THE CORN WAGON

The Corn Wagon, a quilt shop in Springville, Utah, was featured as a Top Shop in American Patchwork and Quilting a while back. I have been wanting to visit this shop for quite a while! In fact a couple of bloggers have offered to take me. But since it was during the rush of the Christmas holidays, I didn't contact anyone other than family while in Utah. I really hope to meet a few of you Utah bloggers at another time!

My darling daughter-in-law drove me to this shop on a cold and snowy day in December. The exterior is old looking and beautiful. I love this big porch on the front!

 Can you see the flurries of snow coming down? It was really quite pretty. Also take note of the Beehive. I love this symbol. Aside from the fact that it is just plain cute, it is also meaningful. The paragraph below, taken from a website about Utah, tells you why.

The Beehive State

Most of the nicknames associated with Utah are related to the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, that first settled in the territory. Deseret, in The Book of Mormon is actually a honeybee. Early Mormon settlers have been described as having carried "swarms of bees" with them. This nickname commemorates the industry of the people of Utah. The beehive was adopted, in 1847, as an official emblem and represents the qualities of industry, perseverance, thrift, stability, and self-reliance, all virtues respected by the region's settlers. The beehive is the centerpiece of the Utah State Flag and the Utah State Seal.

Naturally, I found things I needed at this shop. I bought a few Japanese FQs that have a really neat texture to them. Someone out there probably can share the name of the type of fabric that this is. I don't know what to call it, except that it has raised threads in the weave and it looks so old-fashioned that I couldn't resist it, even tho it was twice the cost of American FQs. Not something I want to get into the habit of doing, but it will add some nice old-fashioned texture to this new pattern I got while there.

 You all know that I design patterns, but this doesn't stop me from being inspired by the designs of others. I fell in love with a quilt that was on display at The Corn Wagon. It is an old-fashioned album quilt with names embroidered in the center of each block. The fabric choices were wonderful and took me right back in time. I decided I want to make it to take to a family reunion next summer and embroider our ancestors names on the blocks. Here  is the darling thing about this quilt that won my heart. All around the inner border were hand embroidered "Blessings". Things like, "Faith - Hope - Quilting", and "Song of Birds, Pioneers, Prayers and Flowers".This was irresistible to me! The designers are Leslie Ison and Norma Whaley from Salt Lake City. I couldn't find a website for them, but The Corn Wagon has their patterns (801-491-3551). Be sure and tell them that I sent you! I am hoping they will buy my patterns as well! :0)