The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Carthage, Jasper County

Discussion

March 16, 2008

Jo Ellis: Don’t despair, quilters; help is available

By Jo Ellis

Globe columnist

They are out there. I know they are out there — boxed up in some dark closet, lying silent and accusing on some high shelf or locked away in some attic trunk.

I’ll wager that one out of three households in the country is harboring a stack of old quilt squares, possibly even an entire quilt top, waiting to be transformed with backing, filling and fine stitching into a verifiable, usable quilt.

I plead guilty to having not one, but two such uncompleted projects that would prick the conscience of any quilt lover. The first is a “sampler” of quilt patterns pieced into individual blocks that, with edging, would make a great quilt for a queen-size bed. My interest in the project waned when the colors in my bedroom went out of sync with the color scheme I chose for the quilt.

The other is a collection in the quaint Sunbonnet Sue pattern that I wanted to piece and quilt as an heirloom-type gift for a new grandchild. (Our youngest grandchild is now 10; what does that tell you?) I have arranged and rearranged the blocks many times, mulling over which layout is the most striking. Since I am prone to indecision in such matters, they remain in individual blocks, un-pieced, un-backed, un-quilted and un-given!

If this state of affairs sounds familiar, do not despair. Help is available. Three years ago, Amy Campbell and her husband, Chad, opened Block by Block, a quilter’s paradise, on Route HH at the south end of Carthage.

Amy had been an accountant with Schmidt & Associates, but had grown “a little tired of tax season,” she says. She had been quilting as a hobby for three years, and her visits to different quilt shops convinced her that it would be a fun business. She picked the brain of a friend who owned a quilt shop in Rogersville, went to a quilt market in Kansas City, “and the ball was rolling from there.”

Her shop holds more than 2,000 bolts of 100 percent cotton quilting fabric. There are prints, solids, stripes and dots in colors from pastels to rich, dark jewel tones. All manner of sewing notions, patterns and how-to books are available, along with some gift items. Amy can even supply you with a sewing machine since she is a dealer for Husqvarna Viking.

Like many successful business owners, Amy says the thing she loves best is talking to her customers.

“My first-grade teacher, Lou Floyd, wrote on my report card, ‘Amy is a ray of sunshine but talks too much during class.’ That became a common theme on all my report cards,” Amy says with a laugh.

With the help of her assistant, Susan Neil, Amy opens the shop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Classes are held quarterly for entry-level through advanced quilters if there are three or more participants.

The instructor, Sue Swindle, also offers “Finish It Up” classes at least twice a year — for procrastinators (like me) who have lost their incentive (or willpower) to turn all those blocks and batting into a completed quilt. Let’s see now, I’ve completed nine sample blocks, including Monkey Wrench, Tumbling Blocks, 8-point Star, Drunkard’s Path, Dresden Plate and some others I can’t recall by name. I have just three blocks to go, plus connecting them together and doing the binding. Forget that fancy Prairie Point edging; I’m going with a straight edge. Will you take me on, Sue?

Seriously, while some local churches still have quilting groups, true hand-quilters are becoming more scarce, Amy says. We should be grateful we still have a few in our community.

Text Only
Carthage, Jasper County
  • Jim-Spradling-obit.jpg Carthage attorney, reformer of revenue department, dies

    James R. Spradling, a Carthage attorney who was noted for his reform of the Missouri Department of Revenue in the 1970s, died at 5:50 a.m. Monday at McCune-Brooks Regional Hospital.

    August 9, 2010 1 Photo

  • Bondswoman charged with false imprisonment

    A bail bondswoman from Carthage is facing a charge of false imprisonment for allegedly attempting to put a man in jail without a judge’s order, then taking him home and handcuffing him to the banister of a staircase until a friend of the man paid her his bond money.

    January 4, 2012

  • Man’s last statement to be given to defendant

    A judge ruled Monday that the Jasper County prosecutor must provide attorneys for Darren J. Winans with a videotaped statement co-defendant Matthew D. Laurin made about the Sheldon murders shortly before killing himself.

    August 23, 2010

  • Carthage proposes 1.6-cent rise in city property tax

    A drop in the assessed value of Carthage real estate will translate to an increase of about 1.6 cents in the city’s proposed property tax rate.

    August 9, 2010

  • Open house to celebrate projects at courthouse

    Projects completed last year at the Jasper County Courthouse will be celebrated in ceremonies Thursday in the courthouse lobby.
    County officials will join representatives of local chambers of commerce and others for a ribbon-cutting and open house to mark the opening of a Route 66 display in the lobby and a new “peace star” atop the building.

    May 9, 2010

  • Newton County Jail State budget cuts reduce county funds

    County officials are bracing for more state budget cuts to translate into a loss of county revenues.
    In an effort to balance Missouri’s budget, the state earlier this year cut the amount it reimburses county assessors for work to determine property values. The budget approved by lawmakers for fiscal 2011 calls for cutting the amount the state reimburses counties to house prisoners bound for state lockup.

    May 9, 2010 1 Photo

  • Jo Ellis: County home to rare yellowwood tree

    In late spring, drifts as white as snow fill the gutters and curbs on the east side of the Jasper County Courthouse. It isn’t snow, of course; it’s the fallen petals of the yellowwood tree that grows squarely in front of the door to the Jasper County Extension office.

    May 9, 2010

  • Jasper County Commission gets building project update

    Plans to close out one building project and start another were reviewed by the Jasper County Commission last week.
    Darieus Adams, Western District associate commissioner, met Thursday with officials of the firm who designed a $292,400 project to upgrade the lighting and make other changes to make four county-owned buildings more energy efficient.

    May 8, 2010

  • Two men running for associate judge in 39th Circuit take case to court

    Two men running for associate judge in Missouri’s 39th Circuit began battling it out in a Jasper County courtroom this week.
    Jasper County Circuit Judge Gayle Crane heard arguments Wednesday concerning the disclosure of documents sought by Robert “Bobby” George, Aurora, the current Lawrence County prosecutor.

    May 7, 2010

  • Carthage tiger Unveiling ceremony celebrates CHS tiger

    Kandy Frazier, Carthage High School principal, summed it up once the new addition to the CHS campus was unveiled Thursday.
    The bronze tiger sculpture created by Carthage artist and sculptor Bob Tommey, she said, is the kind of work that would be found at a big university.

    May 6, 2010 1 Photo