Is A Quilt Shop In My Future?

For a couple of years now I've been brainstorming about starting a Quilt Shop in Red Lodge Montana.  This whole thing got started one day when I was up at our family cabin, sewing of course, and I forgot my seam ripper at home in Billings.  When you're a quilter, having a seam ripper or some other handy UNSEW tool is a must.

There is a lovely little quilt shop in Washoe, which is just over a hill (people in lowland country would call it a mountain), but it is closed on Saturday for religious reasons.  I stopped in the town of Red Lodge and started hunting around for some other crafty store, or hardware store or somewhere that stocked some basic sewing supplies.  I did find an empty spot on a tag board for "seam ripper" in the hardware store, but of course, they would be out of them that day. 

The town of Red Lodge is not very big, one main street, old fashioned and very quaint.  I walked all over town and talked to many of the shop owners in my quest.  It was an enlightening experience in that the trades people thought we needed a quilt fabric shop in town.  Several had tried, but for some reason or another, they retired or moved. 

This whole adventure happened a couple of years ago, and since, I've been dreaming of a quilt shop in Red Lodge.  I started attending classes at the National and International trade shows.  Met with lots of people who are in the quilt shop business.  It's not an easy thing to do, that's for sure.  When I first started investigating, the quilt fabric economy was really struggling.  Price for fabric was going up due to some cotton shortages and some quilt shops had put too much on their credit cards and were not able to pay their bills as they did when the fabric market was better.  All of this kinda scared the daylights outta me, so I thought I should continue to study the situation and learn as much as I can.

I have a time line plan that includes a quilt shop in Red Lodge for 2015, but then a funny thing has happened along the way.  Stay tuned!

Wanda

"If we open up our group to new people, what are we gonna do if we just can't stand the new person?"

"Oh for crying out loud Betty, I'm pretty sure there's something about me that you can't stand, and you show up every Monday Night!"  The gals at the dinning room table snicker, and you just know each one of them, Carol, Sarah, Sue and Betty are thinking about how Joyce never holds anything back, even when she should.

The Monday Night Quilters have been meeting at each others homes for over 10 years now, and once in awhile someone new pops in for a few months, but mostly it's just the same old gang of 5.  They are very project oriented, some more than others. Quilting has been an American pastime for, well, a couple hundred years (ever since there was an America).  And the quilting groups have gathered for these "work" events for just as long.

"Well I want to know, what would be the goal of inviting more people?  How would we invite them?  Do we say 'hey do you want to quilt with us?'  'By the way sometimes we don't actually sew, we eat and drink wine?'"  Sarah knows some women who might fit into the group.  She's mentioned the Monday Night Quilters to a few friends and posts her quilt pictures on her Facebook page; she always gets lots of comments about her work (she has an eye for color).

Sue looks at Sarah and in a haughty tone "we do too quilt, or at least we talk about quilting"

"And we solve at least one or two world problems per week, if only quilters ruled the world!"  Everyone laughs at Carol's joke, quilter's rule, get it?

"All right, what about our next project?  Shall we do that Friendship quilt we've been talking about for years?"

"Betty, if you would just organize the darn thing maybe we can get going.  I'm not gonna go hole hog on a new project till I get my garden going, plus I've got a bunch of company coming."  Carol has a very full plate, not sure how she gets everything done.  This summer her house is like a revolving door for her family who come to visit from all over the State of Montana.  We think they come for the cooking!

"Well how 'bout we make a decision on what we're gonna do and then start gathering our materials?"  Sue remembers having this conversation a couple of times over the last 2 years.  Even though the group has quilted projects from the same patterns, they haven't decided on their Friendship blocks.  "You know, we could do something like block of the month.  Everyone pick a block they like, and then once a month we all work on that block from our own stash.  Just see what happens.  Bring the blocks to the first meeting of the month and see what we get."

"And if you don't get your block done there needs to be some kind of consequence" says Betty, "something really traumatic, like you have to do all the ironing". 

"Ok" Joyce chimes in, "let's put some numbers in a hat next meeting and who ever draws number 1 gets to have their blocks done first".

Stay tuned for the next Monday Night Quilters episode.