River’s Edge Antiques & Quilt Loft is our regional winner for Wisconsin!
This shop started as an antiques store but is now also a beautiful quilt shop that is well-stocked with a wide variety of fabrics and notions. Read on to learn more!
Please tell us your store’s story.
Gail Grassel is the owner of River’s Edge Quilt Loft. She is an avid quilter, designs patterns that can be purchased in her shop, loves to garden, and is the proud mother of four sons, nine grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
Gail tells us: We started our shop with an antiques store as a new career for my husband, Mike, who took an early retirement in 2000. Three years later I opened the Quilt Loft and have continued to grow the business.
We share the building with each of us having part of the main floor and then more antiques downstairs and two more rooms of fabrics upstairs.
— 2023 Contest Customer Comment —
“The staff are terrific! They are very knowledgeable about fabric and willing to go the extra mile to help you find the perfect fabric to make your project a work of art.”
CRYSTAL
For those who have not seen the store, please describe it.
We are located in Hayward, WI, which is a large tourist area with many beautiful fishing lakes and outdoor activities. We are known as the “Best Kept Secret in the Northwoods”. Although our shop is not huge, we manage to pack over 4,000 bolts of fabric, a wide assortment of books, patterns, and notions into our space.
We have a very large assortment of fabrics, traditional as well as modern. We focus on having multiple choices with many samples throughout the shop.
We have a Christmas area that is stocked at all times along with other seasonal lines. We have a children’s section and many flannels to choose from.
Customers come here when they want to choose fabrics for an entire quilt since we have so many different lines of fabric and styles to choose from.
I am known for my sense of color and for designing patterns that we show in our shop. Customer service is what we are known for being able to provide.
We carry a large assortment of cottons, flannels and cuddle fabrics. We have tons of books and patterns for inspiration. We have a wide assortment of battings, including Soft and Stable, and lots of notions and accessories for making bags and totes. We carry ByAnnie products including zippers by the yard, fold-over elastic, mesh, and all the purse/bag hardware in all three colorways.
— 2023 Contest Customer Comment —
“I love Gail and the ladies who work for her. She keeps all of us connected through her live sales and her virtual retreats.”
JIM
Please tell us about your staff.
Our store staff consists of Bonnie, Jan, Meg and our newest member, our golden retriever store mascot “Hank”.
Please tell us about any upcoming special events at your store.
We celebrated 21 years in business this October!
We host Virtual Retreats – our next one is our Valentine Virtual Retreat, Feb. 9-11, 2024.
We have a weekly Facebook Live on Tuesdays at 7 pm (time may be changing for the winter) where we show new fabrics, notions, patterns, books, and lots of SALE items. Our show is different each and every week.
In closing
This is our second year of being a winner in the ByAnnie contest. Thanks to this contest we have had the opportunity to meet some new customers that have taken the time to come to the shop to meet us. The ByAnnie Contest has helped us to grow our customer base and bring in more ByAnnie patterns and bag accessories to meet the growing needs of our customers.
We plan to win an even bigger prize this coming year – as they say, “Go Big or Go Home”!
Gail has an eye for ordering the best patterns and fabric. She knows her shop and is always eager to help you find your treasure. And I love her on-line presentation.