Concordia, KS is only two hours plus away from my front door; but it was all brand new to me! We were on our way to the International Quilt Museum and some minor league baseball in Nebraska and Concordia was a great stopping place for lunch, historical site seeing and fabric shopping.
Lunch was at Jitters, a cafe and coffee shop, in a repurposed building downtown. The decor was unique with piggy cutting boards, old rolling pins and lots of books. Most important, the food was delicious and seemed very popular with the locals.
Since the Orphan Museum was still on it’s lunch break we found a fabric store on the same street! (It pays to scout out the territory via the internet before visiting a new location.). Fabric Essentials was also in a building that has a history but had found new life as a quilters paradise with over 5,000 bolts of fabric, pre-packed kits of every sort of projects, patterns, and notions. Tea towel material by the yard was available!
Even though a sales person told me that over 90% of their business was on-line sales, she spent time helping me find a “peach floral” needed for a future baby quilt. The shop passed the husband test by providing two easy chairs with reading material near the front.
The major reason we stopped in Concordia was to visit the Orphan Train Museum. After reading THE ORPHAN TRAIN by Christina Baker Kline and THE CHAPERONE by Laura Moriaty and hearing super positive comments about the museum, a visit had been on my bucket list. A video in the visitor center/research center explains the motivation behind the program and its history.
The converted depot features photos and stories of individuals. As I moved from story to story, I wondered how I would have reacted –as a child thrust into a brand new world (a farm in KS vs. a New York orphanage) without any family or as a woman accepting a child of unknown origins and history into my home. For the most part the program worked–in that time of our history.
(I borrowed these photos from the web site–mine include my husband who is blog-sly.)
The town’s Visitor’s Center features a “bas-relief” sculpture on the side of the building in red brick. I was fascinated by the use of brick this way.
The sculpture is huge and features the history of northern central Kansas.
After driving around the town to check out some of the impressive buildings,
we found another quilt shop! Full of Scraps is right on the highway–which isn’t surprising since it is in a re-purposed gas station!
The owner was happy to explain about the heavy duty power washing that had been required to make it the charming shop it is. She uses the “merchandise area” and the counter for fabric sales and the repair bays houses her long arm quilting machine. She has a great selection of fabric– the 30’s and 40’s reproduction fabric, and the licensed university prints caught my eye. I supported her small business with the purchase of some vegetable novelty prints.
(photo is from their web site)
On the way out of town, we drove through the remains of Camp Concordia, a Prisoner of War Camp. In 1945, there were approx. 4,000 German officers and enlisted men, mainly from the North Africa campaign. Again, I let my imagination go back in time…
I still want to visit Ayers Rock in Australia, a pub in Ireland, the Shetland Islands and the Alps. But it is very satisfying to learn new things about the world close to home. If you haven’t been to Concordia, consider a day trip. You won’t spend a lot on travel, you speak the language, and there are two great quilt shops!
Quilts, Etc. 