Quilter's Dream is located in the "Quiet Corner" of Connecticut, in downtown Willimantic, once known as "Thread City",
not far from the old Windham Thread Mills and the Windham Textile Museum in a large old
Victorian home. Willimantic was founded in the early 1700's and is in the
process of reconstruction and renewal.
Parts of the old mills are renovated and others are in the process of
renovation. The old Willimantic Capital Theater is now an Performing Art's High School, UCONN is
only about 5 miles away and Eastern State University is right in Willimantic.
James and Larisa started Quilter's Dream L.L.C. in May of
1996 with just under 1000 bolts of wonderful 100% cotton fabrics, plenty of
books, patterns, notions, and lots of enthusiasm! It's funny, at that time we
couldn't imagine running out of room in our open and airy store. Now, more than
8 years later, we have well over 5000 bolts, an enormous assortment of books,
patterns, notions, and much more filling the store to the brim. We have beautiful fabric filling up every nook
and cranny of our now packed-to-the-gills store!
Thanks to plenty of hard work and the support of our
wonderful loyal customers, we were chosen as one of the 10 Featured Shops in
Quilt Sampler Magazine 2000. This was such a big honor, and was a very exciting
process. Larisadesigned a quilt, In a Pickle, to be featured in this magazine.
Our store boasts some of the best flannel, batik and
oriental fabric collections in the US. We are constantly stocking up
on the newest collections offered by the leading fabric manufacturers in the
world.
A few years ago we decided to expand our website and
concentrate on doing more mail order business. Kit
fulfillment for magazines, our own in-house kits, books, patterns, and fabrics
as well as notions online. If you don't see something on our website, feel free
to call or email us as we only have a small sampling of our enormous inventory
online.
We offer quilt retreats featuring original designs by Larisa
Key and Kim Hazlett. Pat Ferguson, Jayne McKnack, and Martha Krug, are our
extremely talented teachers, who offer classes in a wide range of quilting
techniques. We also like to help with a number of various local charities. With
food-drives to support the local soup kitchens and raffle quilts to benefit the
Domestic Violence Program and the Windham Textile Museum the Quilter's Dream family tries to do their part to help the community.
Wonderful staff:
- Virginia Key - James' mother. She is a teacher's
aide who loves quilting.
- Mary Courtney -
retired physical therapist.
- Geri Becker -
very busy mother of three, who also does sewing for fabric companies and is often featured in
magazines.
- Debbie Yanavich - works for
DCF who tries to fit in quilting with her bust
schedule, she is also Caitlin's mom and Mary's sister.
- Caitlin Yanavich - a
high school senior loves quilts, but doesn't have time to quilt.
- Gordon Key - resident handyman and fabric 'schleper'
is James' father.
- James is a computer guru who spends his days as a computer
technician. James is a man of many varied interests. In addition to his
computer job, helping with the store, and giving Larisa lots of opinions regarding her quilts,
he also knits, weaves, and is into astronomy, model railroading, and ham radio.
- Larisa is an award winning quilter who in addition to running the shop also sews for
fabric companies, designs quilts, and is a regular contributor to The Quilter
magazine.
Our knowledgeable staff is here to help you in any way
possible to make your quilting experience a dream!
