A small Thank You!

Several months ago I purchased a rather large (10 1/2 foot!) curved church pew.  It was a beautiful antique!  It took an unexpected tumble off the trailer, however, and was in a terrible state!  My brother in law worked his carpentry/refinishing magic and put Humpty Dumpty back together again even better than new!  As a very small token of my appreciation I have made him this scrap quilt.  I chose the pattern we call the Million Squares to represent the million pieces of splintered wood he reassembled.  Thank you thank you, Craig!  (The pattern is actually Bonnie Hunter's Many Scrappy Trips Around the World)

The pew is destined for the quilt shop so you can hopefully come and sit here and ponder great family here... and maybe dream up a new quilting project too!

Open for business!

Opening day for the Feathered Star was Tuesday, Dec 7.  Since then I've had many shoppers and visitors to the store!  How exciting to see old friends come through the door and meet new ones.  Many are stopping by with good wishes and to see the amazing transformation of the building.  My mother and sister spent the first day at the store providing yummy breads and taking pictures.  Son, Aaron was there for opening day to make sure the computer cooperated nicely.  Many thanks to them!! 

The flower shop is long gone though I've been fortunate to use many things in the quilt shop including the Christmas tree and its' decorations.  The shelves from the flower shop have been repurposed to hold beautiful fabrics (many florals which is more familiar to them!).  Our friends next door have give us slat board to add to the back of two shelves where I display notions. From another friend I purchased old doors and school desks/chairs which are used throughout the store for display. 

Since the store has opened one new quilter has created her first quilt for a Christmas gift (string pieced squares using Civil War reproductions)... beautiful!  I hope she's just the first of many new quilters to gain inspiration and guidance from the store!

The Feathered Star web page is now online at http://www.featheredstarquilt.com/.  I hope to see you online or in the store!  Merry Christmas!

Logo... maybe?

I've been working on the logo for the quilt shop and this is where I am with that project at the end of the day.  What do you think?  Readable? 
We are making progress at the shop, hopefully the flooring soon!  I'm ready to move in the building with fabrics!

Giving Thanks

Several months ago I purchased a fairly large (10 1/2 feet!) curved church pew.  Unfortunately it took a tumble off the trailer and was in a terrible state!  My brother in law worked his carpentry/refinishing magic to put Humpty Dumpty back together again even better than ever.  So, to show my deep appreciation I made him a quilt.  I chose what we call the million squares pattern to represent the million pieces he brought back together to repair this beautiful antique!  Thank you, thank you, Craig!

The pew is destined for the quilt shop so come on down and enjoy it with me!

Snow White

The biggest latest development down at the quilt shop is on the roof!

We had insulation blown on the roof then this snow white rubberized coating.  Hopefully this will keep the electric bills reasonable and eliminate the leaks in the roof!  You should be able to spot us if you are flying over Clyde, wouldn't that be fun?!

Making Progress!

Our sidewalk in front of the future quilt store went from cracked and awful to beautiful stamped concrete!

Inside the new air conditioning is complete!

We uncovered the huge sliding glass doors that led to the building next door.  This huge hole in the wall will become something wonderful soon!

 And Mike has been working hard to finish the workroom and upstairs office and put in the electrical along both walls.  Hopefully soon we will be able to paint the tin ceiling and the walls and the staircase will be built! 

The quilt shop name will be the Feathered Star!  We will open Tuesday December 7.  Great fun ordering fabrics and notions and patterns!

Uncovering the Past

We have been taking down the paneling at the flower shop and uncovering the past.  On the south wall you can now see where the steps used to lead up to the doctor's office.  Long ago the building housed Walker Drug Store.  Elevated in the back was Dr Webster's office.  You can see in this picture the level of the raised floor (about 4 1/2 feet) on the left and where the stairs were at the right of the photo.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to have an old photo of how the building looked then?  Now all I have is a photo of the pharmacist, Tandy Walker!

The building is looking really LONG now that there are fewer obstacles in the way!  We have two more walls to take the paneling off then we can paint and expose some of the brick.

Step by Step

Finally all the suspended ceiling tiles are down along with the framework and support wires!  Then we took down the old AC duct work.  That make the biggest difference as they were right down the center of the building and wrapped in white insulation!  You could see from one end to the other except for all the shelves which are just too big to move around much!

The next step is exposing all the plaster by removing the 70's paneling.  We will chip away some of this plaster to show some of the brick.  In the process of removing the first 1/4 of the paneling we discovered that there was originally a display window at the front of the store which you can see below at the right of the photo.

There are several large and wonderful white shelves and a great counter that will go against the two walls on the left and right where we won't need to remove any plaster.

Coming soon... the new AC/heater!

Flower Shop update

After three liquidation sales a donation truck came by and picked up the remainder of the flower shop inventory.  Everything left in the building is intended to be used in the quilt shop!  We are extremely fortunate to have inherited many sturdy shelves with the building that can be repurposed for fabric bolts. 

We have successfully taken down the walls to the kitchen and office in the back of the building.  We have also taken a peek at what's under the floor so we'll know how to proceed there.  Now come the big decisions about what we will rebuild.  Our original idea needed to be revamped but I like Plan B very much!

Quilt Shop News!

Here's the big news!  We purchased a shop in our one block downtown and after extensive remodeling will open a quilt shop!  Very exciting!  I hope this will become a wonderful place for quilting friends to gather and gain inspiration from each other and a place where new quilters will begin their adventures in quilting!  My quilting friends range in age from four years to their 80's, won't it be fun to provide a place where we can all come together and learn from each other!? 
Our plans are to open sometime after the first of the year but I'm sure the time will fly by!  It will be fun to go to Quilt Market in Houston again!