Island Batik is encouraging it’s ambassadors to share their favorite local quilt shop today. I’m going to take you on a tour of my favorite shop. Surprise! It is Gotham Quilts.
Gotham Quilts is located in the garment district in New York City. If you are unfamiliar with the city, this is about a 10 minute walk from Penn Station, which is where I get off of the train. (If you are familiar with the city, you know more than I do.) The actual address is 40 W 37th Street, which is on 37th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue. If you see Chick Fil-A, you are almost there.
I met the owners, Ivete and Andrea, by accident. My husband was working in New York, and invited me into the city for dinner. Yay. Get dressed up, take a 90 minute train ride, then wait 2 hours for dinner in an unfamiliar city. Sounds fun, right? I had to find a way to fill my time that didn’t involve two hours of walking. A quick online search turned up a quilt shop, only a few blocks from my husband’s office, and they were offering a class at the perfect time. Hooray! That night was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
This was a fabric pull for a project that is still waiting to be made.
Flash forward to today, and now I am the in-house longarm quilter. This has truly been a mixed blessing for my husband. I re-entered the workforce – hooray! I collect my paycheck at my favorite place in the world to spend money – sad face.
Ivete and Andrea have very similar taste to mine in quilting. Also, Ivete is a master saleswoman. Even if I don’t like something, a few minutes of talking to her usually convinces me that I need it. She’s so good – she can convince me to join in on any sewing project.
They have so many gorgeous modern fabrics. I’ve been to quilt market with them – the collection of fabrics in here is truly a carefully curated collection. Each fabric is evaluated not only on its own merits, but also how well it will fit with everything else in the shop.
There are also lots of other fun little projects stashed around the shop. Little embroidery kits, stuffed animals, and charming bags and pouches.
Sometimes I get to make shop samples. I love that they entrust big projects to me, and they hang up for a long time. Right now you can see the Skyline and Fancy Forest quilts that I assembled. Andrea’s fabric choices are always amazing.
The shop has an APQS Lenni, an 18″ longarm quilting machine. You can take classes (some taught by me!) to become certified on how to use Lenni, then rent time to finish your own quilts.
The classroom is big and bright, with design walls everywhere. There is also a busy schedule of classes, taught by both local and nationally well known artists. Be careful, though – after taking one you may never want to leave.
If I ever get to New York, I’d love to see this shop. I’d need a guide though, I think, to find my way around. 🙂
Just give me a buzz!
I really love it when a “chance” encounter turns into so much more!
What a fortunate encounter! Love the store and can’t wait to get back there one day.
I have to do a post once I get back; never even thought to look if there are quilt shops here in Mérida…it’s a big cit of 800k so perhaps! Love the shots of the shop; next time in in NYC (haven’t been since 07) I will definitely go. Also LOVE seeing your city quilt and forest friends again, they’re SO fabulous.
Thanks, Sandra!
Thanks for the shop view. I don’t go to the city often, but would love to come in and see it.
Thanks for the tour of your LQS! Looks like a great shop!