Every new beginning starts with a vision — a picture of something that doesn’t quite exist yet.

During the 2015 holiday season, my dad, Mark Yeager, approached me with an idea that would eventually become Red Land Cotton. His vision was simple but powerful: create a product — we landed on bed sheets — made entirely from the cotton grown on our family farm. I loved the idea, and at the time, I was searching for something new.

A bit about me: I graduated from Auburn University with a degree in graphic design. After college, I moved to New York City and worked in advertising in the early 2010s as an Art Director for notable brands including BMW, American Express, and Jay-Z. I later moved to Nashville when I got married while my husband completed his residency. At that point, my most exciting client was a healthcare company, and I was feeling creatively stuck, drained, and ready for more. This was my opportunity.

My dad and I formally founded Red Land Cotton in May of 2016. We began working with Cotton Incorporated to learn how textiles are made and what was possible with the quality cotton we grow. Through that process, we were introduced to Jack Miller — a man who knows just about everyone and everything in the U.S. textile community. Together, my dad and Jack called every textile company that would answer the phone, asking if they would be willing to take on our special project. Most were hesitant. Some were interested. Some were amused. The companies that ultimately came to the table were all family-owned businesses that had been operating for decades. They liked us, our story, and our mission — and they bought in.

Our first “lot” of fabric made from Red Land Cotton totaled 20,000 yards of our signature sheeting. When asked what kind of fabric we wanted to make, we looked to the past for inspiration. My dad remembered the sheets he grew up with — strong yet soft, line-dried in the sun, finished with decorative hems. We found examples of this exact sheeting in a family friend’s hope chest. The original inspiration for what would become Red Land Cotton’s signature fabric — which we still weave today — belonged to a woman named Madeline Gray. Her sheets, passed down through her family since the 1920s, were stunning. They featured handmade tatted lace, hemstitch details, monogramming, and everything that made them true heirlooms.

This inspiration felt right. If we were going to sell a piece of our farm, we wanted it to feel like home. We wanted it to look and feel like an heirloom. It had to be high quality and built to last.

While my dad was calling vendors, I was busy setting the business plan and intention behind Red Land Cotton. Remember my background in marketing — I love a story. I love creating things. I love making things beautiful. In the early days, we thought we might take on investors, so I created a pitch document outlining our vision.

Ten years ago, I wrote the vision for Red Land Cotton, and it reads:

Our family envisions sharing the story of a simpler and more beautiful time in American history through our heirloom linens. By creating a product reminiscent of the elegance of the 1920s, we will create a textile brand that conjures feelings of nostalgia for home.

With the purest homegrown cotton in America, our artfully manufactured linens will be supple and unique — offering a level of comfort that makes each customer feel like they are part of our family.

I also wrote our objective:

We will spearhead the resurgence of the American textile industry with cotton grown strictly on our North Alabama family farm, custom ginned in our own facility, and manufactured from start to finish in America — providing unparalleled oversight and educating consumers on the superiority of cotton textiles.

For me, this is the foundation Red Land Cotton was built on — and why it’s still here ten years later. We envisioned something built to last, with heart, soul, and character.

I’ll save the suspense: no one invested in Red Land Cotton. My dad and I still own it ourselves. But the foundation we built — and that I wrote out in that original investor proposal — has proven to be solid and has supported a decade of growth.

We’ve made good on our mission to educate people about the textile industry (you can see that on our Instagram and blog). We’ve added jobs up and down our supply chain — over 50 at Red Land Cotton alone. We’ve created a product that is good, unique, and beautiful. With hundreds of thousands of sheets sold, we are in this for the long haul.

The soil is good, and we are here to sew.

Thank you for being part of this mission. And to those of you who have been with us since the very beginning — we can’t thank you enough. You helped set this foundation, and I hope we are living up to the standard.