Shop Keeps Colonial Croft Alive BY BETH HEMMINGER Staff Correspondent Janet Shultzabarger will keep you in stitches. Quilting stitches that is. Janet is the owner of the newly opened shop, Calico Comers in Carlisle. Calico Comers has a wide variety of supplies to keep any quilter happily stitching. This new entrepreneur has been a quilt lover for quite some time. She first became interested in this colonial craft because of the unique way in which quilters coordinated fabrics. Janet’s love for types of quilts has taken her to all types of auctions and shops if not to buy, just to look. “Searching for quilts is educational, inspiring and great fun,” she said. like many other things, quilting has changed a bit from its first original style and purpose. Like most other early American crafts, quilting was bom of necessity. And, most early American quilts were made of solid colored pieces of cloth. However, today’s quilts are patterned more after the 18th century quilt that were more elaboratly pieced together or appliqued. Janet said, “I don’t have any particular favorites, I like to do them all.” Janet said that she took a lot of time deciding if she should open a shop. Her love for this old art made the decision. The new shop owner patterned Calico Comers, located in Cum berland County, after one of her favorite quilting shops in the northern Pennsylvania area - a shop full of supplies and quality material at very reasonable prices. “That is exactly what I want my shop to offer my customers - quality,” she said. However, once she decided to take the plunge and had a definite idea what she wanted to offer her customers, that was only the beginning. Janet said with the help of her husband, several friends and books from the library she began her travels into the world of owning your own business. Once she had all the information in order, she filed her business name, obtained a sales tax number and completed all the legal paper work before she could open her doors to the public. “This all took several months to accomplish,” said Janet. Another problem arose for Janet when she discovered that she had to live in a property zoned area in her township before she could have a business. This problem Here, the delicate looking quilt awaits the return of Janet, who must fit quitting into her busy schedule as shop owner and teacher. solved itself after she went to the township authorities and found that her home was in a properly zoned area for businesses. Once Janet had all the paper work completed she began her search for suppliers to fill her quilting shop. After months searching for names and address of manufacturers of top quality cottons, she was delighted to find them not too'far from home. She is buying the major selections of her cottons from producers in Baltimore and Allentown. Her fabric stock consists of a variety of quality cottons in beautiful colors. In her present selections she has coordinated the fabrics in each of the different fabrics offering the quilter a variety of possibilities for their quilts in the pale, medium and dark tones in each color group. Along with the top quality cot tons and muslins, Janet has sup-, plied her shop with all the quilting essentials, from needles, hoops, batting, books and much more. Janet said since she is just learning step by step about her customers needs she is keeping small quanitites of all the necessary equipment. However, she said if she doesn’t have an item for a customer she will make special orders for those in need of an item. Janet already has plans for the future for Caolico .Comers. She wants to offer classes for the beginner to the advanced quilter, offering the basic and new ideas to all. Janet plans to begin this ser vice in the future, however, she seems to already be in that phase of her plan to some degree. At the present, she is teaching three area women’s organizations the procedures of quilting a pillow. For these beginner quitters, Janet feels that it is better to work on a small project that can be completed in a short time. “This spurrs enthusiasm for the next quilting project,” she said. Janet feels that her own shop will help spurr on her own educational needs; tackling the more intricate designs in her own quilting projects. According to this quilter there is a lot of work and knowledge that goes into making a quilt with elaborate borders and design. For instance, she said, when making such an elaborate suilt you must coordinate the fabric, the border and design to complement each other for an overall mood of the entire quilt decoration. But Janet said before she can start on such an intricate project, Janet's line-up of quilted pillows have been made for the beginning quilting classes she is teaching to several women's organizations in Cumberland County. When she's not busy with customers, Janet quilts on her new project, a blue and cream colored quilt with a quilted flower design on the blocks and borders of the entire quilt. she has quite a number of requests to fill for her family. Janet said, “My daughter has an order for three appliqued quilts with an old fashion design, Baskets of Flowers. For Janet Shultzabarger, opening her own shop has been a dream come true. She remarked, “At first I was a little worried about the obscure location of c f/otes Calico Corners.” But what better place to have a quilting shop than in the country and along a road with such a fitting name, Barn stable Road. It seems to fit the image of such a country craft. And with the arrival of each customer, Janet’s smile brightens; and she said, “I made the right decision.”
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