Buffalo Rising Online

Apr 16th 2006, 2:14pm By

Every other spring, the Amherst Museum Quilters Guild presents a Quilt Show & Auction - the largest in Western New York. For the first time, they are including Buffalo's own Elmwood Village Fabrics as stop on their Shop Hop to quilting stores in the surrounding area. This is good news since it will draw lots of quilters into the city to do the two other things that quilters love: Shop and Eat. During April 17 - 27, 2006, at participating Hop Shops including EVF, quilters can pick up an entry blank for a chance to win $100 gift certificate to the shop of their choice. (Click here for details.) Elmwood Village Fabrics will be offering some specials including Fat Quarters. For those who are not savvy to quilting lingo, fat quarters have nothing to do with currency - they are usually a generous quarter of a yard of fabric remnants perfect for quilting projects.

As a hobby and an artform, modern quilting has become big business. But quilts are more than pretty patterns adorning walls or beds. The roots of quilting are simple and resourceful - recycling mundane cotton feed sacks and worn clothes into warm and beautiful bedcovers. There is even talk that that some quilt patterns may have contained secret coded messages to direct slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Locally, the Buffalo Erie County Historical Society has "the largest [textile] collection in Western New York, featuring quilts, samplers, lace, and clothing."

Remember a motto of modern quilters and textile addicts: "she who dies with the most fabric wins!"

Here's a partial listing of some shops and eateries within a stone's throw of Elmwood Village Fabrics at 982 Elmwood @ Bidwell Parkway. Shops Buffalo Hemp Outfitters, 1005 Elmwood Homeward Bound, 927 Elmwood Poster Art USA, 1055 Elmwood Sonny's Doggie Bakery, 1008 Elmwood Sunday Skate BMX, 587 Potomac Sweet & Dirty, 585 Potomac Talking Leaves Books, 951 Elmwood

Food Caffe Aroma, 957 Elmwood Elmwood Taco & Sub, 925 Elmwood Falafel Bar, 1009 Elmwood India Gate, 1116 Elmwood Jim's Steakout, 938 Elmwood JP Bullfeathers, 1010 Elmwood Mister Pizza, 1065 Elmwood Saigon Cafe, 1098 Elmwood Sahara Grill, 976 Elmwood University Hots, 1028 Elmwood

(photo: quilts by cindy sault)