82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 3,1987
Calico Shop Offers Customers Quilting
Supplies With A Touch Of Nostalgia
BY BARBARA MILLER
Lycoming Co. Correspondent
COLUMBIA CROSS ROADS -
From its unintentioned beginning
to its unusual decor combining
antiques and a loft with a broad
range of cotton material, the
Strawberry Patch Calico Shop
smacks of the romantic.
Webster defines the romantic as
“Impractical in conception or
plan... marked by the imaginative
or emotional appeal of what is
idealized.”
Jeannie Wilber is proprietor of
the thriving Strawberry Patch
located in the hills of Bradford
County. By her own admission a
romantic, she says of the shop,
“It’s nothing, I ever set out to do,
but I love it.”
That Jeanne’s customers adore
the shop’s atmosphere is obvious.
“I come here to get a fix,” sighs
Marty Bums, a frequent customer.
Marty was inhaling the fragrant
rosepetaled potpourri ensconced in
a giant ceramic bowl as she sorted
through the quilting patches.
Escalating the spicy aroma even
further were nearby sticks of
cinnamon bark piled like logs and
tied together with a red ribbon.
Customers not only appreciate
the fact that they may choose
fabric from 3,000 bolts of material
but that upon entering the shop
they are treated to the nostalgic
sights, smells, and sounds of
yesteryear. It is a toss-up whether
they first hear the tinkling of old
bells on the door or are assaulted
by the spicy scent of the potpourri
wafting down from the loft above.
Decorated with wreaths of
various materials, the entryway
contains an assortment of old
cupboards holding handmade
items for sale. At the bottom of the
staircase ascending to the loft is a
scene typical of the shop. A small
lighted lamp and several artifacts
occupy an old stand beneath a
colorful painting of a woman
handsewing a quilt. With its artful
blend of antiques, quilts and sale
goods, the mood of the shop is
definitely that of country
nostalgia.
It was while Jeanne’s husband,
Gene, was a POW in Vietnam that
Jeanne says she became interested
in quilting. Gene, who retired from
the air force in 1973, spend his last
five years of duty in a Vietnam
POW camp. Jeanne, who possesses
a degree in music and loves to
Jeanne and Sue wait on Marty Burns, one of the shop's
best customers.
tMctes
paint, said while Gene was away
she “lost her inspiration for
painting” and became intrigued
with quilting.
The Wilbers had bought a
rambling country home located in
the hills of Bradford County for
retirement purposes in 1965. But it
was while Gene was held prisoner
that Jeanne and their four children
moved into their present house.
Jeanne says her fascination with
quilting was piqued by, “The
nostalgia of studying an antique
quilt and wondering what the
woman was like who made the
quilt.”
Further, she discovered that
quilts showed the different per
sonalities of the women who made
them. “You could tell by the colors
used, the rhythm of stitches. You
could ted if they were strictly for
utilitarian purposes or for more
decorative ones,” she added.
A prim and precise woman,
Jeanne observes, might choose
soft pinks and greens and make a
quilt of appliqued roses using
precise small stitches. Whereas
another woman would select colors
of browns with bright orange or
bold black and red. The quilts with
the big stitches, Jeanne says, were
usually sewn by very young girls
or by older women with failing
eyesight. At that time girls of
seven or eight were already
learning to quilt, Jeanne reports.
In 1968, when Jeanne began her
quilting quest, it was very difficult
to find material about quilting. It
wasn’t until 1976, the year of the
bicentennial, that there was a
resurgence of quilting in the
country. So Jeanne took books out
of the library and talked with older
people who quilted and began to
quilt herself.
Her quilting proceeded at a slow
pace during this period for she
spent time speaking on behalf of
the POWs. According to friends,
she never gave up hope that Gene
would return alive. It was her
faith, Jeanne says, that sustained
her during this time.
It wasn’t until 1981 that events
leading to the opening of The
Strawberry Patch Calico Shop
began. At that time Jeanne’s
daughter, Sue, and daughter-in
law, who were both college
students, suggested to Jeanne and
Gene that they would like summer
jobs at home making patchwork
pillows to order. The Wilbers
staked the girls to 15 bolts of fabric
for their venture and Jeanne’s son,
Mark, advertised their wares in a
national magazine.
By the end of summer, Jeanne
reports, the girls had acquired
employment elsewhere and
Jeanne was fulfilling their orders
for pillows. It has become painfully
obvious by this time that the girls
had miscalculated'the time needed
to make a pillow and the profit
margin on each one was nil. Soon
the business was terminated.
But as she made the pillows,
Jeanne says, she fantisized about
the women she was making the
pillows for. “It would be a lot more
fun to just sell fabric off the bolt
and get to know the women I’m
selling to,” she thought.
At this time Jeanne still had
what remained of the 15 bolts of
material, but not for long. Shortly,
Mark put an advertisement in a
local paper saying Jeanne would
be open for business the following
week and then informed her of
what he had done. Thus, the
Strawberry Patch Calico Shop was
bom.
By the end of the month Jeanne
had increased her stock to 45 bolts
of material. Today, in addition to
3,000 bolts of material, her shop
offers a wide assortment of
quilting supplies. During the past
five years the Wilbers built an
addition to their home which in
cluded a loft and a room below for
classroom use to house their
growing enterprise. Currently they
have under construction a good
sized “carriage shed” across the
The Strawberry Patch Calico Shop is housed in part of the Wilber's sprawling country
home in Columbia Cross Roads.
Jeanne and her daughter, Sue Efthimiou, sit by the fireplace in Jeanne's colonial
kitchen THa kitrhAn i« unriAr thA Inlt whArA thA 'matArial' shon is located
Jeanne dips some potpourri from a targe ceramic bowl for a
customer. The fragrant odor greets guests as soon as the
shop door opens.
road from their home which will be
used for classrooms and storage.
Jeanne likes people. A footnote
on a pamphlet describing the shop
lists it as, “The Quilt Shop With
Love.” Cataloguing why she en
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joys running the shop, Jeanne
exclaims, “Oh the rewards are the
people, the new acquaintances, the
many friends I’ve made through
the business teaching women to
(Turn to Page B 4)
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