Quilt Lodge Has Made It To Red Lodge

I'm moved in and mostly unpacked (just don't look in my office or under any backroom tables).  Red Lodge Montana now has a Quilt Lodge, and we're open for business. 

I've had a number of locals and travelers stop by to wish me well.  I'm pretty terrible with names, but I remember faces and stories.  There's a lot of stories in the Quilting community.  Some stories are about quilt meetings, history, projects, local people and get together's.  I think that besides quilting, my favorite activity is listening.  I've had a number of visitors who have never quilted but wanted to stop in and share their quilt history.  It's amazing how many people have a fond memory of a family quilter, and a favorite quilt.

Quilt Block Sign, For Now

One group of travelers today wanted to share a particular story about a short term homeless woman who gathered a bunch of shirts that were cast off from a clothing bag.  She had a bit of time on her hands while she waited for a better living situation, so she started cutting and sewing, by hand!  She made a beautiful twin size quilt for the shelter in a matter of two weeks.  The activity inspired a few others to start cutting and sewing; then someone found a sewing machine, then the iron came out, well, you know what happened after that.  The quilting activity was a bonding event, not lost on the social workers, who related this story to me.  "Quilting is psychotherapy" they told me.  I've known this for years, and the saying never goes out of style.

Happy Quilting

destination Red Lodge

When I grow up, I want to surround myself with quilting people.  I think that's a good goal, don't you?  

I've had a few adventures in my life, and since I'm only half done (barring a Mac truck incident), I figure I better get going on the next few adventures.  My husband and I have toyed with the idea of moving to Red Lodge Montana for about 3 or 4 years now.  I don't know how this happened since I thought the home we built here in country outside of Billings was perfect.  We've been helping my mother in law rehab a cabin on Rock Creek for a few years now, and everytime we go down to Red Lodge, we keep looking around for a property of our own.  Should we live in the country?  Lordy, we have so much stuff we need a big house and a couple of big barns.  Should we live right in town?  That way we could walk downtown and hang out at the local eateries and pubs.  What should we do?

I've been talking about opening up a quilt shop in Red Lodge for a couple of years, I figured I should embark on this adventure in 2015, in fact, 2015 is on my vision board.  I've been studying and researching all about quilt shops; how to operate a retail business, how not to go broke, how to create a destination type of business using quilter connections.  I thought I should research this adventure a bit more, in fact I just started my online quilt fabric store, just to get my toes in the water.

All of a sudden, I'm getting ready to lease some property in Red Lodge.  Goodness, it isn't even 2015 yet.  What happened?  There is a precious quilt shop right over the hill from Red Lodge, in Washoe.  LuDawn is the owner and her and her mother have been totally involved in the quilt business for 11 years.  She started her adventure when she was my age, and thought she would go 10 years and then retire.  Well it's been 11 years, and she just announced it's time to go camping with her husband.  So here I go.  

Stay tuned as I update you on this adventure, I will never give up camping, so I know I'm gonna need some good help.  LuDawn has already said she would watch my shop while I go huckleberry picking, of course, she would like some huckleberries!

Vacuum or quilt, such a hard question!

Vacuum or quilt, such a hard question!

I know I need to keep up with the housework, but all I can think about is getting my next piece of applique tacked down so I can proceed with my quilt project.  If I just do one more color, one more leaf, one more flower; then I can pick up the vacuuming where I left off.

I can remember when my kids were all little and I couldn't wait until my husband got home from work so he could "watch baseball with the kids" while I secluded myself in the bowels of the basement with the door shut to my sewing room.

I know there were projects in that room that had to be done, but I suspect the reason they had to be done right away is that mommy needed some "quilt therapy" in order to keep her sanity.  

Now I let my husband watch baseball by himself, because I get to quilt, whenever I want.  The kids are grown, so I don't really need therapy as much now.  But since I'm only middle age, I think I should practice this quilt therapy for when I'm older, in case I need some type of treatment later.

Ok, so I will vacuum, because I have fabric dust all over the place, but then I can keep sewing.

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

Belle's Dream quilt fabric needs a design

This is the fabric I fell in love with awhile back and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.  I really want to make a quilt for a little girl, and in my dream, I suppose I  would want this look if I was a little girl.  I think this would look good in a strip quilt with maybe a row of some type of traditional block and some of the other fabrics that came with this line.  If I make something that looks good, I'll use it as a display in the quiltlodge.com online quilt shop kit section  I have a friend coming over today to quilt with me, and she always sews up things I dream up for me.  So I better get to cutting and dreaming and get something done with this sweet fabric.

Have a good day.

New Pope Makes Speech Above A Quilt, (looks like a quilt to me)

When I saw this picture I strained to examine what kind of block was in the center light part of this tapestry.  I know it's a tapestry, but to me it looks like a quilt.  Those are very nice borders and I really love the center designs in gold.
I think a quilter can look for a pattern and a design in just about anything.  Nice to see the new Pope with his arms open in a welcome and comforting message above what looks like a quilt to me.  I bet he blesses quilts as well!

Congratulations Catholics,  I'm a Luthern myself, so I'm almost a Catholic.

Sue Continues To Focus On Wine

Another hot Monday Night somewhere Northeast of Billings MT and the Monday Night Quilters gather for some good food and spirits, oh, and quilt talk!

Carol can't make it, had to go to Hawaii for a couple weeks, (is this a trend?).  She was in a panic before she left because she didn't have the last instructions for the mystery quilt borders before she left, must have run out of packing and needed a "finish a quilt" fix.

Not sure what happened to Joyce though, no word, just couldn't make it we guess.  She probably had some other commitment, more important than Monday Night Quilting, although we're not sure how that could be.

But Sara made it, she was running a bit late because she had to get done with work and then go feed and water the animals before she could relax.  Betty brought her hand work instead of her machine.  She has a little featherweight for traveling, but struggles with changing machines on a project right in the middle of the quilt, should she get over it?

Wine this, wine that, should she just cork it?  LOL!

Sue continues to focus on wine fabric, oh, and the wine.  She pulls out her fabric find from her last trip to Washington State, and it looks like she's matched up additions to her wine collection with her new fabric.  If she starts booking flight to Italy, her quilt buddies are really gonna be jealous!

Saint Merlot

We really should tell you how this whole wine and quilt story got started for Sue.  Sue went over to Betty's house for Monday Night Quilting a year or so ago and brought with her some ready cut strips she was going to sew together to make a log cabin quilt for her guest room.  She laid out the fabrics on Betty's dinning room table and promptly went to the kitchen to fill her wine glass with a glorious red.  With the wine glass on the table, Sue puts her sewing machine on the same table and proceeds to hook up the electrical cord and foot peddle. 

Unfortunately, as she's talking and prepping her work area, she forgets about the wine glass and tangles the cords around the glass.  You guessed it, wine on the fabric strips!!!  Shocked and sad (the wine had spilled) Betty gathers up the fabric and fills the kitchen sink with really cold water and gives the strips a plunge.  Then the task of laying out the fabric on dry towels reveals an interesting color visual, the wine kinda matches some of the fabric!  Not to worry, the quilt takes on the name Saint Merlot!