Once Jackie Golden decided she was tired of the traffic problems associated with a business location along Route 460’s busy Windsor corridor, choosing a Suffolk location was simple.

“This is a busier area,” she said, counting off Sentara Obici Hospital, the YMCA and Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church as some of her new neighbors that bring people to the area around the Godwin Commerce Park shopping center, the new location for her store, Quilt With Me.

“I’m always up in this area,” she said she had realized. “Why not bring my business to this area?”

The quilt shop is the first tenant to open in the center, which also will host an Anytime Fitness location.

Golden’s 1,300-square-foot storefront is somewhat smaller than her former space in an old home in Windsor. And it lacks the outdoor area she said she had come to love as a retreat from the confines of her store when things were slow.

But she’s hoping there will be fewer slow periods in her new location, especially considering the fact that her shop is the only resource in Western Tidewater for quilters and others interested in textile arts. Other shops, she said, have closed in recent months, leaving one on the peninsula and another in South Hampton Roads.

Moving to Suffolk brings Golden closer to many of her clients, she said, noting that she’s already had phone calls from people thanking her for the change.

She expects to stock 1,500 to 1,800 bolts of fabric in the new shop, along with books, patterns, kits and other quilting tools and accessories.

Also, there will be a gift shop area, and Golden hopes to offer quilting classes in the future. Eventually, she hopes to take more space in the shopping center to sell sewing machines and other equipment.

Golden learned to quilt 20 years ago after reading a book about it, she said. She also does embroidery, and she hopes to offer made-to-order quilts from her store.

The business was expected to open today in the shopping center off Godwin Boulevard.