Feedsack Fabric Souvenirs!

Last month, when we were in Kansas City, one of the things that was on my list to do was to visit one of the Kansas City Star stores and buy a book on feedsacks that I had seen on their website, Pickledishstore.com.

Another item on the list was a quilt display at the National Archives that Barbara Brackman had mentioned in a blog post about summer quilt exhibitions in and around Kansas City.

One afternoon, during our visit, we had a few hours unscheduled, so I mentioned to The Mister that I would like to go to the National Archives to see some quilts. I told him that there was a quilt exhibition there and his eyes began to glaze over a bit. He was envisioning something similar to the quilt show that he spent an hour at, last March (before I took him home and went back to really look!) I assured him that there would not be hundreds of quilts, just 12 that are of historical significance. Reluctantly, he agreed to go, even though I just had a vague idea that the Archives were 'close to Union Station'.

Well, we drove straight there (it seems the Archives are somewhat of a tourist destination, so there was good directional signage from the interstate) and parked by the front door and things were going swimmingly, until I walked up to the information desk and saw a poster about the quilt exhibition - that would start in two weeks! As we turned to go, the lady tried to interest us in the current exhibition about what it was like to be a prisoner at Leavenworth from the 1890's through the 1930's. Probably interesting, but not really a substitute for quilts, in my mind.

But! I saw another sign that indicated they also had a KC Star store, albeit a smallish one, so all was not lost!

The store did not have the feedsack book, but I did get a fabric souvenir!

Actually, two!

I had seen this 'Quilt in a Jar' in the online store, but had forgotten about it, since it seemed a bit pricey at $25. As a souvenir, though, I had no such thrifty thoughts! Because - no shipping!

These jars each had 36, six inch squares of feedsack fabric, all different, (although the assortment in each jar was the same with a couple of exceptions). The jar advertises that the fabric is equivalent to a 100 pound feedsack although I think most 100# sacks are a bit longer than 36". Still, 36 different prints is worth a premium, I suppose.

A couple of the prints are ones that I have, but there were also some very lovely florals and some geometrics that were very fun. A couple of them were the looser weave which are a bit less useful and one or two seemed like they may have been salvaged from a former project, but I was pleased with them, overall.

And The Mister and I can use the jars to drink iced tea when we sit on our front porch at the RV park!