Practically every quilter in the world has heard of the teeny-tiny town of Hamilton, Missouri. It is the home of Missouri Star Quilt Company. It just so happens that Hamilton is only 45 minutes from my mom’s house and the Missouri Star’s reopening coincided with our trip. A side trip was meant to be!
Our original destination was Jamesport, Missouri, an Amish community in northern Missouri. There are a couple of quilt shops in the area and a few other shops, but we were pretty much just going for a nice drive out in the country. I am looking for particular fabrics for a couple of projects so checked out Shearwood’s Quilts and Fabrics. After that, we browsed through Farm House Collection, a huge gift shop with farmhouse (obviously!) decor. While we were in there, the skies opened and it began to POUR down rain. We waited a few minutes but it didn’t look like it was going to let up, so we made a dash across the street to Gingerich Dutch Pantry for coffee and a delicious piece of pie. Unfortunately, the rain did not stop so we didn’t stick around in Jamesport.
Hamilton is about a half-hour south of Jamesport so it was a logical stop on our way back to my mom’s house. Jim says Missouri Star was my intended destination all along (not true). Missouri Star’s brick and mortar shops closed early last year and have been closed through the pandemic. Predictable, since May 3 was the reopening day, it was crowded in Hamilton. Luckily for us, it was not raining there.
The Doan family, who owns Missouri Star Quilt Company, has done a nice job of sprucing up the town to welcome visitors. Several buildings have nice murals as a tribute to quilting and to Hamilton’s history of being the birthplace of J.C. Penney.
It may just be me, but I find it a little hard to shop there. Missouri Star has eleven fabric shops and counting. Each shop is dedicated to a particular type of fabric; batiks, seasonal, kids, florals, solids, etc. You can’t carry bolts between the shops, for example, to match a solid with a floral, so it’s a bit of a challenge.
It is always fun to visit, though, and see what’s new. There are thousands and thousands of bolts of fabric. It would be hard to leave empty-handed and I didn’t. We were there just long enough for me to pick up a few grays for an ongoing project.
Hamilton and Missouri Star Quilt Company is a destination for a lot of quilters, but it is just one of about 14 shops on the Missouri Highway 36 Quilt Trail. There is an official shop hop type event every year for the Quilt Trail and the one for 2021 commemorates Missouri’s bicentennial. For more information, visit the website here.
This was the first time I had been into a quilt shop in over a year. What better place to start in-person visits!
We are heading to Missouri this week. Missouri Star is not on my list, but Hickory Sticks is. Have a good trip home.