Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm…

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in my previous post Variegated Yarn Surprise, early-ish in November John and I traveled to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC) to visit our Asheville, NC based friends E and S who needed a break from their post Hurricane Helene life in Asheville.

Originally we were going to visit them in Asheville (we made plans before September’s flooding disaster) and instead of canceling our trip (they are discouraging visitors to Asheville as they try to clean up from the massive damage), we decided to meet up with them in Charlotte, NC and roadtrip to Greenville, SC where my quilt Langston Hughes: Pioneer Poet was showing at the Upcountry History Museum as part of the traveling show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West. We also decided to attend the Fall for Greenville Fall festival.

I’ll post more about those two events, but for this post I wanted to share a fun stop we made during our roadtrip – a visit to a quilt shop, Carolina Quilt Studio, where the John and E became enthralled with a computerized longarm quilting machine at the shop.

I knew S, who is an elementary school teacher and a very crafting-orientated person, would keep herself entertained wandering around the quilt shop while I looked around, but I wasn’t sure if I would be torturing the husbands if I spent too long in the shop.

Well halfway through my wander around the shop I discovered the husbands had “set up camp” around the shop’s computerized longarm quilting machine that was quilting a quilt.

They were absolutely fascinated with it and didn’t want to walk away from it. They joked that if someone gave them some chairs and a nice glass of bourbon they’d be good for a while! (After we left the shop, John and E keep talking about the “cool machine” that did the quilting and asking how much something like that costs…new career for their retirements perhaps?!?! Ha!)

In addition to the husband-hypnotizing computerized longarm quilting machine, the shop had Shop Dog that wandered about looking for pets:

I am sure if they could have provided comfy chairs and bourbons, John would have placed the dog on his lap and settled in for hours of computerized longarm quilting machine viewing!

I found a couple items at the shop – some Art Gallery Fabrics for 1/2 off in their clearance rack and then this – a bin of FREE fabric scraps where customers could take whatever they wanted:

I was well behaved and carefully curated what I was going to take – only if it was a scrap I could really see myself using in a piece in the future and only larger scrap pieces. I ended up finding some nice Art Gallery Fabrics scraps in the bin. S, who is a teacher, found some free panels to make ornaments in the bin and plans to use them for a student craft project.

The quilt shop staff were very nice and I recommend the shop if you happen to be in the Greenville, SC area!

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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".

22 thoughts on “Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm…”

  3. I had this shop on my list to visit (we were supposed to be in Asheville right after HH went through), so I’m keeping this one on the list for when we do go! So maybe you’ll have to find room for a longarm now?? Haha.

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    1. Yes you should definitely stop there, pet the dogs, browse the shop (the clearance fabric section is quite yummy and great prices), rummage through the free bin, and be careful not to get hypnotized by the computerized longarm!!!! No, no longarms being added to our home unless John wants to take his equipment out of his woodshop studio – ha!

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  4. “new career for their retirements perhaps?!?!” I’d say keep that possibility in your list of ideas as the big R approaches. Or maybe segue into a full-on family quilt business sooner than later – you got the space and the ‘man’ power in addition to your already booming fiber art career. 🙂

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  5. That’s a pretty funny story! I am glad your friends E and S could get away and have some fun for a bit. Look at that fabric in the “Free” bin…plenty to make a dolly dress or two! I am looking forward to your next instalment!

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  8. That sounds fabulous. I had no idea there were automated machines like that. I didn’t know about long arm sewing machines til I joined scrap happy ; I’m so pleased to have some idea of how they look. Thank you

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  9. I’ve always felt that quilting shops were missing a trick by not setting up a ‘Husband Section’, with a couple of comfy armchairs, a local paper, a coffee machine, etc. If dogs were allowed too, even better, as I wouldn’t have to leave all three of them in the car with the aircon running, feeling a sense of pressure to get done as quickly as possible!

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      1. The Husband and I have a plan that if we win the Lottery, we will open a combined café and quilt shop call Pastrami and Patch! Good coffee, great cakes, epic sandwiches, sofas, magazines and newspapers, and on the other side, everything my heart could desire. Maybe one day…

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