Quilt shop slated to open in March

Palouse River Quilts will open in Colfax March 1 in the same Main Street location as the former Quilted Moose quilt shop on Main Street. Margo Balzarini of Colfax and Patricia Arnold of Thornton are co-proprietors of the new shop. They will be in the “street side,” or the corner half, of the Grady Building.

“We want to have an elegant shop here with fabrics by Moda, Hoffman and other companies we are exploring,” Balzarini said. “We’ll have batiks, a sampling of flannels and some kid’s fabric.”

They will meet with their “rep” this week to look at embroidery flosses, sewing threads, notions and patterns. They plan to have a line of traditional fabrics but will also introduce modern minimalist quilts.

“We toured quilt shops in Montana that featured these modern quilts with clean, elegant lines and brilliant colors. They were stunning to see,” she said.

The shop will have classes and individual instruction. Balzarini and Arnold also hope to entice young people to learn fabric arts as well as serve the more experienced quilters. People are invited to come into the shop to sew when classes are not in session.

Hours for the new shop will be Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. They will only open on Sundays for special events.

They are currently working on their website and Facebook page and encourage people to write to the shop’s e-mail address, [email protected], to be included on their mailing list.

The quilt shop will be the first venture in owning a business for both Balzarini and Arnold.

Balzarini said she started sewing when she was about four or five years old and thought, even then, that it would be fun to spend all day around beautiful fabric. It has been a dream for her and Arnold to own and run a fabric shop and the opportunity presented itself at the right time.