The local quilt shop on a Saturday morning is the best kind of noisy. The bell over the door never stops ringing, the cutting counter has a line, and somebody is always telling a story about the quilt she is definitely finishing this month. Resting Stitch Face Quilt Shop gathers the designs that sound like that room: the comebacks at the register, the notices on the bulletin board and the regulars who have been coming in since the shop opened.
Heard at the cutting counter
Sorry. Can't. Quilts. Later. says everything in four bold words, which is about all the time anyone has while a bolt is being measured. In My Quilt Lady Era spells out a happy announcement in letters cut from mismatched prints, gingham and florals. And F-CAW-F shows a glossy black crow hunched over a machine with a patchwork quilt spilling off the table, explaining very calmly that it is quilting and would like a moment, thank you.
Pinned to the bulletin board
Every shop has that board by the door, crowded with class schedules and guild flyers. Quilt Guild Squad belongs right in the middle, a trio of purple thread spools wrapped in a circle. Oh What Fun It Is to Quilt looks like the sign-up sheet for the holiday class, with a sled piled high with folded fabric under drifting snowflakes. West Virginia, Stitchin' In fills the shape of the state with a green gorge and an arched bridge, and Patchwork Mountain Dreams lines up pieced peaks and dark pines around a little machine, the perfect poster for the next retreat.
The regulars
Rosie the Binder is the one rolling up her sleeve at the counter in a red polka dot bandana, holding a patchwork square like proof of a job well done. Tongue is a patchwork flower face with bright blue eyes sticking its tongue out at the fat quarter bundles, and Stitchy Face peers over from its pastel triangle perch with long, patient lashes. Rainbow Scraps is the scrap bin itself, a spiral of every color rolled tight. And the golden retriever sitting beneath a vintage machine above the words I like quilting and my dog is plainly the shop dog, who has never missed a Saturday.
For the quilter who knows the shop owner by name
These designs are for the friend who can walk into her quilt shop blindfolded and find the batiks, the neighbor who keeps a tab of fabric she is saving for later, and every quilter whose Saturday plans start with just popping in for thread. Pick the regular she would sit next to at the next class. Then send her off with a list and a promise to stay under budget, which, as every shop owner can tell you, is the funniest line heard there all week.
Written by Jacqueline. Thanks for reading.
