The Highway of Genius (U.S. 36) stretches across the top quarter of the state of Missouri linking the home towns of J.C.Penney, General John J. Pershing, Walt Disney and Mark Twain. It includes stopping points for the Pony Express and the origin of sliced bread in Chillicothe.
I knew all that when my husband and I planned a recent trip to Missouri. I agreed to check out the town that began selling pre-sliced bread, but the place I most wanted to see had nothing to do with sliced bread. It had nothing to do with famous men in business, military, literature or entertainment. I wanted to see today’s up and coming star in the business world, the Missouri Star Quilt Co. located in Hamilton, Mo. The home town of J.C. Penney is quickly becoming the Disney Land of quilting thanks to the Doan family.
I found YouTube quilting star Jenny Doan while searching for quilt making tips and tutorials. Her bubbly personality and simplification of the quilting process called me back time and again – as it has millions of others.
Doan’s story began during the recession of 2008, when the family bought her a long-arm quilting machine to start a small business. They quickly realized they needed to expand beyond their county, to catch the eye of quilters wanting machine quilting or fabric. With her family behind the camera, Doan starred in her first tutorials. Her enthusiasm brought viewers and shoppers who wanted more than just instructions. They wanted to purchase the same fabric she had used in the video. Subsequent videos included links to the MSQC and the fabrics and tools used in the video.
The Internet business exploded. The Hamilton post office added staff because two-thirds of the mail comes or goes through MSQC.
By 2014, the business had caught the eye of the local and national news, as well as the Wall Street Journal.
The Doan family plans to make Hamilton a mecca for quilters. They have purchased many of the town’s once closed stores so that “People can come to town and have a place to eat and sleep.”
Because Jenny teaches techniques and shortcuts to simplify quilting, the business has been called “The McDonald’s of the Quilt World.” With its success, MSQC has resurrected a dying town. Its online shopping and shipping has made the fabric business the largest employer in the county.
I knew all that when we parked in front of “The Mercantile”– a couple stores down from a sign declaring “The Missouri Star Quilt Company.” Inside, a clerk handed me a map of the dedicated fabric shops MSQC has recently opened – including The Mercantile.
At my house, I sort and store fabric on shelves in stacks by colors, themes and texture. At the MSQC the fabric is sorted and sold by stores. In recent months, MSQC has opened Batik Boutique with shelves filled only with batik fabric. The walls display quilts made with batik fabric and the sales bin has bits and pieces of batik.
My husband followed and took pictures as I explored, “Sew Seasonal” (shelves of holiday themed fabric), “Licensed to Sew” (cartoon and movie characters) and the Mercantile (reproductions of fabric from the Civil War and Depression eras). In each shop we saw the same quilt patterns made with the shop’s theme fabrics.
J.C. Penney may have been eclipsed with the MSQC, but he is not forgotten. In 1918, Penney opened his 500th store in his hometown of Hamilton – a store now owned by MSQC. Because the town library closes on Saturday, we could not visit its small museum honoring J.C. Penney, but inside MSQC’s “Penney’s Quilt Shop,” we saw the original J.C. Penney sign and a picture of “back in the day,” acknowledging the building’s origin. The shop features every shade of plain fabric imaginable as well as flannels, fleece and other necessities. At the time we visited it also had a quilt show of modern quilts.
I bought a couple patterns, chose three fabrics that I really liked and suddenly felt too overwhelmed with ideas and time constraints to consider anything else. As we wandered back to our car, we passed two totally gutted out shops being remodeled by MSQC to create a center for the men who accompany women to this quilting mecca.
Inside the Sleep-and-Sew Retreat Center we met women from Little Rock who had traveled north for a weekend of sewing, sleeping and supping in Hamilton. They had brought their own projects and slept in the recently established sleeping quarters.
Content with my purchases and chance to see this quilting phenomenon, we wandered over to the food shops also sponsored by MSQC: J’s Burger Dive and Poppy’s Bakery. We bought a bite to go. Then having seen the 21st century’s contribution to the Highway of Genius and stroked its fabric, we continued our trip to discover Missouri. I knew I would return to MSQC, if only via the Internet to shop its products.