clubs

The Quilt Shop was famous for clubs. Remember, strip club with Lois?  you would go on a Thursday afternoon or evening, and see the big reveal of the latest "strip" quilt.  You could buy strip sets...the strips cut by Lois and Ginny,  then get the pattern.  You could come on Saturday for a class, to learn to make the strip club quilt.
It was a fun time!
We had Clothesline Club-   I loved doing it.  It was all based on 30's fabrics, my favorites,  we had snacks, learned about techniques and projects,
Groovy Girls-  my favorite-  all based on Terri Atkinson patterns
Breakfast Club-
and on and on and on....
What club do you remember?

9/11

I think I will always remember the weeks after 9/11 at the quilt shop and the quilted flag frenzy.  We made the Quilt In a Day flag......   I think we must have offered that class at least 10 times in the weeks following 9/11. I remember having quilters come, but also having people who never quilted before.  They wanted to do something, so they came to us to learn how.  I wonder how many people still have their quilted flag.
I've made it several times since then, it always makes me smile when I remember when we were teaching people to make it for themselves.
Funny how we remember historic events with what we made at the time.
Does anyone have one of these flags?  I'd love to see pictures.

classes

I remember the yellow schedules that used to come in the mail from the Quilt Shop.  We would all wait with anticipation for the mail to get the schedule, study it and then go over to sign up for the classes we wanted.  Now that I look back, I should have written down all the classes I took.  My favorites?  I think my favorites were the ones that lasted for a few weeks.  One of my favorites was the Millenium jacket?  It was right before the year 2000.  You would make parts of the jacket, then we put it all together at the end.  Talk about HARD..... but it was fun and I learned a lot.  I remember telling my kids, to bury me in this jacket, cause no one else was ever getting it!   The nice part was, it was the same people each time, we becaame friends in the class.  Laughing and supporting each other along the way... isn't that what classes are all about?

Then there was the slipper class..... another HARD but fun class.... trying to turn those suckers inside out.  Oh my!

I think my favorite ones were the ones that Lois taught, using the Marti Michell templates.  Those classes helped us form a group of quilting friends that lasted for a long time, we called ourselves the renegade quilters.... and boy did we have fun. Somehow the group fell apart, or I fell out, I miss those friends very much. We became very close friends, sharing good times and sad times, while creating some beautiful quilts, thanks to Lois and her talents!

What fun times we had in classes..... do you have any stories about a class, or classes that you took at the quilt shop?  We've had some wonderful ones, that is for sure!

First memory

I remember my first memory of the quilt shop. It was1995, and I had been transferred to another school, which was a nightmare at the time.  I was teaching half time kindergarten, so each day I would leave my school, and drive to my old school where my kids were to pick them up. One day in October I was driving down North Street, when I saw it, that sign that said BERNINA....it was like my prayers had been answered.  Until then, the nearest BERNINA Dealer was in Hartsdale NY, at Hartsdale fabrics. I would see them once a year, to have my machine serviced, or to get an accessory that I had to have.  Now to have a dealer near me.... it was going to be wonderful.  I know I waited about a week before I got brave enough to go in.  When I did, they weren't really opened yet. I remember Ginny was there, and Corinne... they were opening bolts and putting them on the shelves. That little yellow house became my home away from home. I remember trying so hard to prove to them that I could teach there, or at least work there  I remember trying so hard to have my work to be as good as Lois.   That little yellow house was a special place indeed. I'm searching for a picture... does anyone have a picture of the old store?

Remember going up and down those stairs,going up to the classroom, those beautiful windows that looked out. It was a bright beautiful room. The machines against the window on the counter,the big spacious table in the middle of the room, the way the ceiling was angled on both sides, ( hanging quilts there was lots of fun).   The flannel section upstairs, sometimes we had to get creative to make them all fit.   There was a back deck upstairs,sometimes deer would come right up to the door.

How many of you have one of the flannel kits?  Here's a fact I bet you didn't know.... Ginny's pattern, Fabric Fling?  It was first called Flannel Fling.....I have a copy of her first handwritten hand drawn pattern.....

I remember opening the store each morning, first order of business, hanging the quilts on the porch railing outside.  Oh how many times we had to rescue a quilt from the driveway, or the porch.   People who weren't even quilters would stop in to see if they could buy the quilts.  

When was the first time you came in to the Quilt shop?

news

So I guess by now we all heard the news, the Quilt Shop is closing.  Sad for us, happy for Ginny as she and Dennis will now have the time to travel, to have fun and to enjoy those grandchildren.   I thought as a tribute to them, I would start up the blog again, for the last few weeks of the store being open.

What many people don't realize, Ginny included, is that the store was more than a building, it was almost like a place of worship, a place of support, a place to recharge your creative batteries, a place to feel loved and accepted no matter what your sewing skills were.  Whether you were a beginner, a non quilter, or a blue ribbon winner, well that store, whether it was the little yellow house, or the brick store was a place to smile.

What are your memories, let's share them during these last weeks.

Miss you all!
Roni