Story and photos by Susan Meeker
The third Saturday in March is typically a colorful day in Colusa.
And with the great weather, people walked around town to view quilts that hung in windows, inside businesses, on fences, and in parks during the fourth annual Quilts Around the Block.
The annual event, hosted by the Friends Around the Block Quilt Store, celebrates National Quilt Day and National Quilt Month with magnificent quilt displays, a car show, vendor fair, and pancake breakfast at the Colusa Fire Department.
“It’s a wonderful event,” said Sheryl Lundgren, who has attended the event since it started as an outdoor quilt display during the COVID-19 pandemic. “There is so much talent in Colusa. It’s incredible.”
Friends Around the Block’s new owner, Patt Thompson, said she has sewn in the store for years with the various quilting and sewing groups, and jumped at the opportunity to continue the tradition when the previous owner retired.
“I could not imagine these ladies not having this place to come to,” said Thompson, who bought the store in November.
Thompson said becoming a shop owner at 70 is more about the community than a personal goal to sell fabric and sewing notions.
“Having a quilt shop was not on my agenda,” she said.
But now that Thompson has one, she’s pouring her heart and soul into making the quilt shop a hub for the community, a place where people can learn to sew, purchase high-quality merchandise, or become part of the national effort to inspire others to think of quilting as the art form it is.
Organizers of Quilts Around the Block said it is the participation of quiltmakers, quilt lovers, residents, visitors to the city, business owners, and Colusa’s old-fashioned community spirit that makes the event an enormous success.
People flocked to the quilt shop all day on Saturday to take part in the quilt scavenger hunt and raffles. The purpose of the event is to expand the knowledge of quilt making, promote the appreciation of fine quilts, encourage quilt making, and promote public service projects for the good of the community.
“Barbara (Salazar) and I last year had a vision that this event would grow,” Thompson said. “It is no longer a quilt shop event. It is going to be a community event.”
Among the quilts on display was the Alta Regional Quilt that the program adults made, as well as this year’s opportunity quilt to support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which has made great strides toward curing the disease. The breast cancer quilts were on display at the Colusa Fire Department during the pancake breakfast and will be presented to first responders during Pink October.
Thompson also has several programs in the works at the store, including bringing in a renowned quilter from Texas in April to teach long-arm quilting over the course of five days.
“We also have a mentor program that is going to start where an older quilter will mentor a new quilter,” Thompson said. “We also have beginner quilting classes, and a finishing school for people who have projects that need to be finished.”
While Thompson said the Friends Around the Block Quilt Store will focus on giving back to the community, she welcomes new and seasoned quilters to visit the store and see the new line of fabrics she plans to introduce to Colusa.