Material Girls

Once again I want to thank Shay over at http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com for hosting Favorite Things Friday.  It is always rewarding to be able to focus on your "favorites" and read about others.

This week my favorite thing is a quilt shop in Wichita called "Material Girls". The shop is run by two sister-in-laws that took their love of quilting to new heights. For this size community, it has a vast selection of quilting fabrics.  The number of possible fabrics in a given color makes my head swim.

And this is just regular greens and blues.  There is another whole section for for the green and blue batiks.  I couldn't even begin to show all the color selections.

 Besides their wide selection of fabrics, they provide a place to just sit and visit with other quilters.  It is a cozy, gathering place for area quilters with coffee provided.

                              They also have classes which I will investigate down the line.

The walls are covered with beautiful quilts made by local quilt artists.  Here are a few.  I wish my photographic skills were adequate to show the quilting in many of these quilts.

Aren't the colors gorgeous in these two?  Because they are hung high on the wall, I wasn't able to capture the beautiful quilting that was done on each.

This one was made by one of the owners for her coming grandbaby.  It is a combination of regular quilting and minkee fabrics with the backing made of the minkee.

                   This store is housed in a historic building that is part of the Delano District of Wichita.

 This is another reason this store is one of my favorite things.  This building has a long and interesting history.

 The Delano District, at one time, was separate from Wichita due to the Arkansas River that runs through the town.  Delano has seen many changes in the more than 135 years since its founding. Delano started out with the reputation of being the rough side of town. In 1870 Delano became an important cattle-shipping center on the Chisholm Trail.

Cattle were herded up to Delano from Texas.  The cattle-shipping industry became a crucial part of the formation of Delano as a recreational district for cowboys. “Vices” were kept out of the Wichita area. Most of the gambling, drinking and prostitution took place in the township of Delano, which did not have any law enforcement. Guns were checked at the bridge before you could cross into Wichita. Often, drunken cowboys would shoot their firearms much as boys shoot fireworks off today. Occasionally there would be gunfights.

Herding cattle was a hot and dusty job. The cowboys would take baths in the river. This resulted in an ordinance in 1872 prohibiting nude bathing, but only during the daytime.

During the years of 1872-73 the saloon keepers sponsored a curious form of entertainment on Sunday afternoons (weather permitting of course).  Cowboys would load the Saloon girls into wagons and take them down river a short distance. The girls would then strip naked, tossing their clothing in the back of the wagons. At the sound of a pistol, the girls would race back to the saloons accompanied by the whooping and hollering cowboys. Bets were placed on the race and the winner would receive a prize.

Due in large part to the death of the local cattle trade in the late 1870s, Delano was incorporated into the city of Wichita in 1880. A building boom in the 1880s brought brick buildings and paved streets to Delano.While I could not verify this, I assume that the building housing the quilt shop today was built during this time.

 In December of 1925, Beech, Cessna and Stearman started a new company called Travel Air Manufacturing Company located in the building that is now "Material Girls". This company became the forerunners to Boeing, Beech (Raytheon), and Cessna aircraft companies.

As you can tell the window and doors have been modernized in the building.  The interior, though, has much of the original wood work.  Recently, the owners were able to buy two large crystal chandliers that were being sold before the renovation of another historic building in Wichita--The Broadview Hotel.  It was built in 1922 and is just across the river in original Wichita.

Hope I haven't bored you too much with the history of the building, but I find this fascinating.  I'm always so pleased when I hear of someone preserving our heritage.