I’ve been out and about visiting a few of the quilt shops on Russell Country’s quilting trail, camera in tow! What a day-brightener to stop in and visit these beautifully decorated shops.
The Quilt-Away, located in Great Falls, was recently selected by Better Homes & Gardens as one of the top 10 quilt shops in the United States. That’s pretty impressive! I visited with Toni when I was there and also bought a copy of the magazine featuring their store.
The Quilt-Away is a two story building with unique architectural design and it is tucked away in a mostly residential neighborhood. When I was there a beginning quilting class was going on upstairs.
I keep saying that one of these days I’m going to take up quilting. For now I’ll have to settle with just admiring the fabrics and also the beautiful quilt designs and products displayed.
It’s difficult to capture the essence and style of a store with just one photo so here’s another of The Quilt-Away.
I’ve discovered that in most of our quilt shops it’s interesting to just stand in one place and gradually look at things from a distance, then go bolt by bolt and see the unique fabric.
It would have been interesting to look in and watch the beginning quilting class and to do a little research on quilters. I’ve discovered that quilters will go out of their way, by a long ways, to visit a different quilt shop.
The next quilt shop I stopped in to visit was Bernina Silver Thimble.
Bernina is located on 10th Avenue South, a busy street through Great Falls that should deliver a lot of store traffic. Debra, who owns the store with her husband, was there and she took a break to visit with me.
They had a huge selection of Bernina machines and accessories and this photo shows some garments that you could make from fabrics at the shop.
Classes are a large part of all quilt shops and one idea I had was to do a multi generational class, particularly grandmother, granddaughter type classes. This could be a great way to pass along skills and have some fun time together. And, I’m sure someone has already thought of this!
I browsed through bolts and bolts of brightly colored and patterned fabric, took a few more pictures, and renewed my resolution to start a beginning quilting class.
This photo is just one partial view of fabric at Bernina. Wow, you could spend hours looking here.