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Business & Tech

For the Love of Quilting: 20 Years After Opening, Quilted Angel Still Going Strong

Offers not just fabric, materials, classes, but community for local quilters

In the last three years, at least two local fabric stores have closed, victims of declining sales.

But , located at 200 G St., is going strong, offering not only fabric, materials and classes, but inspiration and community for the dozens of customers who flock there.

One group has been meeting each month at Quilted Angel to make quilts for , which runs the Mary Isaak shelter on Hopper Street. To date, the group has donated more than 2,400 quilts to homeless children and families.

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“There’s a lot of joy in making something meaningful for someone else,” says Barbara Meikle, who has owned Quilted Angel since 2008. “It’s a gift full of love, and it lasts a long time.”

The store offers more than 5,000 bolts of fabric, classified by color, theme or designer collection—from hand-dyed batiks to vintage reproductions. There are pre-made patterns, batting and books. There’s even a kids' corner where tots can play while mom shops.

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The customers, mostly women, tend to be dedicated quilters, but there are more than two-dozen classes for beginners. If there’s nothing on the calendar, people can use the workspace for free or rent a sewing machine for $5.

Meikle, 61, calls herself a traditionalist, although quilting wasn't something she grew up with. Though she did inherit one “comfort” from her maternal grandmother, it wasn’t until visiting an antique quilt shop in the 1970s that she tried her own hand at the craft.

Meikle prefers the older styles and material from the 1800s as well as the fabrics of the ‘30s and ‘40s—“happy little patterns” created after the Great Depression. She even transforms old 1950s tablecloths for a retro look.

In those days women took any leftover scraps from their dresses and aprons, and sewed them together with simple basting. Each quilt had a story, either in the design or the fabrics used, and was a document to history.

“You’d all sit around the quilting frame and help someone hand-sew their quilt,” says Meikle. “Nowadays most quilters use machines to save time, and work on individual projects.”

Samantha Glorioso, 63, works part-time at the store. She has been quilting for 35 years, but only learned to machine-quilt one year ago. When she was taking care of her father who was dying from Alzheimer’s, she found it was the handwork that gave her peace of mind.

“It’s very meditative, very Zen—soothing to my soul and spirit,” she says. “It’s great to get new people involved and excited about quilting. It’s a wonderful hobby, a way to express your creativity.”

Meikle knows people can find cheaper fabric from a chain store. But she says the quality is no match for the highest-grade material at her shop.

“If people don’t support their quilt shops they won’t have a store, especially in this economy,” she says.

For more photos of classes, projects and fabrics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quiltedangel/sets/

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