Temari and Hamilton, Mo

While I was not blogging and trying to get my stitch mojo back I made a couple Temari Balls.

The first one is a pattern I love to make, it is very simple and the beauty comes from the negative space that is created by using one thread the same color as the base of the ball to stitch the design. This one was stitched for my knee surgeon; he graduated from KU so it is the KU ball. And since I am partial to blue the ball is predominately blue.  He loved the ball and I love him (he did a great job on my knee), so we are both happy.
The other Temari ball is an original. I have a new Great Grand-daughter (I am a two time great, so far…boy and girl) and her middle name is Rose. Rose was my mother’s middle name (we called her Whammer…for grandma, but that’s another story.) It was also my favorite Great Aunt’s name and I think it is a name from Catherine’s family also.)  So I decided to make Rose’s mother a basket of roses. First I stitched the top rose and then the partial side roses. Then I started on the basket. First I wove the basket from the SP to the Equator in a ribbed spider web stitch. Then around the top edge I made a detached buttonhole border for the lip of the basket. Turned out cute.

“More about Hamilton too…I hear it is a quilter’s mecca.” This is what I said last week about Missouri Star Quilt Co in Hamilton, Mo. Well, after being there, there is no way to really describe it to anyone; it is an experience that will be different to everyone who visits. Words like eye-candy, beautiful, overwhelming come to mind; but it was so much more too that I will have to re-visit several times before I feel like I have an understanding of everything this quilter’s/ fabric mecca has to offer.

It is the town! You have to go read the history of Missouri Star Quilt Co and Hamilton, Mo: https://www.missouriquiltco.com/. And if you are anywhere near Kansas City, Mo (and I mean even if you have to travel 2-3 hours out of your way and it is one of the only things you do in Kansas City) add a day to your trip for a stop here. Even if you are not a quilter (and I am not) it is something any creative person should see. If you own a textile shop, you need to just study their presentations and marketing…excellent! Oh my gosh, I would still be standing in the first shop taking it all in , if my friends had not kept me moving and by the end of the day I was in the Man Cave waiting for them. My mind was in overload, my visual senses had shut down and I am still recovering from a wonderful day in Hamilton, Mo.

Here’s a brief tour…

Hamilton’s Main Street is two blocks long and there are 14, yes 13 shops all related to quilting and 1 shop for husbands to rest ( I spent time here too.) Here’s the map they give you and it is best to start at #1 the Main shop. Here you register and they give you a card with your name and a bar code on it. Every time you buy something it shows up on your account and you also receive incentives to shop. This is soooo helpful if you are buying fabrics to co-ordinate or if you get home and need more of fabric “xyz” to
complete your project; it’s all there on your account. Every store can scan your card and bring up your purchases and see the fabrics, trims and patterns you have purchased. Here’s a picture of my account. This is so cool and so helpful.

We strolled down the street to the reproduction fabrics and then the floral shop ( a garden of fabrics and no weeds). Notice the lights look like flowers and the front of the store window gave you a clue to what was inside.

 

Three shops and we had to stop for refreshments and nourishment…it is exhausting shopping!  After a brief refueling we were off again…

We went into Primitives and Wool, wool fabrics and yarns and Primitive fabrics…not up my alley but impressive from a marketing point of view. Next was the Batik Boutique and here I lost all sense of reality, found three of the five fabrics I was looking for here…Oh my, what a colorful place!

Next we headed upstairs for four more shops…Seasonal Shop, every occasion you would like to celebrate in one room; Modern fabrics had newest fabrics and designer fabrics; Backings & trims was a room of finishing fabrics (extra wide) for backing your quilt and all the trims you could want; and finally kids and baby area with all the fabrics any mother and grandmother could want to furnish a nursery.

I was in fabric overload now and headed down to the “Machine Shed” for all the gadgets you can imagine and isn’t their window too cute…and right next to the Machine Shed was the Man’s Land. A room to relax, designed to keep the husbands happy but I checked out the leather chairs and they were comfy.

I missed the girls, they came down another way and so I had to visit the last shop on my own. JC Penny quilt shop is the colorful solid store. If you can’t find a solid color here it is not made.

Four hours later, we had briefly touched the surface of Hamilton, Missouri and the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  It was absolutely mind boggling; the fabrics, the colors and all the quilts hanging in every store, not to mention the projects stitched with the fabrics. At times I felt like a kid in a toy store..I want, I want, I want.

And I did buy a few things…material for finishing 3 pieces of needlepoint…sending to the finisher. I purchased two patterns; one to use for a stitching idea and the other a finishing idea. And I bought a 1/2 yard of material for several other stitching ideas.

Will, I go back, in a heartbeat! Just let me know when you are in town and I’ll drive you up there. I can take my needlepoint…the ones that still need finishing and a project I am working on. I promise not to hurry you; I can always go to the man cave and stitch while you soak up all the creativity this place offers.

In fact you better plan on spending a couple of creative days maybe more here in KC , might even want to try our bar-be-que, take in a baseball or football game (depends on when you are here. We have another shop in Weston, Mo that is also creative eye candy for anyone creative or who wants to be creative…more about that later.  And don’t ask me to pick one, because if I were younger I would be moving north to be closer to these places…I’m about 1 1/2 hours from either but it is worth the drive.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today!

ttfn…sue