Local quilt and Longarm arm stores and services add great value to a small community.  Recently our quilting community experienced a loss, to some a great loss.  Quilts and Beyond in Prairie City closed their doors in December 2018, this not only left this community with one less business but the wisdom and helpful experience these talented ladies provided to us. A lot of quilters go to Bend, Pendleton, Baker City and Portland to shop or they shop on line. But these locations add cost to travel and on line shopping leaves little to actual color choices that you can see, touch and compare to your pattern and/or other pieces of cloth you already have. So where does that leave us – the quilters in the John Day Valley?

Experience shows us that whenever there is a void something will fill it. There are several established and a couple new places for quilters that as a community I urge you to support and help grow these local business. We have BellyAcres Twisted Stitchery, The Shiny Thimble, both in Mount Vernon Oregon and now Chester’s is carrying fabric and starting to focus a little more on supplying quilters. The longarm service in the John Day Valley is also growing to support the need for quality longarm service, each longarm business can provide you with their own unique talent to turn something you created into something stunning, Lou’s Heartfelt Quilting in Mount Vernon and BellyAcres Twisted Stitchery are two of the several fine longarm quilters in the Grant County Area. Those of us who provide quilters with classes and longarm service want to see the quilters in the John Day Valley united and flourishing, to bring the recognition long overdue to the talented folks who are quilters and artists – and to create a warm and knowledgeable environment for new quilters. There is an annual quilt show the third weekend in October each year – ‘Best of the Old West Harvest Festival and Quilt Show’. If you can make it here you will truly appreciate the local events as well the ongoing Quilt Block Walk through Grant County Oregon.