50 Quilts From 50 States - Missouri

My Journey To Missouri

I'm continuing my journey to and through all 50 States - but I'm not going that far - just a bit more than 30 miles to Missouri.
There is quite a rivalry between Kansas and Missouri. Some believe it goes back to pre Civil War time (1850s) of open violence between pro-slavery Missouri and free state Kansas. Now its known as the Border Wars and is all about sports and Universities. KU - Mizzou. I have to admit - I pay ZERO attention to sports. Sorry loyal KU Basketball friends.

My travels usually include an East-West road trip along I-70. My In-Laws used to live in Kentucky and I've driven east many times for a holiday visit. A quick detour off I-70 leads you to Hermann - and the wine producing area. Missouri also has the beautiful Ozark area, with Springfield and Branson. Its a wonderful vacation spot.

I'm not as in to quilting history of Missouri as I am in to the history of Kansas.  My guess is that it as a neighbor state, it is quite similar. But what Missouri has that Kansas doesn't is Quilt Town USA - Hamilton Missouri, home of the Missouri Star Quilting Company.

Guilds and Shops in Missouri
The Generations Quilt Patterns website says there are 55 Guilds and 126 shops in Missouri. Good thing my goal isn't to visit every shop - I've only been to about 5 or 6. One of my favorites is Jackman's in St Louis. Every time I drive across Missouri to the East, I try to stop at Jackman's. They have a really nice selection and super helpful staff.

I've also been to shops in Hannibal, Springfield, Cameron, Liberty, Columbia, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Missouri is also home to some big names in the quilting biz - Angela Walters, Tula Pink, Carl Hentsch, Jacquie Gering, and of course Jenny Doan - again, I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.

However, the biggest draw for quilters in Missouri is Missouri Star Quilting Company in Hamilton. Its probably the most famous quilt shop in the country. It's also known as Quilt Town USA.

Jenny Doan and her family have invested in the small town of Hamilton, the birthplace of JC Penny, and have revitalized the small town by renovating old commercial space and installing quilt shops in them. Currently there are 12 shops - the main shop, forals, 30s, batiks, kids, reproductions, holiday, modern, solids, themed fabrics, machine shop, as well as meeting and retreat areas, and a "men's" waiting area. It's a great story and you can read more about MSQC and the Doan family here.

The Inspiration
Missouri Star is by far the best known quilt shop in Missouri, maybe in the entire country, and is therefore my inspiration for this project. MSQC's logo is the Missouri Star block.
So what better block to use in my Missouri Quilt?

The Missouri Star Block can be found in several quilt pattern books including Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. Nancy Cabot of the Chicago Tribune named this block in 1933.

The Quilt
OK, so a Missouri Star block - but 1 big one? Three in a table runner? A bunch in a full size quilt? I want to do something different than just a block  - so in comes a cool technique. Selvages. I've been collecting Pins on Pinterest of all kinds of quilts made with selvages. They are so interesting looking. 

I've been collecting selvages for a couple of years now, so I have quite a collection - good thing because I'm using 3 colors - orange, teal, and purple. 

When I cut the selvages off fabric, I try to cut about an inch of fabric with the selvage, this gives me the interesting selvage and a snippet of the fabric for color.  I found it best to sew the selvages down onto a foundation - a muslin or paper, or for this project I used Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff. 

The pattern is available to order as a hard copy, or as a download from my Etsy Site. So check it out!

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2019 Quilting Goals

Gosh, can a whole year have passed by so quickly? Zoom, Zoom!

Any new goals obviously (for me) require a revisiting of last years goals to see how I did. I wouldn't want to have to put the same goals on my list because I made no progress!

I had 5 goals and I am pleased that I made pretty good progress on all of them.
1. Use my rotation system - check!
2. Blog every other week - check! Sometimes every week, sometimes once a month. But I'm OK with that.
3. Prepare a trunk show - check! In fact, I've presented it at one guild and have 2 more scheduled.
4. Publish Kansas Goes Modern - Check! It's available on my Etsy Shop.
5. Design and make 2 quilts for my 50 Quilts from 50 States Project - Check! Kansas done and Missouri almost done.


OK not too bad - I wish I had done this well on my other resolutions and goals.






Ok, now for 2019 goals. Some of my previous goals I am dropping because they are habits by now and don't need to be on a goal list. Others are repeating because they really work for me. A few are minor things that may pay off big in term of reducing my quilting frustration level. A few are longer term goals that I want to start on now. So here goes . . .

1.  Prepare 2 more trunk shows.
2.  Prepare 3 workshops.
3.  Get 5 more gigs lined up for 2019.
4.  Trim my threads immediately after sewing. (I really shouldn't need this as a goal, but what can I say, I've gotten lazy about trimming threads).
5.  Design the BOM for KVQG 2019-2020.
6. Explore Artist In Residence programs.
7.  Design and publish 3 more 50/50 quilts.
8.  Get 3 old UFOs done.
9.  Start ball rolling and make contacts to be a teacher at the 2021 Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival.
10.  Start ball rolling and make contacts to be a teacher on a quilt cruise by 2022.


I'm curious about your quilting goals. Share in the comments. I'd love to know what you are doing this year.