Sometimes, the story about making a quilt can be even more fascinating than the quilt itself! That’s the case with my quilt Grunge N’ Roses.

The story begins in April 2024, when I had a conference in Portland, OR. The conference ended on a Friday, and I decided to stay through the weekend to check out the area. I had been following Sister’s Quilt Shop on Instagram and wanted to take a trip to visit their store in Chehalis, WA. Fortunately, Amtrak runs between Portland and stops at a town just 10 minutes away from Chehalis. I figured I would take a scenic Amtrak ride up, take an Uber over to the store, and then come back with some new, fun fabrics! This is where the story takes a “tragic” turn.

I get all the way up to WA, but there’s no Uber running that day to take me from the station to Sisters Quilt Shop! I was so disappointed, being so close! I called my husband, told him the situation, and he said, “well, then we’ll just have to fly out next year and rent a car to get you to that fabric store.” I know he was just trying to make me feel better, and I appreciated those words.

But in the meantime, I turned around and took Amtrak back to Portland. Although it was now late afternoon, I really wanted to do some fabric shopping. So I looked online and found that Sewlarium was open. I grabbed an Uber over there, and had such fun! The owner was there and said that his shop had only been open for two months – and what a find! It was great chatting with him and selecting fabrics that caught my eye. Most of my fabric purchases that day came from the collection of grunge fabrics he had in stock.

I was tossing around the idea of making a quilt with roses, as Portland is the City of Roses, and perhaps use these fabrics from Sewlarium for the quilt. Fast-forward several months, and my husband and I confirm that we’ll do a trip back to Oregon and rent that car to get to Washington! Because visiting Sewlarium was such a special experience and provided some fabric joy when I needed it, I decided I would make a rose-themed quilt with fabrics only purchased from Sewlarium. Then, we would make sure to swing by the International Rose Test Garden in Portland and take a photo of the quilt in the garden.

The academic year kept me very busy, and I didn’t get as much time to work on the rose quilt before our trip. I decided to modify the pattern A Rose Quilt For Julia and make a smaller quilt that I could hang on the front door of my house.

This time, the plan worked! Just over a year later, in June 2025, my husband and I made it back to the west coast, made the trip to Sister’s Quilt Shop in Washington, and then we went to the rose garden with the quilt. The grunge fabric is not what one would expect for a quilt with flowers, and I wasn’t sure when I started making the quilt if I would like the result. But when you tie in the name (a nod to grunge rock from the Pacific northwest and the group Guns N’ Roses) and the backing fabric, it all works for me.

We were only in Portland for one day during this trip, and unfortunately, Sewlarium was closed that day. So I wasn’t able to bring this small quilt back to the shop where all of the fabrics came from. But I not only have a quilt about Portland, made with fabrics purchased in Portland – I now have a small shop that I am continuing to support with online fabric purchases. Thank you, Sewlarium, for not only your amazing service but for the inspiration that led to this quilt!

If you’d like to meet Sewlarium’s owner Zachariah, check out this interview on Not Your Granny’s Quilt Show. Follow Sewlarium on Instagram.

Grunge N’ Roses measures 27 inches by 27 inches and was completed May 25, 2025. Fabric product line is Halcyon from Jason Yenter for In The Beginning fabrics. Quilt back is from the Riley Blake Oregon collection.