Happy Moment #33: Missouri Star Quilt Company

I work part time in a quilt shop so you would think that I wouldn't be that excited about visiting another quilt shop. Wrong! Missouri Star Quilt Company, in particular, is one of the most awesomest places on this planet! (and I would argue that any quilt store gets me excited!)

I went to Missouri Star in Mid-June to see fabric designer and quilter Tula Pink (see Happy Moment #32!). For those who don't know, MSQC is sort of like Disneyland of quilters. I usually order from them online but this was my second time seeing the store in person! Hamilton is a small town about an hour outside Kansas City (to the north) that is basically comprised of 12 buildings of quilting "stuff" (in fact, this company has sort of re-energized this sleepy little town). Jim basically dropped me off in Hamilton and then went and did his own thing the rest of the day (i.e. taking pictures).

What! Jim just left for a few hours and I have all this time to go shopping?! As you can tell, I was super excited about having a few hours to browse these buildings and just shop. I had been saving up money for this trip! I am so busy most of the time that I don't get the chance to just slow down and "look" -- and I spent some delightful time doing this both before and after Tula's Trunk Show.

Even the garden art is adorable!

Can you tell that this town is all about quilting!?

I loved the stairs leading to the upstairs novelty fabric area!

This is Man's Land -- Jim isn't the type to sir around and watch sports but I think they need to add a bar!

More art!

And, yes, I did buy some fabric (maybe a lot!) and here are two from Tula Pink, my absolute favorite fabric designer!

I think that exploring creative places is such an important thing to do. I wish I had more time to sew and quilt in my regular life but visiting a place like MIssouri Star just makes me happy and think about what I "could" do. And I am going to try, of course, to follow up on these creative thoughts but sometimes just "thinking about" the art is enough for me, too!