There's always room for one more! One more quilt shop, that is. Joan Orsi, the owner of this shop, and her husband had a life-long dream of opening a quilt shop and the time finally came to make
Pickleweeds Quilt Shop a reality.
Pickleweeds is located in Douglasville, Georgia (west of Atlanta) right off I-20 in a shopping plaza with plenty of parking. The store is spacious and, listening to the excitement in Joan's voice as she talked about all the plans for Pickleweeds, it's being filled with fabrics, notions, threads, classes and fun activities (
"Elegance" Block of the Month, Mysteries, Sit and Sews) for quilters and sewers of every level.
Here are photos from my recent visit while the shop was still being set up. These shelves are now filled and ready for the
Grand Opening Celebration this weekend (
October 12). Check out this expansive color wall.
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| The color wall is being stocked. |
There are color-themed collections like patriotic, holiday red and green, and black and whites...
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| Patriotic prints and black and whites. |
neutrals and tonal prints for backgrounds...
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| Neutrals in several shades and tones. |
classic geometric prints like chevrons, argyle and stripes...
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| Chevrons, zig-zags, argyles and more... |
novelties and juvenile prints in bright, happy colors, as well as flannels, batiks, and my can't-live-without favorites,
wide backings.
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| Cute prints for kids quilts and baby accessories. |
These pumpkin placemats, hanging above the wall of notions, are the project for an upcoming class.
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| Notions wall. |
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| Calendars, buttons and pre-cut fabric collections. |
Pickleweeds also offers convenient "Take It and Make It" quilt kits.
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| Quilt kits. |
Class samples adorn the walls...
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| Class samples |
in the lounge and book preview area...
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| Lounge area where quilters can sit, relax and peruse the books. |
and behind the cutting stations.
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| Two large cutting stations are located at the back wall. |
What a great idea for a fabric panel or scene print! This sample is hanging in the huge classroom...
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| Looking through the window at a winter scene. |
that is set up with individual tables, ironing stations and white boards! (A teacher's dream classroom!)
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| Large, spacious classroom. |
Joan offers
machine quilting services on the two Gammill long arms at Pickleweeds. A very cool thing that she has build into the shop's web site is the
waiting list for quilting services. You can monitor the progress of your quilt... 25%, 50%, 75% ... through the web site. She is also a Gammill dealer.
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| Gammil long arm quilting machines. |
Did you know that Gammil now has a sit-down machine, called the
Charm? To all my free-motion machine quilting students: notice the orientation of the head in relation to where the operator sits... just like your domestic sewing machine!
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| The Charm sit down machine quilting machine by Gammill. |
There is a play area to keep kids occupied while parents and grandparents shop.
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| The front counter (left) and the play area for kids (right). |
If you want to enjoy the beautiful October weather this weekend and you're looking for a quilters road trip... Pickleweeds' Grand Opening Celebration is this Saturday, October 12. I've heard there will be prize drawings every 30 minutes, great 30% discounts, a raffle quilt and a grand prize drawing at the end of the day.
If you can't travel, you can still enjoy the savings through the Pickleweeds
on-line shop. If you go in person, tell them Veronica reminded you to ask about the "key fob." With this, you'll get extra savings. Joan has thought of everything!
