Fabric Buy the Yard officially opened its doors for business on Nov. 6, 2023. Owner and proprietor Marie Teasyatwho said the business is a family-supported endeavor providing fabric for quilters and clothing designers.
Teasyatwho is Chishi Dine’é born for Nát’oh Dine’é. Her cheiis are Tó’áhaní and her nalís are Ma’ii Deeshgiizhinii and Tódích’ii’nii.
She has been passionate about fabric since the age of 13.
Rayfen Lee, her husband, said they opened the business for the Navajo people, not to get rich.
The couple has three daughters, Tessa, Ashley, and Julia, and three sons, Verdell, Reuben, and Kyle.
“Fabric Buy The Yard is more like a family supporting a shop,” Teasyatwho said.
Even deciding on the business name was a family endeavor, thanks to Teasyatwho’s grandson Noah, who came up with the moniker.
Teasyatoh and Lee worked for decades as union workers in the private sector, eventually deciding to invest more than $80,000 for the fabric shop located at the Tsé Bitʼaʼí Shopping Center in Shiprock, New Mexico
Countless bolts of fabric fill the colorful shop, including polyester thread, needles and other supplies utilized by the discerning quilter.
Other products include the creations from her customers such as clothing and bags.
Teasyatwho carries the scarves and regalia collection from Elizabeth’s Studio, bags produced by Sharon Jim, floor rugs from Eugenia Stanley, and Dibé Yazhi bags from Yazski Handmade.
As a Handi Quilter Retailer, the company’s pièce de résistance sat in a private room of the business.
The Handi Quilter Amara 20, a 20-inch, long-arm, free-motion computerized quilting machine, produces quilts in various sizes, from baby quilts to king-size quilts with quality and precision.
Teasyatoh said her husband and children gifted her with the $24,000 machine for her 50th birthday. The couple, married for 18 years, spent the last 10 years collecting fabric.
Whenever a customer comes into the store and peruses the bolts of fabric for the perfect design (sometimes taking photos) before purchasing fabric and ribbons, it provides a sense of joy for Teasyatoh.
“I know that particular person sold what they made with their hands to support themselves,” she said. “That’s the passion that I have with my family.”
Teasyatwho wanted to bring the Handi Quilter to the Navajo Nation for the benefit of the people so they could create quilts, bags, jackets and the like.
“It’s robotic and computerized with 3,500 designs already built into it. You have the capability to shrink (designs), blow it up as large as you want with any pattern diagonally, circular, square . . . there’s a lot you can do,” she said.
She sat at the measuring table with two bolts of fabric, one featured a design of Navajo wedding baskets and the other featured multicolored corn synonymous with Indigenous farming and self-determination.
“My parents were my mentors,” she said. “They’re in heaven. I was told, ‘Your job will be your parents.’ It will feed you culture-wise. The basket defines me as Diné asdzaa and naadáá is symbolic of work.”
She envisions the Navajo Nation one day having a print fabric shop with designs being provided by Navajos.
“It has to start from the top, from one of our presidents. There are so many new generations growing up, designing things. Imagine what they could do,” she said.
She noted that her two favorite bolts of fabric were printed in South Korea, where they are printed in millions of yards.
To say that Teasyatwho loves fabric would be an understatement. When visiting fabric stores, she rarely leaves empty handed.
“My kids always tease their dad and say, ‘My dad got tired of buying fabric for my mom, so he just opened a fabric shop with her,’” she said.
Her vision for the future is to have Fabric Buy The Yard providing goods and services across the Navajo Nation in all five agencies.
“We’d love to have reasonably priced fabric within our Indigenous land. The five agencies will have it and the local people will run it the way that we have,” she said.
The shop is open Monday through Saturday from 12 pm to 5 pm
Teasyatwho will also be offering one-on-one sewing classes for up to two hours on Saturdays at the fabric shop soon.
By Rick Abasta
Marketing Associate for Navajo Nation Shopping Centers, Inc.
