Owner of Shirt Image Embroidery Debi Luther has grown up in Hoquiam, and then lived there for 43 years. "I was born in one house, rented the house next to it and bought the house across the street from it," said Luther. Luther sites that she and her husband started an embroidery business in Hoquiam called "Stitches" in 1997. In 2001, Luther's husband was out of a job that he had held for 34 years due to the company shutting down. Luther then moved to Alabama, "we were there about two years, and we still printed t-shirts, we just called it Southern Stitches," said Luther. Luther sited that she didn't like it in Alabama and so they were only there for two years before they moved back to Olympia with Luther's husband's mother. "We kept doing the shirt printing out of our house there, and that was about the time I'd decided that I wanted to get back into it full time. It was time that I wanted to work for myself again. So I was looking for a store front, and out of coincidence that week, I heard that the Stitches that we sold when we left Aberdeen had shut down. I thought I could go back home," said Luther. After Luther drove down 7th Street in Hoquiam and found a building to rent for $300 a month, Luther opened up another embroidery shop in Hoquiam in November of 2011. The new shop was well-received, "eventually we started to do more business down here in Hoquiam, I was originally open for just two days a week and as it got busier, I opened up another day a week and now we're open four days a week," said Luther.
Luther then talked about how she felt that she needed to move from the location, "I did not want to be in downtown Hoquiam, being a Hoquiam resident I know people don't want to cross the bridge if they don't have to," said Luther. Luther decided to look for a new location, and found the building that sits immediately to the right when coming off of the bridge that goes out of Hoquiam and into Aberdeen. "I just knew for the purpose of growth, I needed to be on the main drag on the other side of the bridge, without going all the way into Aberdeen," said Luther. Luther has been in the new location since August of 2015.
Luther's business continues to thrive, as she's hiring employees now and is on a path to the growth of her business.