Heritage Quilts and Fabrics, Newnan, GA

On a cool sunny winter day my mom and I drove to the town of Newnan, GA. If you were dreaming up your ideal of an old timey Southern town, this is probably what it would look like with streets lined with the beautiful white houses with wrap-around front porches, azalea bushes magnolia trees on the front lawns and a town square that boasts a lovely court house building.

The Heritage Quilts and Fabrics Shop occupies a section of an old building right across the street from the high-steepled courthouse in the center of historic downtown Newnan. The old theater is just doors away and is now the home of restaurant. I was impressed at how active their downtown has remained with lots of businesses, stores, and restaurants all the way around the courthouse square and on adjacent streets.

Heritage Quilts is a two-year old store that started off offering only reproduction fabrics but has branched out a bit to also include bolts of colorful children's fabrics and the Dick and Jane collection, a good number of batiks and Aunt Grace. Their specialty still is reproduction fabrics which is represented by the fabric lines Wyndham "old American Threads," "Antique 1800's and Blends" from In the Beginning, "Kansas Troubles" and "Decadent Victorian" by Moda, and the largest selection of Jo Morton fabrics from Andover Fabrics that I have seen assembled in one shop.

This shop is a very pleasant place starting with the marble topped table at the door that holds their guest book to the quilt samples hanging on exposed brick walls. Tall front windows let in lots of natural light. The book shelves are arranged down a side wall with the classroom at the rear of the store separated from the main part by a set of open windows in real window sashes. I had no trouble finding several pieces of whites for my snowman quilt and a couple of pieces of batiks for a future project. This shop will also take part in the annual Greater Atlanta Shop Hop 2008. If only I could be there too.......

Heritage Quilts and Fabrics
22B West Court Square
Newnan, GA
770-683-9058
Hours: Mon - Sat: 10 AM - 5 PM

Johnny's New York Style Pizza in Hapeville, GA

One of my favorite stops for lunch is to Johnny's Pizza in Hapeville, GA. This bustling small place is located near the Atlanta airport that looks like it's been there forever, but the food is worth the effort to find a parking space in a crowded lot. The back wall is decorated with a painted mural that includes scenes from Atlanta and pays tribute to both the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech.  They serve salads and hand-tossed pizzas with a wide variety of toppings, calzones and strombolis, but our favorite is their oven baked sub sandwiches.  These come in about ten different combinations but we always get the Johnny's Special that has ham, salami and capicolla with the oil and vinegar on the side; you can add a salad or bag of chips to go along with your sub.   There is also a dinner menu but I have only been there for lunch. 

Johnny's Pizza

834 Virginia Ave, Hapeville, GA

404-766-3727

Back to my Roots -- Jonesboro, GA January 2008

I grew up and spent my childhood in Fayetteville, GA, south of Atlanta in the heart of Dixie with a strong flavor of "Gone With the Wind." On a recent trip home for my mom's 82nd birthday, I was on my usual prowl for quilt shops that are new to me and came across one in Jonesboro, Ga, called Quilts and Fixin's. (Jonesboro figures prominently in the famous book GTWT.) This wonderful shop is located at the end of a little unassuming strip mall on North Main Street in Jonesboro. The outside of the building gave no hint as to the quilting fun inside!

There was a block-of-the-month club just finishing up as we got there, so there was lots of bustle as the ladies were choosing extra fabrics and getting them cut and checking out with their purchases. Everyone was enthusiastic and helpful including two of the customers who told me that they'd been around long enough that they felt a part of the store. I left my purse sitting on the floor in one room and later found it on the cutting table for "safe guarding." The block-of-the-month for 2008 is a wall-hanging of 13 star blocks made of brightly colored batik fabrics; the project looked so inviting that I decided to join and do it long distance! This will be my first BOTM (block of the month).

Quilts and Fixins occupies 3 large rooms of the building and is much larger inside than it appears from the outside. In the back of the first section, there is a room just for quilting notions and a small baby's room complete with a cradle and baby quilt models including a cute one of a bi-wing airplane. The first room offers a reasonable selection of flannel fabrics, a good amount of black/white prints and batiks and quite a number of fabric bolts in all the ranges of color arranged on shelves around the room and in the center of the room.

In the second room there are novelty prints of all kinds -- they have MANY animal prints but cat prints outsell all the others; they carry over 200 bolts of cat fabrics! The owner told us that dog lovers want to see their specific breed represented on the fabric but cat lovers just seem to love them all. There are lots of projects there involving cats (and other designs) on wall hangings, sweatshirt jackets and stuffed animals. They also have a line of cowboy and western prints and a cute western quilt on the wall. In every room there are so many adorable stuffed animals, snowmen, dolls, critters and other things to bring a smile and make the store feel homey and cozy.

There is a very large room in the 3rd section of the store where classes are held for projects of many skill levels. Lots of quilts on display tempt you to look for the books and patterns that are handily located nearby. Quilts and Fixins will definitely be a stop for me on my semi-annual visits back home to Georgia.

I also learned about the Greater Atlanta Shop Hop 2008; this is an annual shop hop to the 13 quilt stores located within 25 miles of highway I-285 around metro Atlanta. This hop is held during the first 4 day weekend (Thursday through Sunday) of March and sounds like a must do for any quilt store loving quilter. The prizes offered for a drawing for the people who have their "passports" stamped in all 13 stores are really nice, including a grand prize of $100 to spend in each participating shop. That's $1300.00 dollars worth of fabrics, patterns and books! This year's theme is "Cruising Into Spring." One shop owner told me that about 700 women participate in the "hop." Count me in! In fact I'm planning my next year's winter trip so that I'll be able to go.

Quilts and Fixins, 7986 N. Main St., Jonesboro, GA

770-472-0015

Hours: Mon - Sat: 10 AM - 5 PM

"Common Threads" Syracuse, NE

Our second quest of the day was to visit a shop new to us on a picturesque downtown street in Syracuse, Nebraska. This little town lies between Lincoln and Omaha, about 1/2 hour south on Highway 50 and about 15 miles west of Nebraska City, NE. "Common Threads" occupies a former bank building that has very tall ceilings, exposed brick walls, arched windows and beautiful wooden floors. The ceiling is covered with the pressed tin squares and there is a beautifully impressive crown molding around the ceiling edge. The owner has hung quilt models around the front room against the brick walls.

An antique ironing board, an iron daybed, an old cabinet and table and a short thick-walled bank vault are used as to hold gift items such as cookbooks, candles, tea towels, ornaments and quilting books. "Common Threads" offers books and patterns and a selection of Jo Morton's newest line of fabrics. She also carries some batiks and the Kashmir II line by Moda. There are packages of wool fabrics and also enough quilting notions and threads to serve most quilting needs.

We each had a great time exploring this friendly store and had no trouble filling a bag with goodies to take home. This shop is definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

Common Threads, 325 5th St., Syracuse, NE

402-269-2235

Hours: Mon - Fri: 10 - 5, Sat: 10 - 4

Lunch at Mom's Cafe, Plattsmouth, NE

On our quest for lunch we needed to only step carefully across the snowy Main Street to Mom's Cafe, a local eatery that was warm and filled with good smells of lunch cooking. They had a dry erase board set up advertising the hot beef plate for $6.95 as the day's special. The Cafe is in one of the old high ceilinged buildings of historic downtown Plattsmouth. The walls were covered with reproductions of signs for drinks and food as well as old fashioned pictures. Along one wall there was a long strand of string on which 3 or 4 dozen old Valentines (the kind we used to pass out to friends at school) were strung; Valentine decorations also were found in the glass display cabinets. An old fashined stove and a vintage table and kitchen cabinet also held some of "mom's" display items such as old glassware and some Aunt Jemima jars.

We quickly got a table for four and had no trouble choosing what we wanted to eat. I chose the omelette with spinach, swiss cheese and mushrooms from their breakfast-is-served-all-day menu, while Claudia had a salad with grilled chicken; Terri and Mary each picked the catfish, one as part of a dinner plate and the other on a sandwich roll. Portions were generous and each meal was about $7.00. We all enjoyed our food and would certainly come back again.

Mom's Cafe & Catering Co.

422 Main Street, Plattsmouth, NE

402-296-3000

Hours: Sun & Mon: 6 AM - 2 PM, Tues - Sat: 5:30 AM - 8 PM

One cold winter day in Plattsmouth, Neb. January 2008

Here in Nebraska, we are so fortunate to have wonderful quilt shops practically in our own backyard, or at the most, a short drive away. Terri, Mary, Claudia and I decided to have a quilter's day out despite occasional light snow and temperatures hovering around 14 degrees -- a miserable day by most accounts, but perfect for getting together with friends for shopping and lunch.


Our first stop was at a store that is on the short list of my favorite places -- "Seams To Be" is located in a storefront building on a brick street in historic downtown Plattsmouth, Nebraska, just about 20 minutes south of Omaha on Highway 75. This is a large store that has much to offer from the quilt samples on the walls, many with available kits, to the rows of fabric bolts lining the walls. Old sewing machines, wooden spindles and spools, and antique sewing items are used throughout the store as decorations. They have a large selection of novelty fabrics of animals, bugs, fruits and vegetables, sports, etc. and quite a number of printed panels that make cute "cheater" quilts or that can be cut up and pieced into more intricate quilt tops. These panels range from Christmas themes, to children's roadways, to alphabets and more.

There is a generous selection of fabric of each color group, as well as fabrics by Jo Morton, our only Nebraska fabric designer, who lives in nearby Nebraska City. There are lots of flannels and Aunt Grace fabrics, too. Seams To Be offers classes that are taught in the large classroom in the back of the store. Quilting and sewing threads by Mettler and Guttermann are available along with quilt battings anad notions for every project.

We had a fun time shopping for new projects we have planned and several that weren't planned at all! My long term goal is to make quilts using fabric in my stash and patterns from books that I already own. Sometimes that happens but more often than not, a quilted sample catches my eye and that leads me in a new direction. Claudia bought a book of patterns and a kit for a lovely pink and green quiltlet; I was on a quest for red and white fabrics for a "new" (and NOT in a book I already own) wintery snowman/snowflake project while Terri and Mary found several great pieces of fabric on the sale shelves. It is also their goal to own a piece of every fabric of Jo Morton's so they are on a quest for certain designs of her older collections. Whenever the right project is chosen, they will definitely have enough fabric for it!

One funny idea that had practical merit -- Mary told me that there was a quilter's will of sorts printed in their guild newsletter that designated what should be done with your quilt stash if your die before your husband! You are to name someone who is to be notified at your passing that your fabric collection is ready to be re-distributed. Your designated person is to gather your quilting friends, probably with some yummy desserts for refreshments, share some nice thoughts about the previous quilter, then divide the fabric among people who will treasure and use it instead of letting all those lovely batiks and Thimbleberries fabrics be sold at a garage sale for pennies on the yard -- or worse yet, end up at Goodwill.


Seams To Be Quilt Shoppe
511 Main St., Plattsmouth, NE
402-296-3360
Hours: Mon - Fri: 10 - 6, Thur: 10 - 7:30, Sat: 10 - 5, Sun: 1 - 5

Prescott, AZ, Day 2, December 2007

   Rain fell as Linda and I drove northward from the Valley of the Sun to Prescott and we saw lots of rushing water in the normally dry washes along the sides of the road.  But that didn't matter because we were on a quest to see Linda's new house there and for me to see Prescott for the first time in many years AND if we found a quilt shop and had some adventures along the way, so much the better.  

Saturday morning arrived with the rain still falling, but we got out and drove around for the tour of this charming town that is arranged around a courthouse square with large buildings housing stores, restaurants and a hotel around the edges.  We had heard the annual Christmas parade would be going through town that day and were lucky enough to get window seats in the Bistro St. Michael at the Hotel St. Michael (see photo above) that is located right across from the courthouse square and right on the parade route.  While we ate our lunches (we each had a cup of very good soup and shared a Reuben sandwich), we were able to watch the parade floats as they made their way around the square.  It was fairly cold outside and the rain showered down in bursts every so often so most of the bundled-up parade watchers huddled against the buildings to keep from getting soaked.  The floats in the parade were all that you would hope for in a small town Christmas celebration with marching bands from several local schools, the fire truck, floats sponsored by businesses, old restored cars, and Santa Claus. 

The Hotel St. Michael located at 205 W. Gurley St. in Prescott is on the National Registry of Historic Places and is called the "Grand Dame of Prescott, the Cornerstone of Whisky Row."  It is a large brick building with hotel rooms,  a restaurant, the Bistro that serves lunch and dinner, and some shops on the lower level.

After lunch Linda and I went exploring some of the antique shops near the square and also found a quilt shop -- you knew there had to be one in here somewhere!  The one we found (I think there is another one in the area that I didn't discover until I got back home) is called Creative Pursuits.   This small shop is in a nice old downtown building and has gift items as well as fabric.  They offer an assortment of fabric (not huge amounts but enough to support a quilting hobby), fat quarters, some quilt notions, books, and classes for different projects.  I bought a few pieces of reds and greens that will end up in my red/green Civil War quilt.

By afternoon the sun was out but it stayed cold.  On our way back to Phoenix,we stopped at the local casino in Prescott -- not to try the slots but to see the gingerbread display that was made by the townspeople of Prescott.  I have been making gingerbread displays for over 15 years so I was anxious to see what they had done and I have to say that I was very impressed at the size and number of the gingerbread creations that were arranged against a long side wall of the casino lobby and a model  train circled through the town created by the gingerbread.   Many local businesses and the schools had recreated their buildings in gingerbread -- there were tall Victorian houses, small adobe homes, igloos, a dentist office, some schools, a large casino slot machine, people and animals, all made outof gingerbread. Ribbons were awarded for the best entrants, but over all, I was impressed by the whole display.

Creative Pursuits,  228 N. Cortez St., Prescott, AZ    928-771-1522

Arizona and the Wet, Wet West -- Dec. 2007 Day 1

Sunshine is what you usually expect when traveling to sunny Arizona since they get more than 310 sunny days per year. However, that wasn't the case when I flew there the first weekend of December 2007 for my annual visit with old friends from the 11 years we lived there in the 1980's. There had been no rain in the desert since July, but it rained half of the days I was there, however my mom always says you "have to take your good times with you" so we did and had a great time anyway. Fortunately, I love a rainy day too.

I also time my Arizona visit to coincide with the Tempe Arts Fair, a wonderful arts fair held every year outside in downtown Tempe near the ASU campus the first weekend of December. This Arts Fair is considered one of the best in the country and offers crafters who have high quality things to sell -- no crocheted pot holders here. You are more likely to find lovely pottery, fine jewelry, carved wood, photographs, blown glass, unique clothing items and much, much more. I have never seen it rain on the Arts Fair but it certainly did this year, and as you would expect the crowds were thin on this Friday afternoon. Usually there are throngs of people mingling along, most on foot but some pushing strollers, some on skates, some with dogs on leashes and all having a great time. I was looking forward to enjoying Indian Fry Bread for lunch but it was too wet to eat outside this time. My friend Linda and I huddled under our umbrellas and makek our way through the fair in record time before retreating to her nice dry car for the drive to Prescott, Arizona.

On the last day of my trip my friend Georgette and I toured the historic Petersen House Museum in Tempe, AZ. This house was built by Danish immigrant Niels Petersen for his wife Susanna in 1892 on 160 acres of land that he acquired as a homestead. Petersen was a very successful businessman and a representative of the 18th territorial legislature in Tempe.

The old house was restored in recent years and was decorated for Christmas by members of the Danish Immigrant Museum of Elk Horn, Iowa as a celebration of Niels Petersen's Danish heritage. There were delicate paper cutouts of hearts, trees, small paper baskets and other Christmas motifs hung from swags of greenery that draped across the doorways and a beautifully decorated Christmas tree was standing in the parlor. A lady was there demonstrating the art of paper cutting called paperklips -- this is cutting intricate designs into folded paper with small, very sharp scissors. Docents wearing long dresses and white aprons were available to tell the story of the house. Cups of hot apple cider and Danish cookies were offered for refreshments.


Petersen House Museum, 1414 W. Southern Avenue, Tempe, AZ
(Northwest corner of Priest and Southern)
480-350-5151

Danish Immigrant Museum is located 2212 Washington St. in Elk Horn, Iowa
(6 miles north of I-80 at exit 54)
Hours: Mon-Fri 9 to 5, Sat 10 to 5, and Sun 12 to 5.
712-764-7002

"Harvest Home" quilt

At our annual quilter's retreat in 2006, a table was set up for us to donate any books, patterns, notions, fabric pieces or panels and any other unneeded or unwanted items. These items were then up for grabs for anyone else who thought they could use them. I found a single copy of the October 2000 issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine with a quilt on the cover that I just loved and HAD TO MAKE. Of course, this quilt was a multi-month project that would have directions given in the next 6 issues...... and I had only the first one..... and the magazines are 7 years old. A new quest for found to locate the remaining 5 issues of the magazines.

Fortunately for me, quilters are often hoarders and savers (OK, let's be honest, some of us are pack rats) so I was able to borrow all the copies from my friend who gets the Quiltmaker's Newsletter Magazine and had issues going back that far. In the magazine (No. 326) the quilt is called "Fall Harvest" and was made by Ann Seely although I am calling mine "Harvest Home."

I had such fun picking the fabrics and colors for all the borders and actually had most of the fabrics I needed right in my own stash and only had to buy the background fabrics for the 3 largest borders. I was able to get it all pieced and put on the finishing touches by the time the quilter's retreat rolled around in October 2007.

This quilt was calling out for some awesome quilting that I knew I was not capable of producing, so for the first time, I called on a long arm quilter who came highly recommended. I was a long time coming to long arm quilting mostly because of the cost involved, but it is so distressing to feel pride in the job you did of making a great quilt top only to do it an injustice with inadequate or downright terrible quilting. I told the quilter that I wanted to say "Oh wow!" when I got the quilt back and saw it for the first time..... and that is just what happened. I was looking over the quilt saying "oh wow" and "oh my gosh" while she kept asking if I REALLY liked it. I REALLY do.

Never mind, that I had to get a part time job to pay for long arm quilting services! It is all worth it to have my short stack of un-quilted quilt tops finally get the finishing touches they deserve.... and they are done! What a great feeling.

The Quilted Moose, Gretna, Nebraska

Located in Gretna, Nebraska is the Quilted Moose, one of the nicest quilting shops in the western Omaha area. The store was featured in the Sept. 2007 special issue of American Patchwork's Quilt Sampler Top Ten magazine with owner Debbir Roberts' quilt featured on the cover. The Moose also had quilt patterns from their own line shown in Quiltmaker and McCalls magazines.

As soon as you open the door to the Quilted Moose you step into a warm and inviting atmosphere with a friendly and helpful staff. The store is stuffed full of more than 3000 colorful bolts of fabric and the walls are covered with many quilt models to tempt you. The Moose has a large selection of flannels and plaids, lots of brightly colored children's fabrics, a delicious assortment of batik prints as well as dozens of fabrics in every color hue. Racks of books and quilter's tools are available as well as prepared kits for table runners, tea towels, wall hangings and quilts. They have a newsletter, classes are taught and there is an on-going block of the month club.

Quilted Moose, 109 Enterprise Dr., Gretna, NE (402-332-4178)

Located 1/2 block from the intersection of Hwy 370 and Hwy 6 and just minutes from I-80.

Store hours: Mon. - Wed. 10 - 5:30, Thurs. 10 - 7, Fri. and Sat. 10 - 5,

Their website is headmoose@quiltedmooseonline.com

The Quilter's Retreat, Gretna, Nebraska October 2007

One of my very favorite times of the entire year is the weekend of our quilter's retreat held annually in October at the 4-H camp near Gretna, Nebraska. This retreated is sponsored by the Lincoln Quilt Guild of Lincoln, Nebraska. Terri, Mary, Claudia and I have been meeting there for the past 8 years and arrive early ready to stake out our favorite table as soon as the doors open on Friday afternoon. We stay in the bunk house and have delicious meals cooked for us by the camp chef, so our time is spent sewing -- either starting a new project or working on an old one, sometimes working on the same project for so many years in a row that you are embarrassed to take it back STILL unfinished! Completed quilt projects are pinned up during the retreat so we can all see what was accomplished.

IMAGINE a large room filled with 80 quilters, 80 sewing machines, (but only 15 irons because they use a lot of electricity and blow out the fuses), and a long table covered with snacks. This is actually a picture of bliss! The lodge where we set up our sewing stations has a huge picture window that offers a great view of nearby Mahoney State Park that is spectacular with colorful leaves in the fall. There are no kids and no husbands and no televisions; cell phones are used sparingly in case there is some emergency among the kids or husbands. You can stay up and sew as long as you want; Terri and Mary have been known to stay up until 2 or 3 AM while Claudia and I cave by midnight. On Saturday afternoon someone has a radio tuned to the University of Nebraska football game so that we can keep track of the score, although that wasn't much fun last year with our dismal record.

During the day on Saturday, groups of ladies will leave the retreat for a quest to buy supplies and check out the latest fabrics at two nearby quilt shops, The Quilted Moose in Gretna, Nebraska and Seams to Be in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Massages are also offered for tired backs. Lots of laughter and fun throughout the whole weekend. Sitting and sewing for hours on end is the time when you actually get to know the women -- laughing with them, sharing your fabric, tools, opinions and expertise. These are the ingredients for lasting friendships. We reluctantly unplug our machines, fold up fabrics, pack up our supplies, hug our friends and leave the retreat on Sunday afternoon to head back home. Only 365 days until the next retreat....!

Favorite Recipe that I take for the treat table:

Nutty Graham Cracker Cookies

(Warning these cookies are easy to make and very addictive!)

2 sticks butter (not margarine)

3/4 cup brown sugar

graham crackers broken into little rectangles

1 - 2 cups chopped pecans

Line a 10 1/2 x 15" jelly roll pan with foil. Make a layer of graham crackers to cover the pan. In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar and stir until the mixture is dissolved and begins to bubble and turns a warm caramel color. Drizzle the caramel over the graham cracker layer, then sprinkle the chopped nuts over the caramel. Bake at 350 degrees about 10 minutes or until the caramel bubbles all the way across the top of the pan. Don't over bake. Allow to cool then break cookies apart. Waiting for it to cool is the hardest part!

Civil War Reenactment St. Charles, MO Sept. 9, 2007

On this particular weekend a civil war re enactment was being held in Frontier Park that lies just off Main St. on the banks of the Missouri River so white canvas tents were lined up in neat rows according to regiment, and folding chairs and cots draped with striped blankets could be seen through the tent flaps.

Men dressed in uniforms of the Union blues and Confederate grays were marching to and fro while women in homespun dresses with muddy hems kept track of children who were wearing long dresses or short pants with suspenders.  Twice during the day the Civil War re enactors lined up on opposite sides of the park and fought their "battle" with cannon blasts and lots of muskets loudly firing puffs of blue smoke.  Since this battle was not reproducing an actual Civil War event, we were told that the opposing sides take turns "winning" the battles. 

 

On Sunday morning the rain had stopped and skies had cleared, so we went back downtown for a last look before leaving for the drive back to Omaha.  We dropped back by the encampment and were invited to a meeting room in the depot for tea and cookies and a discussion by the camp laundress about the difficulties of keeping clean during war times.  We were each given a handmade "housewife," a fabric pocket supplied with  needles, thread clippers and buttons that rolls up and ties with a ribbon and a spoon handle that was bent into an "S" shape so that it could hang from your skirt waistband and hold keys and other small drop-able items.

   Surprisingly enough, I learned by talking to a few of the enactor women that they were initially the ones interested in being enactors and then talked their husbands into going along. Each enactor chooses a role for themselves such as camp laundress, midwife, doctor, Yankee or Rebel.  Being an enactor is enjoyable to those involved in it but participation comes at a cost since the people buy their own equipment, provide their own meals and ammunition and pay their way to the enactment sites -- at $3 per gallon traveling can be costly and causes families to pick and choose the events they can be part of.   The enactment committee at St. Charles did provide meals for the families at Frontier Park.

  The camp photographer there is the only female among the enactor photographers; she said that camp life appealed to her but not the usual roles open to women such as midwife or laundress.  Her husband travels with her to help set up if it isn't too far away, but he doesn't enjoy the camp life.  On this hot afternoon she was practicing her trade by ducking underneath the black fabric and peering through an old box camera to photograph the camp drum and bugle corp called the Olde Towne Brass; then she prints her images from glass plates.  The Olde Towne Brass band has seven members who perform many band and marching tunes using only authentic period instruments such as over the shoulder (the bells face backward so the sounds would reach the marching soldiers) cornets and bugles that from the 1860's.

St. Charles, MO Sept. 8, 2007

Saturday morning greeted us with heavy, dark rain clouds, so we quickly made our way to downtown St. Charles and drove over the wonderfully bumpy bricked Main Street that was lined with stores, restaurants and shops.   Main Street runs parallel to the park that sits on the banks of the Missouri River.  St. Charles is such a neat little town that you can't wait to park the car and walk the streets to get a close up view, and on this particular weekend there were quilts hanging outside from porch railings, from wires strung on sides of buildings and draped over fences.  So much to see and do and such ugly gray clouds hanging overhead, so we hurriedly walked down the street with the goal to see as many of the quilts before the rain began to fall and the quilts were taken inside -- we managed to see about half of them.

The Patches Etc. Shop is located in one of the charming old buildings that line the bricked street.  This business is actually two stores that are linked together; one is the quilting store and the other is On this particular day the shop was bulging with women who were busily looking at the shelves crowded with packets of fat quarters, bundles of coordinated fabrics that were tied up with ribbon, the bolts of  fabric that lined the walls, and the drawers of unusual and old buttons.  There was a line at the cutting tables and at the check out counter but no one seemed to mind the wait or the rain falling outside.  I found a couple of green fabrics that I thought might go with the latest quilt design that I had in mind to make -- a very traditional pattern that I want to make in vintage red and green prints.  It turned out that those greens were too green but they can be added to the stash for another project.

The second quilt shop we visited in St. Charles was in the process of closing down due to the poor health of the lady who owns it.  This store had no particular charm but had a considerable quantity of fabric bolts that she was anxious to sell off, so the conversation would go something like this, "You need a yard of that?  At  this price you might as well get at least 2 yards.  Actually, why don't you get the rest of the bolt?"  She was so convincing that we each made more than 1 trip through the check out line and took home large amounts of fabric. So far I had managed to not get carried away on buying very much on this trip, but my bags were filled with enough of the Civil War style greens and reds that I had been looking for to make at least 2 large quilts.  Way more than I'd planned to buy, but it was a good deal!

Road trip to St. Charles, Missouri Sept. 7-9, 2007

In September '07 I set off from Omaha with two quilting friends, Terri and Mary, on a road trip to St. Charles, Missouri where an annual open-air quilt show is held in this historic old riverside town. We were told that it NEVER rained on the weekend of the quilt show but dark threatening clouds and a gloomy forecast promised to break that record.

Terri and Mary are long time good friends who are formerly related cousins-in-law who have been going on quilting quests for several years now and they are known for stopping at nearly every quilt shop on the way to and from their intended destination. This is all well and good and is lots of fun but it can stretch out an 8-hour drive into 2 days or more! However, when they asked me to come along on the St. Charles trip, I was honored that they thought me fun enough to join them. Both Terri and Mary have both sewn for many years and certainly call themselves quilters although actually starting and finishing a quilt may be a multi-year task, however they are aces at quilt shop hopping, buying patterns, books, fabrics, notions and buttons.

Our road trip begin early on an overcast day when we piled into Mary's pumpkin colored SUV and headed South on I-29 towards Kansas City, Missouri. Not far north of St. Joseph, MO we spotted a billboard advertising a quilt shop called Country Expressions Quilt Shoppe, billed as the largest quilt shop in NW Missouri, and decided to make our first detour on the quest of some place new. This shop advertises itself as the largest quilt shop in NW Missouri and it was certainly worth our side trip to find it. This store is situated in a large spacious new building right off the side of the highway and is filled with furniture, gift items, candles, books, patterns, kits, quilt samples and many bolts of fabric including Moda. There was also a long-arm sewing machine set up and in use behind the side wall cutting table. If having a nice bathroom available for use is important to you, then you're in luck here.

Terri found a wall quilt on display that she liked and was able to get all the fabric, or good substitutions, that were needed but the book with the pattern was not available, so that became her quest for another shop along the way. I was surprised to find such a busy quilt shop in a rural spot but the owner said she has a good following of quilters throughout the area.

From Stewartsville, we headed south to Lee's Summit, MO, an interesting historic town to the east of the Kansas City metro area where Mary had heard about a quilt shop in the downtown area near the restored train depot. Because it was nearly closing time we were only able to look for one shop and the Scraps Quilt Co. was the one we found. It is a small store located in a row of businesses across from the railroad tracks, but it is neatly packed full of bolts of fabric of many manufacturers including Moda, Thimbleberries, Benartex and Maywood. There are also lots of fat quarters, quilt kits and quilt samples lining the walls to choose from.

By the time, Terri, Mary and I reached St. Charles, located just northwest of St. Louis and stopped for dinner we had indeed stretched a 6 1/2 hour drive to fill a whole day.

Note: The beautiful quilt in the photo above was one of many hanging from clotheslines along the sidewalk during the open air quilt show in St. Charles, Missouri.

Country Expressions Quilt Shoppe, 118 Hill St., Stewartsville, MO

Hours: Mon. - Sat. 10 - 5, Tues. evenings till 8 PM

816-669-3490

Scraps Quilt Co., 316 SW Main St., Lees Summit, MO

Hours: Tues. - Fri. 10 - 5, Sat. 10-4, closed Sun. and Mon.

816-554-1892

How it began, this quilting quest

During the year my friends and I make it a point to visit different places that have quilt shops and good places to eat among their other points of interest.  That is what this blog is going to be about -- the road trips we've taken, the places we've visited, the restaurants and food we enjoyed, and the fun along the way.  Of course, there will also be some quilt talk about projects -- finished and not,  things we want to learn and places we'd like to visit.

A quest is defined as a hunt or search for something or a journey in search of adventures. My friend Terri says she is on a quest when looking for a certain quilting book or pattern or for a match to a piece of fabric she's been carrying around in her purse for the past 5 years.  So, I've come to think of the trips we make in search of quilting shops and the other delightful places we come across, as a QUILTER'S QUESTS.

Sewing has always been a part of my life from the earliest days when my mom made all of our clothing.  She also made tailored jackets, drapery, reupholstered chairs and Christmas stockings, all on a little  Singer Featherweight Sewing machine.  I sewed clothing for myself for a few years but after having 4 sons, I quickly discovered that you don't sew much for boys and that sewing clothing is tedious and not much fun at all, because clothing has to fit!  On the other hand, making quilts was much more fun and was appreciated by everyone and while the piecing has to be carefully and accurately done, for the most part -- ALL QUILTS FIT!

My first quilt was made back in 1976, using drapery lining as the main background fabric of the Cathedral Window quilt that I chose to make.  Who knew the Cathedral Window wasn't a great first quilt to start on?!  Nevertheless it was finished eventually and weighs a ton.  In those days, there were few quilt stores or books, no classes to take on quilting techniques or piecing and most fabrics had some amount of polyester in them.  My next quilts were made for my kids from machine applique patterns from Better Homes and Gardens magazine called "When I Grow Up" and "On the Go."  These quilts were well loved and well used.  I've since gone on to love piecing and hand applique.

About 15 years ago, I joined the Omaha Quilt Guild in Omaha, Nebraska, as a way to connect with other similar minded women who like/love anything to do with fabric and quilting.  The Omaha Guild has over 400 members so it was not difficult to find every level of enthusiasm for all things to do with quilting.  Every year during the last weekend of July, our state convention is held in one of six different cities in Nebraska.  We always look forward to the classes and lectures given by the visiting teachers and to the vendor's mall that is set up for our shopping fun.  And, one of the best parts of the convention is getting there -- there are always quilting shops either in the convention town or most assuredly we can find some in towns along the way.  

Note:  The quilt pictured above was on display at the outdoor quilt show held in St. Charles, Missouri.