Our Missouri Star Quilt Company Visit

Wednesday, May 11 was our tour group's visit to Missouri Star Quilt Company 

(MSQC) and the town of Hamilton, Missouri. 

In my previous post HERE, I talked about the lecture/trunk show 

by Jenny Doan. After that wonderful 2 hours ended, we had a few hours to explore. 

The MSQC is a group of buildings on both sides of the main street in town. 

Each building houses different fabric departments, some downstairs and upstairs 

(or via the elevator). 

The main store was being remodeled and is scheduled to reopen in mid June. 

Some of the fabrics departments I looked at included baby and kids, florals, blenders/solids, fresh/modern, Civil War/Reproductions, 30s, licensed fabrics, seasonal and backings. I even found the batik store with the largest selection of Island Batiks I have seen. 

Each one of the shops was well lit, decorated very nicely and tidy.

There is Man's Land for a husband or tired shopper to relax. 

The Machine Shed is a store with gadgets, templates and sewing machines. 

All the staff is helpful and friendly. 

I was looking for a specific color of backing for a t-shirt quilt I am working on. 

The young lady who I asked gave me information about all the departments 

where I might find the right color. I did find one color in the blender area 

that I think will work just perfectly!

We had lunch catered by Hank and Tank's BBQ. 

The food was terrific and portions were filling. 

I enjoyed the visit and hope to return some day.

Visit their website to learn about the fabric departments HERE.

Home After Quilt Trip

I am home after 9 days. I spent the day before my departure at my daughter's apartment which is hours closer to the pick-up site than my home. Upon returning, I drove to my sister's house for an overnight visit before traveling 3+ hours home.

And in between those two stay-overs, I was on the road in a comfortable coach with 52 other quilters! We traveled from Michigan to Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Iowa. I will share bits and pieces of the excursion over the next few weeks.

I want to tell you that one of our destinations was Hamilton, Missouri. A visit to the Missouri Star Quilt Company was the highlight of this stop.

Not only were we able to shop the many fabric departments (which are located in different buildings), but our day included a 2-hour lecture and trunk show by Jenny Doan, herself! She is as charming in person as she comes across on her videos.

I got so many ideas for quilting projects with her simple, straight-forward explanations of patterns.

I took just a little time to try the Disappearing 9-Patch that Jenny talked about with some Island Batik fabrics. 

She has a video HERE.

I wanted to explore what 3 colors in a triadic color scheme would look like.
I cut 5" squares of Island Batik fabrics. The purple and green are from the Wind and Sea Collection and the red is from the Coral Reef Collection.

Here are my steps in making the blocks.

And this is the quilt top that resulted.

 And, speaking of Island Batik fabrics, there is a blog hop going on this month with the ambassadors paper piecing and using the newest fabrics. Take a look at what has been posted so far. Mine is coming near the end of the month. I will post more links when they are revealed.

Pamela Quilts

Quilting Affection Blog

Kauffman Designs

Bejeweled Quilts

Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Moosestash Quilting

BeaQuilter

Fun Thread Designs