About Delphines Quilt Shop, LC

Thanks for your interest in Delphines Quilt Shop, LC.

Delphine's Quilt Shop opened at the beginning of October 2008. The shop is located in downtown Gaylord, MI, and offers a wide variety of fabrics, quilting tools, and classes.  Our goal is to offer the latest in materials, tools and classes and help you throughout the creative process of quilt making.

We are located at:  114 N. Otsego Ave.  Gaylord, MI 49735 and are open year-round Monday - Saturday, 10am - 6pm
You can contact us by email or by phone at 989-732-7012.

Meet the Store Employees

Delphine

Many know Delphine from the Quilter's General Store, where she worked as a clerk and teacher for 3 1/2 years, but most do not know her quilting history.   She started quilting in 1982, during a beginner's class at the Einerlei in Chassell Michigan, which is way up in the UP.  Her purpose in taking the class was to re-create some antique quilts that had slipped through her hands a few years earlier.  At that time, she lived in Colorado and worked as the bus driver for a retirement community called Samaritan's Village.  The women of the village encouraged her to attend a local quilt show and proceeded to show her the quilts that they had made in the past.  One lady was even willing to sell Delphine all of her quilts, except the Princess Feather made by her husband, which had been made from the 20's to the 40's.  As a childless widow, this woman thought that there was no one who wanted her hand made quilts.  Delphine purchased her favorite and, before she could purchase more, Bertha, at the age of 92 passed away quite unexpectedly.  When nieces and nephews came to gather her belongings from a two-bedroom apartment, they declined Delphine's request to purchase the remaining quilts because they were family heirlooms!  How Delphine wished Bertha had known that - she would have been so pleased.  So, Delphine didn't get the quilts but was offered a hand-hewn quilting frame (which she turned down due to its size and not understanding what it was) and several boxes of "scraps" which she did accept.  There were patterns, a porcelain sewing doll, blocks and more in those boxes so now she needed to know what to do with them.  Has she used up those fabric scraps?  No, but she did make one small quilt in honor of her friend by using pieces Bertha had already cut.

Since that first class in which she made a sampler, which was hand quilted in the lap-style quilting method made famous by Georgia Bonesteel, Delphine has made approximately 200 quilts of varying sizes.  Several were commissioned pieces, several more were donated to warm the hearts and bodies of people in crisis, some were given as gifts, and she owns approximately 40, which are displayed at her home and in the store.  Delphine has presented trunk shows of her quilt collection, which includes several antiques.   There are another 20+ “Works in Progress" waiting for the day they will be finished, including one that is 23 years in the making.  She has exhibited quilts at the AQS show in Paducah and one quilt was selected to hang at the museum in Paducah as a representative of mid-west quilting guilds.   A hand made Sampler quilt was featured in the premier issue of Quilting Today.  Her ribbon box includes ribbons for Best of Show and Best Workmanship.  In addition, several blocks were selected to be included in the Raffle quilts that Fairfield batting and Wal-Mart used to participate in.  She has taught a variety of quilting classes throughout the states of Michigan and New York.

Delphine's favorite quilts have lots and lots of pieces, with as many different fabrics as possible.  There is a charm quilt with over 5000 charm pieces in her resume.  She loved sorting the pieces!  (Her family has "fond" memories of helping with that ;-) )  While she must admit to being a machine quilting snob when it first came on the scene, she has since changed her thoughts.   While some hand quilting and piecing is still done, most of her quilts are finished by machine on her 29-year-old 801 Bernina.  Hand piecing is very relaxing and enjoyable but her desire to make quilts sees her using the machine for most of her quilt making.

Kathy Williams

Kathy is the newest member of the store's employees.  She retired from the Flint Community Schools and moved to Gaylord in 2006.  After retirement, she began taking quilting classes.  Kathy enjoys all kinds of handwork and understands techniques in knitting, crochet, beadwork, felting (both needle and shuttle), bobbin lace, needlepoint, cross stitch, and embroidery work.

Kathy applied for and was selected to needlepoint stitch a flight patch for NASA, which is on display at the NASA Space Center in Stennis, Mississippi.  She also helped stitch items for the bedchambers of George Washington at his ancestral home in Sulgrave Manor in England.

Kathy is married and has one son and three grandchildren.  She works primarily on Fridays and enjoys assisting all who come in.Donna has been working at Delphine's Quilt Shop since it opened.  She also worked at the Quilter's General Store from 2005 to the store's closing.  Prior to that, she was a Court Recorder with the District Court in four counties.

Cheryl Code
Cheryl moved to Gaylord in 2002, after living downstate in the Waterford area all her life.  She retired from Crittenton Hospital, where she had worked as a Medical Technologist in the Microbiology department for 25 years.  When the Quilters General Store opened in Gaylord, she began quilting.  Her mother was a hand quilter, but she never found the time to learn from her while she was living.  Through quilting, Cheryl has met and become friends with many wonderful women, especially Delphine, who have been her quilting mentors.

Cheryl has worked at Delphine's shop since it opened.  Prior to that, she worked at the Quilter's General Store.  Her favorite aspects of quilting include traditional patterns using 1800's fabrics and needle-turned hand appliqué.  She also enjoys helping customers pick out fabrics and co-ordinate colors.  For Cheryl, it is fun to meet and encourage new quilters who, like her when she was learning, have many questions.

Before she began quilting, she had sewn for most of her life and made clothing for herself and her daughters.  She has knitted and made little antique style bead bags using seed beads and crystals.  She also enjoys reading and, in the winter months, she enjoys hiking in the desert and mountains around Tucson, Arizona where her oldest daughter Robin, and her sister Laurie live.  Laurie and Cheryl quilt together too.  She thinks her Mom would be pleased with that.

She and her husband Conrad have two grown daughters and four grandchildren -- three are young girls who are learning to quilt with her.  Cheryl says, "Life is good, and I love living here in the 'North'."

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