The Portland region has an amazing number of quilt shops. I thought Pioneer Quilt shop looked creepy from the outside. From the outside, I kept imagining an old lady held captive and mute in the upper floors of the tower. The inside, however, was filled with GREAT fabrics and fun employees. I think, despite the creepy Grandma prisoner in the tower 😉 , this was our favorite shop.
The inside did not give me the creeps at all. The shop was an old farmhouse that had been transformed into an event center at one point. There is a disco ball still hanging over, what was once, the dance floor in the main shop. The building had all the trappings of an old house: kitchen, dining room, etc.
I believe they used the dining rooms (perhaps one used to be an old parlor?) for retreats and classes, but there was nothing going on the day we were there.
We went right when we went in a saw no people, just the rooms above and the sale fabric. We dutifully looked through it all and must have not appeared in the actual shop for so long that one of the employees came looking for us.
We were kind of disappointed with just the sale fabric, but that was quickly remedied when we got into the actual shop. The shop was bright and airy, well organized, had high ceilings and had fabric for everyone. They had a lot of fabric, a lot of which I had never seen. Bright and cheerful, Civil War repros, solids, a lot of different things. Ann, our friend from BAM who now lives in Lake Oswego, was talking about Marcia Durst fabric and we saw some here.
One thing I liked was the wool felt. They had a ton of it. They teach classes, have really fine spools of embroidery floss and would allow me to switch out colors for brighter ones if I took a class. I checked out their website to look at their classes and they do something really interesting. They have sort of mini classes that teach just a few complicated stitches. One class includes Cast on stitches, Bullion, Drizzle and Double Cast on. These classes appear to focus on improving skills and really learning these complicated stitches. I would imagine students would have to take some sort of beginner class first. I’d like to see about taking a 1 day class there next time I visit.
I also found Renaissance Ribbons there. I bought a few yards to go with the pattern I bought at A Common Thread, Crafty Carriers. In stead of making a strap, I will use the Renaissance Ribbons instead. I had never seen these ribbons on spools in a shop before.
I would love to have a shop like this near where I live.
Pioneer Quilt Shop
3101 SE Courtney
Portland, OR 97222
503.654.1555
info@pioneerquiltshop.com