The Hen House

June 14, 2013
All things primitive find a home at The Hen House in Charlotte, Michigan.
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Cozy Coop

The Hen House in Charlotte, Michigan, provides a warm and homey atmosphere; a selection of quilt patterns, fabrics, and wools; and supplies for rug hooking, tatting, and punch-needle projects.

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Meet the Staff

From left: Debby Keeney, Ronda Roll, Nancy Conn (owner), Lea Hope Greenfield, and Carolyn Rosier.

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Woolen Wonders

Wool fabrics, samples, and patterns fill one-third of the shop, and antique display pieces abound.

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Primitive Patterns

In addition to quilt patterns, fabrics, and notions, rug hooking patterns are popular at The Hen House.

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Blast from the Past

Nancy Conn, who has owned The Hen House for more than 35 years, enjoys sewing on her hand-crank sewing machine, a Red Lily manufactured by Frister & Rossmann in the early 1900s. A group of 16 quilters gather at the shop once a month to work on projects using their hand-crank machines.

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Salute to Summer

Shop owner Nancy Conn designed a patriotic wall quilt, Salute to Summer, for Quilt Sampler® Spring/Summer 2012 magazine.

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Machine-Quilting Details

Linda Bockheim machine-quilted fireworks shapes in the tan appliqué background, stitched in the ditch between appliqués, and outline-quilted the embroidered stars. She stitched the blocks with stars, loops, and wavy lines.

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Salute to Summer Color Option

Quilt tester Laura Boehnke maintained the patriotic look of the original quilt by using the original color palette in the color option. She tweaked the look by incorporating more red fabrics and using tone-on-tone batiks in place of the reproduction-inspired fabrics. Fabrics are from Artisan Batiks by Lunn Studios for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. For more information about The Hen House, visit thehenhousemi.com.

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