Last weekend I had the opportunity to hang one of my art quilts in the Quilt Walk 2014 in Twin Falls Idaho. Twin Falls is the next largest town (about 40,000) that us country girls travel to for all of our shopping needs. This quilt walk began several years ago by Kathy who owns Stitch N Time quilt store, which is located in downtown Twin Falls on main street. 
Kathy has had this store for several years. Besides carrying a wide variety of fabrics and great quilting supplies, Stitch N Time has provided many quilting classes for all levels of quilting that has enriched many quilters. We also have another sewing store just down the street from Stitch N Time called Twin Falls Sewing Center who specializes in selling sewing machines, giving classes which includes different aspects of machine embroidery. They have a group that meets once a month to share and learn about what is happening in the sewing and quilting world. 
I had the opportunity to give a lecture for this group about art quilting last spring and they asked if I would hang one of my quilts in their shop during the upcoming quilt walk. I decided to hang my hand painted art quilt which was originally painted for a lecture called “History of Art Quilting” . This art quilt is called “Flower Power-No Wonder I Love Color”. As you can see it is pretty unusual but very symbolic. Hidden in some of the paisleys are little messages about all of our children (9) and grandkids (12) and then of course some info about my husband and I. In fact when my husband saw the finished art quilt piece he immediately claimed it as his quilt and rightly so. You see my husband Ray just happened to be a police officer during the 60’s in San Francisco. He grew up in Bellevue, Idaho (population 300). 
When he moved to the bay area he was a very young 21 year old. I can’t even imagine what a adjustment that must have been. So when I wrote info about him on the quilt it included his badge number and location at that time. Any way back to the quilt walk. There were a lot of quilts to see and I have only put a few pictures of them in this post but they were all beautiful. I am so thankful for these two stores who have supported this community for many years and through their shared passion for sewing, quilting and teaching they have hung in there and have thriving businesses. The only way they could of done this is through being able to adapt to an ever changing economy and giving great customer service. I would like to challenge everyone to take the time to thank their local quilt and sewing shops. 
Even though there is a multitude of information available on the internet about art quilting, I believe we still need to be able to see, touch, and experience other artists work. Please let me know what your thoughts are about our silently diminishing quilt shops and sewing stores like Twin Falls Sewing Center and Stitch N Time.
