PIECE OF WORK | MES System Group Co.,Ltd

De QUEEN, Ark. -- Mary Ida Pearce's quilt shop on a country road in Sevier County is warm and cozy inside and out.

Fabric of all colors is stacked on shelves, and quilts in all stages of completion are everywhere. Even the shop's outside has a quilt theme. There is an old metal bed frame displayed on the porch, the perfect item to show off colorful quilts.

Mary Ida owns MI o MI Longarm Quilting and Fabric Shop and has customers from all over the area and even out of state. There are a few other quilt shops in Southwest Arkansas, but overall they are becoming rare as many quilters are aging.

"Sewing is becoming a lost art," Mary Ida said.

The shop at 1345 Chapel Hill Road west of De Queen offers longarm quilting services, batting, extra-wide backing fabric and quilting fabric.

Longarm quilting is the process by which a longarm sewing machine is used to sew together a quilt top, quilt batting and quilt backing into a finished quilt. The longarm sewing machine frame typically ranges from 10 feet to 14 feet and takes up quite a bit of space.

Mary Ida is proud to now own two longarm machines. One of the machines is a bit more advanced. It can be operated by computer.

"They are both longarms but this one has more bells and whistles. I call one my Ford and one my Lexus," Mary Ida laughed.

Her first longarm machine is "the real workhorse," she said.

After purchasing her newer longarm in Missouri, she took a week-long class to learn how to use it. She also watched a lot of videos.

"YouTube is wonderful. You learn a lot of techniques," she said.

Mary Ida has had her own quilt shop for about five years. At first she only operated her shop part time while working her full time job at the front desk of De Queen Animal Hospital. When she left the animal hospital a few years ago, she extended the hours at the quilt shop. Since then, she has moved into a bigger shop on her property.

An older neighbor and friend of her family taught Mary Ida to quilt years ago.

"But life got busy," said Mary Ida, citing raising her children and working as limiting the time she could spend on hobbies.

Years later after her children were grown, she and a friend took quilting lessons in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.

"I fell in love with it then." she said.

She has been quilting ever since.

Mary Ida believes even though quilts require a lot of work and often look like works of art, they should still be used.

"I believe quilts are made to be used. They can be displayed and admired, but it's nice to have something you can wrap up in and use," she said.

Mary Ida creates a lot of special quilts for her customers including memory quilts made from the clothes of the customer's loved ones.

Sometimes people find partially finished quilts among their mother or grandmother's things. One service Mary Ida provides is adding the finishing touches to the item so it can be enjoyed.

She also sells fabric and baby quilts and other items in the shop.

Mary Ida has also taught quilting classes at her shop and at the Sevier County History Museum.

Beginner classes include fabric preparation, cutting fabric, piecing blocks, a brief history of quilting and how to read patterns. The more advanced lessons include sandwiching the quilt and binding the edges.

A variety of people have taken the classes from "young women with small children to older women who have retired and want a hobby," she said.

She has also donated quilts to the museum to raffle off during the annual Hurrah Festival in De Queen.

Regular hours for the shop are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Mary Ida advises anyone coming from out of town to call first at 870-784-2188 or 870-642-5227. The shop also has a Facebook page.

"I love having the shop. I can be in here for hours and never get tired of it," she said.

Print Headline: PIECE OF WORK | Quilts are as useful as they are beautiful, Southwest Arkansas crafter says