Missouri Star Quilt Retreat, Quilt Retreats, tierneytravels

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part II: Quilt Town, USA

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

For Part I, see the post MSQC Quilt Retreat Part I: What I Worked On.

In early 2018 before all of our lives would change, my quilting friends and I first discussed the idea of doing a cool “bucket list” thing: visiting the Missouri Star Quilt Company, also known as “MSQC”, in Hamilton, Missouri. It wasn’t until 2021 after a year and a half into the pandemic, we decided: “let’s do it, not just visit but attend a quilt retreat there!”. I have to thank my friend Judy (the one who got me into quilting back in 1999) for her amazing facilitation and coordination of our adventure.

If you are not a quilter, or just never heard of MSQC, there is a wonderful story behind it.

Basically a quilter moved to an economically depressed small rural town in Missouri, opened a quilt shop which evolved into a quilting empire, essentially a “Quilter’s Disneyland” and saved the town.

It’s a pretty amazing story and you can read more about how MSQC came to be on their website at this link: About Us; or read one of these stories below from other sources:

One Family Revitalizes A Small Town With, Yes, Quilts (NPR)

How Jenny Doan Created the Disneyland of Quilting (CBS News)

The Disneyland of Quilting (Forbes)

My long time quilting friends and I have ordered from the MSQC website over the years and have been familiar with their story for about six years. So it was pretty exciting when we arrived in town on the shuttle van we took from the Kansas City airport. Here is what we first saw from the shuttle van and then immediately walking around when we arrived in Hamilton, MO:

Some of the different quilt shops
The main shop building
Our retreat center
Mural on the side of the building of the retreat center
Sign about town
The iconic mural across from the retreat center

The “downtown” is filled with speciality quilting shops. Here is the map from the MSQC website page MSQC Quilt Shops:

missouriquiltco.com

There are 13 specialty quilt shops, plus a yarn shop and other little gift and boutique shops. We did a scavenger hunt the second day of the retreat which took us to all the shops (well we did explore most of them on our own the first day) as well as several local businesses.

Once you visit Hamilton, MO, you will see why it’s called Quilt Town, USA!

Well that is enough for this post (I think there will be a lot of posts in this series, ha!). Next post I will share photos from my adventures in the shops with my quilting friends.

II’ll also have a future post coming up on the Scrap Sale we attended (fill a bag for $11 to the brim with scraps…that were not really scraps – they were 1 yard to 3 yard pieces!!!); and how they will ship all your purchases (and anything else you can fit in the box they provide) home for you for free – OH TROUBLE FOR THE WALLET! (but good trouble…)

One of the wonderful signs they had in the quilt shops around town

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

29 thoughts on “MSQC Quilt Retreat Part II: Quilt Town, USA”

  2. Can’t wait for all the installments to come and what I’m sure will be fabulous photos. Nice to be able to visit vicariously through your blog. Thanks

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Pingback: MSQC Retreat Part II: Inside the Shops – tierneycreates
  13. Pingback: MSQC Quilt Retreat Part IV: Greatest Scrap Sale of All Time – tierneycreates
  15. Pingback: MSQC Quilt Retreat Part V: The Retreat Center Experience – tierneycreates
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