Sad about Heart’s Desire closing? You’ll want to read this

From the time McPherson insurance underwriter Amberle Fowler was a young cross-stitcher, she knew what she wanted to do in life.

“It’d always been a dream — and I’m really serious, since I was a kid — to own my own store,” she said.

She’s finally doing it, though not quite in the way she planned.

As a longtime customer of the 40-year-old Heart’s Desire shop in Wichita, Fowler had hoped to buy the business when owner Debbie Dorsey announced she was retiring.

Fowler said her husband saw how dejected she was when the deal didn’t work out.

“He said, ‘Well, why don’t you just open your own?’ I was like, ‘OK, who are you?’ I never actually thought this would happen. I think he just saw how serious I was about it.”

Her Floss & Needle is opening at 206 S. Centennial in McPherson on Sept. 12. There will be a ribbon cutting Sept. 15 and a grand-opening party the next day.

“I just have the best husband ever,” Fowler said.

She said she envisions the store as something that will appeal to residents of McPherson, Wichita and beyond.

“That’s my hope anyway.”

If she’d been able to buy Heart’s Desire, Fowler said, she would have kept it in Wichita for a time but eventually moved it so she wouldn’t have to make that drive daily.

Though it would have been a lot for her to make the almost two-hour round trip every day, Fowler said it’s not too hard for others to get to McPherson for occasional trips.

“I am in the central part of the state. I’m right off of the interstate, so I feel like I have a great location that anybody in Kansas is going to be able to come.”

She doesn’t have much competition for cross-stitch supplies across the state, either.

Along with items such as patterns, floss, specialty fibers and fabrics, beads and needles that she’ll sell, Fowler will have a work table for people to stop by and work on projects.

Whether they’re knitters or crocheters or other crafters, Fowler said she wants people to know they’re welcome to come by.

“It’s important to have a community of like-minded people to talk to,” she said. “I will always have a table open anytime I’m open.”

Fowler said she’s chosen bright colors for the store to create what she wants to be a modern, cheerful and cozy vibe.

“I’m just hoping it creates an atmosphere that people want to come and work on their projects.”

She said the Floss & Needle name speaks to what she sells but also gives her room to expand what she sells in the future.

At 1,600 square feet, Fowler said her store isn’t as big as Heart’s Desire, but she said, “I hope I can some day grow to be the destination store that Heart’s Desire was.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2023 at 4:47 AM.