All about Bob

Quilt store bookkeeper never wants to leave Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE — Bob Arnold just knew this would be a great place for a quilt shop.

About five years ago, Bob's wife of 11 years, Connie, then a dental hygienist in the Tri-Cities, was looking to open a quilt store.

Arnold had come through the area about 25 years ago, during what he called his mid-life crisis, to explore purchasing a business in town.

"It didn't happen, but even though I hadn't spent much time here, it seemed like it was the right size town and it would be a good place to live," Bob recalled. "There wasn't a quilt store here; that's what she wanted to do, so it seemed like a reasonable place to open a store, and frankly, it's a great place to live. I love it — I would never go back to the Tri-Cities."

They explored the area for about a year, Bob said, and eventually found the site for Columbia Basin Quiltworks and Bernina in downtown Moses Lake.

"We commuted up here for a couple years, stayed with Connie's parents, leased a home and then purchased a home that needed to be remodeled," Arnold said. "We moved into that house four years ago."

For the first few years that the store was open, Connie continued her work as dental hygienist several days a week, before stopping to work at Quiltworks exclusively.

Arnold's background is in finance, and he had worked as chief financial officer for Morrison Construction Services in Richland for seven years prior to his retirement or, his supposed retirement, he says, looking around the quilt store.

"Off and on, I've had my own business a couple times," he said.

Bob calls Connie the driving force behind the quilt store.

"It's her artistic and innovative things that make the store a success," he said. "I take care of the inventory check-in, I do the book work, whatever she needs me to do to make the place work. I do all of the computer stuff, all of the pricing."

Arnold said he has also cut fabric for people and rings people up at the cash register.

"The nice thing about retail is the people; you meet a lot of nice people," he said. "A lot of our customers are from out of town, probably 50 percent of our business is people passing through."

Arnold said he has sewn a little bit, and is also the store's sewing machine technician, but he has never made a quilt of his own.

Born in Shelton, Arnold's father managed Firestone Stores in the late 1930s and 1940s. The family moved east to Grand Coulee in 1947, and then lived in the Tri-Cities while Arnold was in third grade, and on through high school.

He attended Washington State University, obtaining a degree in business and economics, and found out after purchasing his Moses Lake home that next-door neighbor Delone Krueger had lived in the same dormitory while both were attending school there.

Bob has four children from a previous marriage, who live in Renton; Sandpoint, Idaho; Silver City, N.M. and Seattle. He has two grandchildren, in Sandpoint and Renton.

Bob and Connie met on a blind date on the golf course, through mutual friends.

"He's a gentleman," Connie said of her husband. "He's just very polite, courteous and considerate."

While his work at the quilt store keeps him "very busy," Arnold enjoys working around the house in the garden and pasture. He keeps alpacas, and used to play golf, but the hours of the store don't lend themselves to spending time on the course.

"Now we only get one day a week off," he said, adding that he and Connie like to travel locally. "But I enjoy just piddling around the place. There's always plenty to do, even though we only have a couple of acres."

Arnold says he doesn't like to sit around. While not presently sitting on any boards or committees, he tries to help as much as he can with the Moses Lake Business Association, putting up and taking down decorations, and attending City Council meetings and workshops on the downtown renovations.

"The plans that I've seen are things that I think would be positive for the downtown," he said, adding that he thinks Third Avenue should be changed from a thoroughfare to a two-lane, slower street. Arnold also praises the various eateries in the downtown area. "We've got a place to send people that come in from out of town if they want to go to lunch, and different choices without leaving downtown."

And was Arnold right when he thought that Moses Lake would be the right spot for his wife's quilt store?

"Absolutely," he said. "I love it here. There are drawbacks to small towns, but I tell you what, the drawbacks are far exceeded by the positives. And Moses Lake is a great location."