In June we took a wonderful trip to Memphis, Tennessee for the wedding of Tom’s brother, Steve, and his bride, Lisa, on June 22nd. We stayed in fun hotels, ate fantastic food, enjoyed some nice time with family, and took in several tourist attractions along the way. Those attractions included two of my favorite things - fabric and baseball!
We left home on Wednesday, June 19th and spent the night in Cameron, Missouri. The next morning we arrived in Hamilton by 9:00 for the opening of the Missouri Star Quilting Company. I have been wanting to go to Hamilton for years and it did not disappoint. The company has taken over about 8 storefronts in this small town and there are 12 quilt shops to delight fabric enthusiasts. There is a shop devoted to batiks, one for novelty fabrics, one for wools and primitives, one for florals - you get the idea! I started in the shop that was the old JC Penney building. Fun fact - Hamilton is the childhood home of JC Penney. This shop was filled with tone-on-tones and blenders - perfect for the white, black, grays, and teals that I was looking for to make a quilt for our daughter, Melissa, and her husband-to-be, Kevin. I found what I needed and headed to the cutting table. All was well except for the medium grey and the dark teal. There was not enough fabric on the medium grey bolt but luckily they had more in the warehouse and were able to mail it to me. I hadn’t noticed that the dark teal was actually an ombré and although the dark shade was perfect I knew the fabric as a whole would not work with my pattern. Fortunately, I was able to find a piece in the batik store that was a great substitute. I also checked out the Machine Shed - a store filled with notions - as well as the Wools and Primitives store. Tom checked out the Man Cave - a building with recliners and big-screen TVs! What a terrific marketing idea!!
In addition to the fabric for Kevin and Melissa’s quilt I also had a couple of other items on my list. I was able to find a package of Quilter’s Dream wool batting that I would like to use for the Dream Big panel that I’m planning to make for the cake table at the wedding reception. I was unable, however, to find two of the items on my list. The first item was foundation papers that I needed for Melissa and Kevin’s quilt as well as a Violet Craft pattern that I am making in September. I like to use Carol Doak’s papers as they work nicely with my printer and provide some stability to the fabrics when I am paper piecing. The second item was the Dream Big Hydrangea. The color of this panel looked like shades of purple when I saw it online so I was hoping that it would work for the cake table. (Stay tuned for more about my adventures with the Dream Big panel in a future blog.)
Since we planned to arrive in St. Louis in the early afternoon I wasn’t able to visit every store in the Missouri Star Quilting Company. That just gives me an excuse to make a return trip! And since I was unable to find two of the items on my shopping list I just shopped online while we headed to our next destination! And my packages arrived after we returned home the next week. How convenient!
Check in the week of August 18th for the conclusion of our trip to St. Louis and Memphis. Maybe it will inspire you to take a drive and explore a few of our country’s wonderful cities.