prairie city gem

tucked in on main street

one of my daydreams of travelling by car through so much of the country was to stop at quilt stores along the way and maybe even find hidden treasures, lines of fabric sold out everywhere else long ago but tucked in a corner of a store in an out-of-the-way place. maybe some meadow dot for me or parisville for liz.

decorative painted quilt block at the front door

the first stop i got to make came as we were wending our way from Utah to central Oregon. we were going from aspen grove family camp to a reunion at sunriver in Oregon. it took all day long. any trip for our family can be counted on to require a few extra hours. there were lots of interesting and inviting sights along the way, but we had to cover a lot of ground and couldn't stop.

finally, we were making a pit stop in the very cute little town of Prairie City. while the kids played in the park and took a potty break, i noticed a shop on the main street across from us that said "quilts." without telling the mr. or anyone else, i grabbed the 5 yr old's hand and ran across the street. i wasn't sure if it was a gift shop or an actual quilting shop until i got inside.

on the design wall

 what i found was the heart of a small but thriving quilting community in rural Oregon, quilts & beyond, etc. the owner told me they had a guild of about 25 members, which i found quite impressive considering there weren't that many buildings in town. the tiny shop was crammed full of bolts of quilting fabric with a mostly traditional flavor as well as a back room for classes and guild meetings.

 i hadn't brought my camera or even my wallet with me, but i ran back to the car to get both. and to tell the mr. where we'd gone. the shop was about to close, but they were kind and chatty with me, as quilt folk will be. they let me take a few photos. i didn't have the time or lighting to do justice to the samples i photographed. i hope they'll forgive me!

 the owner, marci, is also into Brazilian embroidery, which i'd never heard of before. it's much more three dimensional than traditional embroidery. you can't tell well from the photo of the humming birds, but the individual feathers on the wings are quite raised from the canvas. it was beautiful and i wish i'd had more time to learn about it.

 my little charmer i'd brought with me lucked out. they were having a "Christmas in july" sale and giving away sewing kits to every 10th customer. when my daughter begged me for a pair of snips similar to some I already own, they gave her one of the kits, which included some of the snips. and we hadn't even bought anything yet, nor do i believe we were a 10th anything. quilt people really are so generous! this kit provided entertainment through out the trip and prompted many pleas to sew.

i did pick out a few fat quarters and a bit of yardage from their collection, but the kit they gave her far outweighed my purchase in value. it was truly very kind of them. when my other girls popped in to see the shop and did not get a kit offered them, my little stinker said, "i guess i'm just the cutest."

 

d5 gives quilts and beyond shop a thimbled thumbs up!