Mary Jo is a blog reader from Lacrosse. I’ve told you about her before. She works at Gundersen Lutheran in Lacrosse where I go to the doctor so I often peek in and say hi. She is super sweet and is always very kind to me.
She messaged me and asked a couple questions about Two Trees Pizza in Ossian that I had written a blog post about. She said she had a week of vacation and thought she’d drive over and try it out. I emailed back and said if she does, and wants company, I’d love to join her.
So…today was our day…well kind of. It turns out the pizza place isn’t open until 4:30 and that made it kind of late for Mary Jo to coordinate other stops with. We ended up meeting at the quilt shop in Decorah…Red Roxy’s. We had lunch next door at the Old Armory BBQ…the back to the quilt shop.
Here we are…
..and here’s the quilt shop.It’s locate on Water Street (which is the main downtown street) in Decorah, Iowa.
Decorah is a very nice little town. It has a thriving downtown….and the quilt shop if part of what makes the town special.
They are a Bernina dealer. Almost 40% of the shop is taken up by machines.
…the rest is samples and fabric galore!
Here’s a cute little gnome table runner.
I liked this ABC quilt. The letters are florals.
There are lots of cute samples besides quilts too.
This is how they display some of the finished quilts….it’s fine but I’d prefer to see them…I can’t really like this.
There is another wall of quilts like this and one caught my eye…this one.
I couldn’t imagine sewing those little strips between the bricks. That’s when the girl who was super friendly said I’ll grab you a bolt and show you the fabric it’s made with…she showed us this….
WOW. She sent on to explain that you cut 2 1/2″ strips of the fabric and sew it together. WOW…what a fast quilt. I loved the idea and loved the fabric.
The lady in the store who was working was SUPER friendly. When Mary Jo bought a piece of the black and white version she asked her what she was going to do with it. Mary Jo said for sashing. She went on to say that she’s always curious and that the fabric hadn’t sold fabulously. I wanted to but didn’t say, display the quilt with the fabric. Seriously the quilt was in the front window and the fabric was in the back!
When I said there was a lot of fabric, I wasn’t kidding. Batiks….
blenders…
baby flannels….
Grunge…
In the back is a small classroom….The walls are lined with quilts.
and quilts…
There was the clearance rack I had to check out.
Lots of notions too.
I saved my favorite quilt of the day for last…
I adore the colors and that little bat is so dog-gone cute.
It’s a fabric line from Basic Grey. I have loved all of their lines…by far she’s my favorite Moda designer.
Lunch was good..the shop was good too.
It was a fun day. I was so glad to get out and do something I don’t normally do!! Thanks Mary Jo for making me part of your day. Anytime you come this way I’ll happily meet you for lunch!!
…and with that, I headed back to the thrift store. (Yep. I had already been there once and got something I can’t wait to show you what I bought.) I had to head back as Kalissa messaged me and said, “I have a bachelorette party that is Kentucky Derby themed. Find me a hat!!” What a fun time!
You are right about that fabric. I would have no idea what to do with it unless a sample or book or pattern was right with it. Good idea for a fast quilt. Customers also have to like those particular colors/prints and maybe the area is just not “into” them.
The store is lovely and very well stocked. I too would gravitate to the clearance fabrics.
You could easily make that fabric by sewing a 1 1/2″ strip of black to the side of a layer cake. Then cut into 3″ sections. HMM. You could also do sashing strips with corner stones that way. For a 12 1/2″ block, cut strips 12 1/2″ wide and sew a 2 1/2″ strip of the corner stone fabric to it. Then cut into 2 1/2″ sections for the sashings. Lots easier to buy the fabric thought for a quick quilt.
I am curious about the fabric that has the black strip between each color. Did you get the name of that fabric line? if so, can you please share. Thank you . D. Weeks (aka Momma Llama)
I have that some of that strange fabric and I love using it for bindings and making bags, its perfect. What a lovely shop and I think it should be on my Iowa bucket list this fall when we hit the road traveling. I’m glad you were able to spend the day with Mary Jo, what fun you both had.
Kim is you make it to Decorah let me know. I’d love have lunch!!
It sounds like a fun day for you! I would also love to know the name of that fabric and the pattern.
You should have said something about putting the quilt close to the fabric it would sell like hot cakes. Yes do you know the name and maker if that fabric it would be nice to have on hand. I’m thinking backing and sashing. Plus making the strip quilt.
Judith. This is a Jen Kingwell fabric from Moda. I don’t know the fabric line though.
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