Atomic City Quilts owner Shelly Kuropatwinski, left, and new Retail Manager Shelley Clark in front of their new location Wednesday morning at 1362 Trinity Drive, Suite C. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
From left, Nick Booton, Benjamin Booton and Alexander Clark help move shelving Monday afternoon from Atomic City Quilt’s old space on Central Avenue to the new space on Trinity Drive. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post
caclark@ladailypost.com
Atomic City Quilts is staying in business and moving locations. Owner Shelly Kuropatwinski had planned to retire earlier this year but a turn of events changed her mind. Shelley Clarke, a longtime customer, answered a calling and is now helping keep the community’s favorite neighborhood quilt, fabric and needle art store in business.
Shelley is an avid crafter and she agreed to be the store’s retail manager and Shelly will be getting a new role – creative director!
After it was reported in October that Shelly wanted to retire, she and her husband James Kuropatwinski had a number of conversations with interested buyers, but no one wanted to take on Atomic City Quilts as a sole proprietor. There was a lot of partial interest, but no single person stepped forward to take the reins. At an interest-meeting held in January, local businessman Mike Luna of Cruiser’s Custom Embroidery fame, who was helping the Kuropatwinskis find new owners for the shop excitedly stated that since the shop has been open for over eight years, “it has legs to stand on its own and move forward”. That got James’ entrepreneurial spirit churning. So, he convinced Shelly to not close the shop, but rather to consider expanding as a multi-partner LLC.
“It was a tough argument,” James recalled. “Shelly wanted to move on, and no one was showing interest. But, I really hated the thought of Los Alamos losing yet another small business. And I really disliked the thought that a place that encourages creativity and community was going to shut its doors.”
Shelly and James gave themselves until the end of February for the hope of a future Atomic City Quilts to happen. Three weeks went by and nothing.
“We gave ourselves one more week. If no one is interested, then we’ll call it,” James and Shelly recalled saying to each other.
Then, on the very last night of decision week, Shelley sent Shelly an email expressing her interest in being a managing partner!
“Shelley was an answer to our prayers!” both Shelly and James exclaimed.
With the crucial link now in place, details about keeping the quilt shop open could be worked through. Over the course of the next five months, Shelley, Shelly and James worked out how best to move forward. A significant wrinkle was introduced when Close-Knit Yarn Cooperative owners, which shares space with Atomic City Quilts, made known they needed to expand and were thinking of finding a new larger space.
“This gave us food for thought, how about Atomic City Quilts itself expanding? As Atomic City Quilts and the yarn shop worked through ideas, it became apparent that it would be best for Atomic City Quilts to move into a new space. Atomic City Quilts will indeed be in a new space at the beginning of September at 1362 Trinity Drive, Suite C, between Violas and Subway.
“We really didn’t want to move from the main street location that’s right across from the Bradbury Science Museum,” Shelly said. “But our landlord Shannon C’de Baca found us a great location that is easily accessible from both Central and Trinity. She has been a terrific landlord always looking out for the small businesses in town.”
Atomic City Quilts, as a new partnership, moved on Monday to its new location. The Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce will conduct a grand re-opening ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9 and the community is encouraged to attend.
Atomic City Quilts intends to remain the Los Alamos neighborhood quilt, fabric and needle art store, and will be expanding into other crafts – especially exotic needle art and hand embroidery. There are also larger dreams for the future, but time will tell for those.
Classes and demonstrations are being set up, and Shelley and Shelly are always looking for new ways to help the science-minded people of Los Alamos unleash their inner creativity. James himself hosts an “Open Leather Table” at the shop on Monday evenings as a side hobby, which is open to anyone to come and try out leathercrafting.
The community is invited to stop by the new shop when it reopens Sept. 4. Store hours will be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
To learn more, visit www.atomiccityquilts.com.
From left, Alexander Clark, Nick Booton and Benjamin Booton help move shelving Monday from Atomic City Quilt’s old space on Central Avenue to the new space at 1362 Trinity Drive, Suite C. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
