A Visit to Missouri Star Quilt Company, Part 1

On Wednesday, six intrepid Brown Bag Quilters headed west for a bucket list trip--a visit to the Missouri Star Quilt Company. We are all devotees of Jenny Doan and her fabulous, quick and easy quilting tutorials using pre-cuts, plus I am addicted to her Daily Deal, as my Visa bills can attest.

We left Boston and flew into Kansas City, arriving late afternoon on Wednesday. MSQ is about an hour from the airport. We did a quick tour of the shops before they closed for the day at 5pm. Our plan was to be up and running at 9am on Thursday to spend an entire day visiting all 14 shops.

A bright mural adorns the side of the sewing center building. A 50's themed quilt retreat was in progress during our visit.

If you can read the computer screen, we traveled 1,205 miles for our visit. But we met three ladies who came from Brazil, so 1,205 miles didn't seem so far. We also chatted with ladies from Oregon, California and Minnesota during our visit. According to the media, MSQ gets up to 10,000 visitors during the summer months.

The MSQ stores are on two sides of the main street in Hamilton, MO. Below is a view of the strip that includes Primitives and Wool, Batik Boutique, Machine Shed, Man's Land, Licensed to Sew and Penney's Quilt Shop. Upstairs, you will find Sew Seasonal, Backing & Trims, Kids & Baby and Modern. They have renovated the existing buildings and revitalized the town. In addition to building quilt shop mecca, they have brought in several restaurants, because we know that quilters love to eat! The town is cute and quaint. Everyone we met was very friendly and welcoming.

This was one of my favorite shops since I'm fond of novelty prints.

Vintage machines decorate the window of the Machine Shed.

Need a break? Visit Man's Land.

Joanne and Sue stopped and rested in the comfy lounge chairs in Man's Land. There's even a pool table in the back.

Same side of the street, but photo taken from the opposite end.

Here is a picture of the other side of the street.

This is the Main Shop, or as I call it the Welcome Center to Quilter's DisneyLand... The rest of the shops on this side are Missouri Star Mercantile, Florals, and the Sewing Center, where the quilt retreats are held.

Another beautiful wall mural.

Right next door to the Main Shop is Mama Hawk's Kitchen. On Wednesday, I enjoyed a fabulous brisket sandwich for lunch here. And I also tasted my first red cream soda. Delicious! J.D.'s Burger Dive is adjacent to Mama Hawk's Kitchen.

All of us developed an addiction to Mama Hawk's divine cinnamon rolls... I wonder if she does mail order...

Here I am with my Brown Bagger quilting buddies enjoying another scrumptious lunch on Thursday at Blue Sage.
From top left, clockwise: Nancy C-T, aka PugMomQuilts!, Marion, Nancy D., Sue, Joannie and Joanne S.

Thanks for visiting. There will be a Part 2, so come back soon! Do you want to see what we bought?

Pugs and kisses,

Nancy

March Projects from the Brown Baggers

Lots of great finished quilts and tops at our March Sunday meeting of my Brown Bagger quilt group.

Joanne S. had three finished quilts to share.

Kaffe Fassett prints against an orange background. This is a birthday block quilt.

Another birthday block quilt in red, white and blue. Junior Brown Bagger Emma is an experienced quilt holder.

A stunning Double Wedding Ring in Kaffe Fassett prints with a lively polka dot background.

Joannie finished the binding on one of her t-shirt quilts (she's made four in total as a memorial for a friend's son).

Joannie's original design with lots of flying geese sashing.

Sandie had a quilt made from left over scraps deemed too large for the pet pillows as well as the rainbow quilt top that came to her in a dream.

One woman's trash is a quilt for Sandie! Sandie thinks this quilt looks like the view from an airplane and I agree!

Sandie's amazing techni-color Dream Quilt!

Marion finished a baby quilt top.

There are lots of fun novelty prints in this baby quilt.

Lynne finished this gorgeous Jewel Box quilt top. This quilt is made from Lynne's stash and has everything in it from batiks, to Kaffe Fasset prints, to animal prints to Asian fabrics. It is just stunning.

Here's a close-up.

Pat brought her finished top, her Grand Illusion Quilt, a Bonnie Hunter mystery from a few years ago. She also sent me a picture of her finished yoga bag for daughter Allison. I love the fabric!

Pat's color pallette is soft and pretty.

A new yoga bag for daughter Allison!

Kim G. made another Frieda quilt for a special 5-year old friend.

The little girl's favorite colors are purple and orange. I think that Kim nailed it!

I got my Star Quilt back from Kim P. who machine quilted it, so I should have a finished project to share with you soon...

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Tales from the Cutting Table

On Saturday I finished Ben's quilt. In celebration, on Sunday I spent a few hours in my Quilting Studio and I cut out three new projects. You can never have too many projects!

These two bundles have been living underneath the plexiglas extension table for my sewing machine so they've been taunting me while I worked on other things that had deadlines. I picked up several of the purple fat quarters at Tuesday Morning (a domestics store, kind of like a mini Marshalls) and added a few more purples from my stash to make my own fabric medley. I won the blue and green fat quarters at our holiday swap in 2015. After I cut them out, I saw that they are Horizon by Kate Spain. Marion has used Kate Spain fabrics in several of her projects. We don't see them often at our local quilt stores.

After taking this photo, I changed my mind, so I'm making the Weekender Tote with the purples, and the San Clemente bag with the blues and greens. I've made both of these patterns before. You can see my previous Weekender Tote here (you'll need to scroll down).

I write labels on sticky notes and attach them to each of my pattern pieces that I cut out from the different fabrics. This way, when I pick up my project again, I'll know what all the pieces are for.

Best of all, neither of these projects is on any kind of deadline nor are they promised to anyone, so I can work on them at my leisure.

The third project is going to be a Yellow Brick Road quilt made out of cat fabrics for my cousin Joel's little girl. Angie will turn 5 in June so she needs a big girl quilt for her birthday. Below are a few of the cat fabrics that I cut for her quilt. I decided not to stress and used a wide variety of cartoon cats and realistic cat fabrics. I figured, the more, the better.

Angie's favorite color is red. There isn't much red in any of the cat fabrics, so a few days later I decided to go back and cut some red fabrics to add to her quilt. That will help give her quilt some pop! Some of these fabrics came from my deep, dark stash, and are probably close to 20 years old. Vintage chic!

An old friend once said that "all reds go together." It will be fun to see what they look like in Angie's quilt. And these fabrics are very happy to have left the depths of my sewing room closet!

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy