When the Stars Align

So, last Tuesday, a week ago, I had gotten tickets to tour the Missouri Star Warehouse in Hamilton.  I had 4 tickets, so David and I met my Mom and Dad there.  It was an hour long tour and was amazing, but you couldn't take any photos!  We saw the shipping area with all the boxes, the cool automatic box taper, the conveyor belts, and then moved on to the cutting area where they cut all the yardage orders.  Each worker cuts like 200+ orders a day, and they only have to change their rotary blades once a week!  I'd like to get that kind of action from a rotary blade.  And they gave each of us a bundle of fabric!  It was pieces from the ends of bolts.  Each bundle had 2 large pieces of 108" backing fabric and then 2 smaller pieces, one of a white and one black.  So, all 4 of us walked out with a bundle of fabric.  Then we went to the quilting room...............30 longarm quilting machines, 3 per worker, and each machine does 2 quilts per shift and there are 2 shifts, so that's 120 quilts a day!   David kept pointing things out to me and saying, that's just like you do it, or that's like you have yours set up.  And we saw the racks and racks and racks of quilts on hangers waiting to be quilted!  They even overflowed into the next area!  Then we got to see the machines that cut and etch all the templates.  David was particularly interested in these.  We were allowed to ask lots of questions and they were so nice to answer all of them.  It was definitely worth the price of admission (btw, the tickets were free).

In the afternoon, David and I also visited the Missouri Quilt Museum.  It is housed in the old schoolhouse and is not a part of Missouri Star, but they do support it.  It was amazing and full of interesting things.  I took so many photos that I will divide them into different posts.  There was a room of Jenny Doan's (Missouri Star) quilts.  These were all star quilts. 

I really liked this one.  It's not a Missouri Star pattern.  I may have to try to find the pattern to make it.

This was Jenny's All Star Block of the Month.  

And here is the same quilt in a different colorway.

This one is called Wonky Stars.

And another star quilt...........sorry, didn't get the name on this one.  

A string star wall hanging with an impressive display of thimbles.  The museum has so much more than quilts.  There were many rooms, three floors, and lots of sewing items on display.

And this one was called Night Sky.

There were some antique sewing machines on display in the room as well.

And I loved this yellow featherweight with its unusual cabinet.  Even the foot pedal was yellow!

And there was a Cadillac!  

The next room housed antique friendship quilts.  I believe they were all hand quilted.  I took a few photos of them.  Note the dates on this one.......begun in April 1889 and finished in August 1890!

And this one with the flowers...........

A close up of some of the names..............

Stay tuned for more from the quilt museum.  There was an admission price, but it was worth it, even though they didn't give us a free bundle of fabric!

Christi