Quilt Shop: Stitch 'n Time

It's the post you've been waiting for!  This is the quilt shop we visited in Jackson, Wyoming, called Stitch 'n Time.  The shop was located off the main drag through Jackson, but was easy enough to find.  It had a dirt parking lot with plenty of room for parking.  The building itself was a sort of warehouse complex with the quilt shop occupying one of the warehouse suites (if you can use "suite" and "warehouse" in the same sentence).

Here's how the shop looks when you walk through the front door.

There were a number of customers in the store, and everyone seemed in a good mood.  The first thing I noticed about the shop was that it was more than a quilt shop.  There were garment fabrics and fleece, and a lot of other fabrics in addition to the 100% cotton quilting fabrics.

This next image shows some of the regional patterns that were available.  I really liked some of these, but didn't end up buying any.

They had these "twice treasured" fabrics which were previously owned.  I kind of liked this idea.  The fabrics themselves were laundered and, essentially, half price from regular price.  I wasn't sure where they came from.  By that I mean, I wasn't sure if they came from store employees or if customers could also sell fabrics on consignment here.  In any case, the fabrics were in good condition.  Had I seen anything I truly liked, I would have purchased and used them in my own quilting.

There was a good supply of the twice treasured fabrics, and you can see them in the image below.

There were quilts hanging all over the store that were tagged and numbered apparently for an upcoming quilt show.  I especially liked this one that represented the town of Jackson.  Many of the pieces were three dimensional.

There were a number of these smaller quilts that used what appeared to be a product like Printed Treasures to create a fabric panel from someone's photography.  I've seen these kinds of memory quilts before, but these were especially nice.  I like the idea of making larger panels from photography, and I might need to investigate this myself.  We have a printer that can print 13 x 19, but I imagine a print shop might be able to do it as well.   

They had a good mark-down section that featured books, patterns, fabrics, buttons, thread, and other notions.  Also off to the side was a play area for children.  I'm beyond the days of appreciating play areas for children, but I can recall when it was a big draw.  If you have small children or grandchildren, you definitely would have liked the play area.

If this shop had a strength, it was their supply of regional and cowboy fabrics.  This whole aisle on both sides was nothing but regional and cowboy prints.  It wasn't suited to my personal taste, but if you're into cowboys, moose, deer, etc., you would have really liked the fabrics in the store.

Otherwise, they featured some unique novelty prints and some pretty batiks.  I wouldn't say their supply of fabric was overwhelming, but as the only quilt shop in town, it was adequate.  I found a couple of prints I liked.  First was this party print.  I got a yard of this:

And this was at the end of the bolt, so I took what they had, which was a yard and a half.  Mike says this looks like "cats on acid."  Of course, it was imperative that I have it for my cat stash.

Gets me all excited just looking at it again.

The store was just okay, in my humble (or not so humble) opinion.  They didn't have as much fabric as many of the stores I've visited, and there was really nothing that wowed me as I walked through.  It had a general appearance of disorganization and lack of color despite the beautiful quilts hanging around.  Their fabric organization was a little odd.  Whereas most quilt shops will organize by style of fabric (i.e., batiks, reproduction, novelty, etc.) and then by color, this one was organized by...hm.  It's hard to say.  It was kind of by the design on the fabric.  So, in other words, cats together, butterflies together, dragonflies together, etc.  If one were looking for something in particular, one would probably have to walk through all of the fabric to find it.  The shop was fine, and I can recommend a visit if you happen to be in Jackson, but it's not a store I would drive out of my way for.  For that reason, I gave it three rotary cutters out of five, which would be my "average" rating.

While my rating system is intended to be tongue in cheek for the most part, I also want it to have meaning.  If I give a shop five rotary cutters, you can bet that it is a superb store.  If I give it one, you can bet that it will be a less-than-worthwhile experience for you.  While I would like to give every shop five rotary cutters, it would be like giving everyone in the class an "A" regardless of the quality of their work.  Not everyone deserves it.

We are spending the next two nights in Thermopolis, Wyoming, where we are going to visit the area hot springs.  I'll be taking some pictures no doubt, and so I'll tell you more about that in a later post.  For now, we're getting ready for some steaks and baked potatoes.  

Smitty has been out walking on his leash a little bit, but he doesn't like his harness much.  At first, he fell over like a drunken sailor every time we put the harness on him.  Yesterday, he actually walked around a little bit.

Still, he engages in what we call "tail dragging".  He's walking, but he's sort of crouched down in his back legs with his tail down dragging on the ground.  He dearly loves being outside, but he isn't happy about  the harness around his chest and shoulders.  We're confident he'll get the hang of it, but for now, it's pretty funny watching him.

Thank you to Nancy, who sent me some excellent camera links so we could see what's going on in Stanley Basin, Idaho.  Nancy, you are a no-reply blogger, and so I can't reply to you personally.  If you would like to know how to change it, email me and I'll tell you how.  

Once again, thank you all for your lovely comments.  I'm so glad you are enjoying the trip along with us.  We are having a great time, and we have driven through some incredibly beautiful scenery.  Our country is large and diverse.  It is well worth the effort and expense to get out and explore it no matter how you prefer to travel.  We're never disappointed when we spend time sight-seeing in our beautiful homeland.