one-offs, there are some that have, like I said, for example, like a baby blanket, side A, side B. There may be another one that has side A but it has a completely different backside, side C or side D. It would be similar but not identical. But yeah, we do have stock and product that we can sell at the shows that are. They're not customized as far as like embroidery, names or something like that. But if someone picks it up and say, you know, I really like this duck print, do you think you could customize this for it? Well, absolutely, we can do that for you. I'm 1,000%. We can actually take that very same one. We can put their name on it, fill out an order form and what they want. We can actually deconstruct that particular item, put on the embroidery whatever they wanted and then reconstruct it. That is a possibility as well, okay.
Speaker 2:Or somebody could just walk up and say, hey, I love that color blue, I love this bag, this is beautiful. How much you want for it?
Speaker 1:Exactly. Or they say, hey, I got this blue jean jacket on. I really want to put this on the back of it. Okay, great, we'll set up a point in time where we can sit down and talk about the specifics and we'll make it happen. They're providing the item and we'll make it happen. You know, they're providing the item and we'll provide the decoration.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Well, sounds like a lot of fun and I wish you guys very well with the launch of the website. I look forward to meeting you in person. You know I'll come to a craft show and we'll get to shake hands, see each other face to face. Looking forward to meeting Shannon and before we go, is there anything we haven't talked about that you would like people to know that we haven't discussed yet?
Speaker 1:Sure, there is a misconception out there about what we do. A lot of people, when they think about customized products like this, they think of their being very expensive. That's not the case. Our typical baby blanket it will sell for somewhere between 19 and 20 dollars. If it's embroidered, we're talking no more than 30. So, and unless unless you're doing something really extravagant, you know, a typical embroidered hat, I mean, it sells for between 15 and 20 dollars. Our items are very affordable and there's a misconception out there. Oh, they're talking about custom. It must be really expensive.
Speaker 1:No, no, we're realists. We don't gouge. Look, we may have three hours in creating this from start to finish, but we have a flat charge that we charge for that. And that's the other thing too is if the customer comes to us and we give them a quote for something, you know, whatever it may be, you know, run the gambit. And if we say X amount of dollars and if we spend, you know, if we spend three weeks trying to create this thing, we still only charge them what we quote. We don't, we don't go back and say, you know, we, we really messed up on that. No, no, what we quote you is what we bill you and we do things fairly.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I could see people because those prices seem more than fair to me, quite honestly. They seem instinctively maybe a little less than what you would expect to pay. So I wouldn't be surprised if somebody were to say to you oh no, no, I want to pay you more. So the business consultant in me says you know, if somebody wants to pay you more for what you're doing, do it.
Speaker 1:Well, murph, you know that's. The thing is that you know we have. Now I will tell you that we do have some bags that border on $50 or more but, we also have bags that are, you know they're, you know they're $16, $18.
Speaker 1:And once again, it depends on the material, depends on the design. You know what all goes into it and it's all about, you know, trying to. I want the we, not I but we want the customer to be happy with what they have. If they're happy with it, then we're happy with it, Then they're going to tell more people about it and then we can, you know we can continue to grow our business. We're, we're, we are, we're a little discouraged, honestly, on our Facebook page because we haven't received a bunch of likes or a bunch of follows. I tell you what we're we're at the point where we're about ready to start offering discounts for likes and follows on our, on our, on our Facebook.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, we'll see if we can't get some more eyeballs on that page.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Right, my friend. So, that being said, we're done with this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everybody out there, make sure you go to Kentucky Home Creations Facebook page, give them a like and follow If you want to reach out to Shannon. The number you can reach her at if you have questions is 916-532-1075. And other than that, just be prepared to see a killer website in the not too distant future. So, everybody out there, thanks for spending time with us today. Until the next episode. This is the Good Neighbor Podcast. So, everyone out there, thanks for spending time with us today, until the next episode. This is the Good Neighbor Podcast. So, everyone out there, be good to your neighbors. Ed goodbye, and the rest of you out there. See you next time. Bye-bye, thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Union. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to.
Speaker 1:GNPUnioncom. That's GNPUnioncom, or call us at 859-651-8330.