North Texas Daily

Walking into Minding My P’s & Q’s Quilt Shop is like walking into a rainbow – except that rainbow is an assortment of neatly organized bolts of fabrics all throughout the store.

This quilt shop recently celebrated its grand reopening in honor of being a Denton quilting staple for eight years and for its relocation to a newer, larger space. Jill Baxter, the owner of Minding my P’s & Q’s Quilt Shop, originally opened her shop when Linda’s Quilt Shop closed in Denton about 10 years ago.

The shop’s newer, 800-square-foot larger location is now located in the Stonehill Center near the I-35 and Highway 380 intersection.

“We’re celebrating the move,” Baxter said. “That’s why we’re calling it our grand reopening. I just finally got my sign up – the quilt shop sign – so people can find me. That’s why I’m doing it now.”

Baxter said the typical customer who goes into Minding My P’s & Q’s Quilt Shop is around 50-75 years old.

“They’re like me,” Baxter said. “They’re people who love quilting, who love to piece, and they’re always looking for a new project or using up their stash – which is their leftover fabrics from other projects.”

Most seasoned quilters are trying to use up the fabric they have because most customers have as much fabric as Minding My P’s & Q’s Quilt Shop entire inventory, Baxter said.

“It’s the old saying, ‘The one who dies wins,'” Baxter said. “I mean, you know, it’s just that we love fabric. That’s why we do this. We love fabric.”

A patchy start

Opening Minding My P’s & Q’s Quilt Shop was “scary” at first for Baxter because of the large investment needed to open it.

“There was a void in Denton,” Baxter said. “You had to go to Whitesboro, Gainesboro, McKinney or Lewisville in order to find a quilt shop. I was working in corporate at the time and decided we needed a quilt shop [in Denton].”

Baxter built her shop up by gradually increasing her inventory.

“You start out with that small inventory, and you hope people will buy so you can invest in more,” Baxter said.

Baxter started Minding My P’s & Q’s Quilt Shop right before the recession, which was when cotton doubled in price.

“That was a challenge,” Baxter said. “Now with the tariffs coming, it may affect some of our fabrics depending on where they’re coming from. That may be a challenge.”

During Minding My P’s & Q’s Quilt Shop’s first year, a quilting event called Quilt Across Texas was also in its inaugural year. This event brought together 10-12 regional quilt shops to publish a book and provided an opportunity for Baxter to get the word out about her new store.

“You can’t just advertise to the general public because not everybody’s a quilter, so we focus on advertising through guilds and things like these shop hops,” Baxter said.

A customer during the grand reopening of Minding My P’s and Q’s Quilt Shop located in Stonewall Center. Emily Olkkola

From sewing to quilting

Baxter had sewn all her life when she decided to try out quilting. Because of her sewing experience, she had the materials needed to try out quilting.

“When I needed something to do I took my fabric with me, so I just started piecing,” Baxter said. “I had a quilt pattern I wanted to do, but [I] didn’t like the way it looked on the machine, so I started hand piecing.”

Baxter finished her first quilt without a sewing machine and individually sewed everything by hand.

After finishing her quilt, Baxter entered her quilt into a program the Arts Council used to sponsor.

She ended up winning “Best of Show” in 1986, so she submitted the quilt to the city show and placed third in textiles.

“That [victory] kinda got [me] hooked,” Baxter said.

Even though she owns a quilting shop, Baxter does not get to do a lot of personal quilting anymore on her own time because she stays busy with her business.

“I do most of the buying,” Baxter said. “We buy what our customers are looking for, and they’re also looking for something new. I also do the custom. If somebody needs a quilt made, then we do that as well. Most of what I do now are T-shirt quilts or memory quilts. Lots of those. Then I do edge-to-edge longarm [stitching], which means I finish the quilt. I do the pattern that puts the front, the top and the back together with batting, and I do the pattern that sews it together.”

Quilting classes

Minding My P’s and Q’s Quilt Shop is slated to hold various quilting classes open to the public starting this fall.

One of the shop’s teachers, 55-year-old Camilla Fyne, will teach classes involving applique and English paper piecing techniques. Fyne is also an instructor for art and jewelry making.

“It’s a lot of fun [to work here] because it’s been my hobby for a long time, and I’ve taught for a long time, so it’s fun to be involved in the business, too,” Fyne said.

Another one of the teachers in the shop is 62-year-old retired registered nurse Diane Michal. Michal has been quilting for more than 40 years — through her college days and even during her stint in the military.

“When I retired from the Navy, I always wanted to work at a quilt shop just to get the camaraderie with the staff and the customers, and to just work with them to help them pick out the fabric they want for their quilt,” Michal said.

Michal teaches a class called “Gypsy Wife,” which features a pattern designed by Jen Kingwell.

“As you can see, it’s pretty intricate,” Michal said. “It’s meant to be a large scrap quilt. In other words, the students that come to the class learn a variety of how to piece blocks methods, and they also learn how to combine colors, so you get a pleasing all-over quilt.”

Though each quilter who comes to the shop may have different types of projects they want to pursue or different skills to learn, they can all agree on one thing: their love for fabric.

“It’s a good hobby,” Baxter said. “It keeps us out of trouble, most trouble — not fabric trouble.”

Featured Image: A line of customers ready to checkout and a line of fabrics during the grand reopening of Minding My P’s and Q’s Quilt Shop located in Stonewall Center. Emily Olkkola