Featured Seller: MegRNC

Who are you?
Megan Risley and my shop names are MegRNC and Batteries Not Required.

Why did you choose your shop/company name?
MegRNC-The Meg part is obvious. The R is for my last name, and the NC, well, that's obvious too- North Carolina.

Batteries Not Required- Can't take credit for this. A good friend of mine who helped make the quilts when we first started, came up with the name. It's ingenious- a play on a phrase parents hear all the time "Batteries Not Included."

Where are you located?

The Bull City...Durham

What do you create?

I make interactive play quilts for kids and fabric accessories for everyone.

Where do you create?

Two years ago, my then-boyfriend moved into my 900 square foot house. We quickly realized we needed more space (we had four cats- his two and my two) and about a year later bought a much bigger house. I'm now lucky enough to have a whole room dedicated to my sewing and crafts.

How do you envision your creations being used by your customers?

I designed the interactive play quilts so that parents could just throw them down on the ground, and their kids could explore them on their own. But many parents buy them to match their child's room, and hang them up near their beds, for quiet activity time. Besides kids lifting up the flaps and making matches, they can also play color and number games with them. Parents can ask "how many frogs can you find?" or "can you find the purple cow?" I've also had girls as old as 9 play together with them- one will take a turn and then will challenge the other to find a match.

What online activities have brought you the most noticeable success?

The number one tool for getting actual sales for me has been relisting. Actually not just relisting, but it seems listing new products yields the highest sales. I haven't quite figured out what it is that makes listing new items versus relisting more successful, it just seems that it is in my shops.

What do you do when you are not creating?

That's hard to say as I "need" to sew just about every day. I do love to garden though and love outings in Durham. I'm also on the Board of Directors at the Scrap Exchange and am Outreach Coordinator for Health, Hoops and Hope, a local organization that provides social and recreational activities for kids with chronic illnesses.

--If you'd like to read more about Megan's life and work, check out her blog.