birthday bash | Missouri Star Blog

October 3, 2017October 10, 2017

Birthday Bash 2017 Recap

The gang's all here for our traditional employee photo before the start of Birthday Bash 2017!

There’s no party like a quilting party and our Ninth Birthday Bash was no exception! What better way to celebrate 9 years in business than with fun, games and fabric and a game show theme to keep the show rolling throughout the celebration?

The best way to start a Birthday Bash is with a Dinner with the Doans! The Doans, plus 200 of our quilting family, joined us for dinner, dessert, and of course, a little friendly family competition. This year the Girl Doans squared off against the Boys for an entertaining version of Family Feud. The Boys earned the victory on this night, but we know the Girls will be ready for a rematch!

Before birthday festivities officially kicked off, we snapped our traditional all-employee family photo in front of our newest mural in Hamilton. We think the gang looked absolutely electric in the lime green t-shirts!

All three days were bursting at the seams with games and activities for the entire family! Our “Win, Lose or Dance” on the patio was a happening spot, where participants could show off their finest moves for a chance to win some fabric!

Guests from around the globe boogied around the patio for a chance to win fabric prizes!

We busted out some Couch to Quilt “suitcases” for our Sew Case Showdown game on Friday morning! It was a huge hit!

Friday night featured our first ever BINGO night hosted by Man Sewing’s Rob Appell! Rob donned his referee uniform and called numbers, up and down, across and “on the bias”

We know a good quilty party wouldn’t be complete without some trunk shows! Jenny and Man Sewing’s Rob Appell shared their quilting journeys in memorable presentations throughout Birthday Bash.

Giving back to our community and those in need is very important to us, and this year we hosted a Charity Quilt “Bake Off” with help from the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild to create 32 full-size quilts! These quilts were designed, pieced, quilted and bound by some amazing volunteers over a two-day period, and best of all, 16 quilts will be donated for disaster relief and 16 will be given to local Kansas City charities.

Through some of our “ticketed” events, we were able to collect hundreds of paper products and dozens of peanut butter and jelly packages for our local Caldwell County Food Pantry! Money raised during our daily quilt raffles went to support this organization as well.

One of our favorite parts of Birthday Bash is the Sew-lebrity Sew-off, where Jenny and Rob go head-to-head for a 45-minute sewing competition! This year Jenny created a shiny lamé championship belt and cape, while Rob whipped up a batik seascape! With almost an hour of sewing, stories, and entertainment, it’s clear that the true winners of this friendly competition are the audience who watched Jenny and Rob’s sewing skills in action!

With our Ninth Birthday Bash in the books, we want to take a moment and express our sincerest thanks to all of those who came together to make this celebration possible. Our amazing guests, those who visited us in Hamilton and online, fantastic employees, and wonderful vendors and sponsors all deserve a round of applause for helping us make our birthday the best one yet!

October 18, 2016October 18, 2016

Birthday Bash Recap! Missouri Star’s 8th Birthday!

One year older and wiser too…. Happy Birthday to Missouri Star Quilt Co! This September, we hosted our 8th Birthday Bash, where we celebrate the anniversary of Missouri Star in Hamilton, Missouri. It’s amazing to see how much we’ve grown, learned and improved and we are so grateful to our customers/fans who’ve made this journey possible!

Wednesday Night: The Kickoff Dinner with the Doan Family

The night before everything begins, we kick off the event with a family dinner. We share stories, give out party favors, and just have a wonderful night together because you are our family!

When you get the Doan Family all in one room, there are bound to be stories! Al, Jenny’s son, is a wonderful story teller and had the whole room filled with laughter!

When the dinner was over, we moved over to the Retreat Center to watch a special video that Jenny’s son Jake had created for the special night. It brought such a wonderful, heartwarming energy to the room. We’re so glad that we get to work together as family and friends and do something we truly love!

Watch the Video HERE.

Thursday: The Party Begins

I don’t know how you like to start off a party, but we start it with dancing, free fabric/prizes, and lots of music and energy! In the Retreat Center, we had a Quilt Show adorning the walls and a Jelly Roll Race Charity Sew for 40 participants who signed up in advance!

The result was 40 quilt tops to be finished by our Missouri Star Quilt Co Machine Quilting Team and donated to local Women’s Shelters! The Jelly Roll Race pattern is so quick and easy, that it’s perfect for donating for a good cause! If you’re looking for somewhere to donate quilts, check out this post HERE.

Today we made 40 #jellyrollrace quilts for local women’s shelters in under 2 hours! Thank you to @wilmingtonprints for donating the strip packs for these quilts!!! #msqcbirthdaybash #visitmsqc #hamiltonmo #quilting #quilts

A photo posted by Missouri Star Quilt Co (@missouriquiltco) on Sep 22, 2016 at 2:23pm PDT

It’s so wonderful anytime we are able to give back to our community, so thank you to everyone involved who made it possible to do that!

Friday: Trunk Shows Galore!

Friday was filled with more fun, more games and prizes, a Homecoming Parade and TWO trunk shows! Have you ever been to Jenny Doan’s Trunk Show? Not only does she tell some wonderful stories through her quilting journey, but she teaches some mini tutorials along the way! You always leave feeling inspired to create something!

Not only did we have Jenny’s wonderful trunk show, but Rob Appell of Man Sewing was here as well! He tells his story through his quilts and it is a special experience!

Yes, he’s standing on the counter! Every seat in the house was a good one! 🙂

Right in the front row was a mother and her young son who is learning to sew and quilt. Rob was able to have a conversation with them afterward and give some tips on getting started!

Saturday: The Sewlebrity Sew-Off (Jenny Doan vs Rob Appell)

What do you get when you put two quilters/sewists in the same room with the same materials and limited time to create something completely unique? You get a lot of fun! Jenny and Rob were great sports and were both able to complete a project in the allotted time!

How do you compare a table runner + cape + head dress vs a duck with a zippered-on head? You call it a tie! This whole competition was a blast to watch and we can’t wait for the rematch next year!

I don’t know about you, but when I’m sewing, I love having some music playing! So, our lovely audience was able to provide that for the competition! 🙂

Aside from these special events throughout the celebration, we also had some fun that was going on the whole time! There was dancing for fabric and games on the patio, a Barn Block Painting Class, demos in the Main Shop by Windham Fabrics Designer Natalie Barnes, shopping for 88 cent Fat Quarters, a Quilter’s Walk of Fame, Quilt Show and so much more! We hope you’ll join us next September for our 9th Birthday Bash!

September 29, 2016December 28, 2016

October Printables – Quilty Party Games Part II!

September was Missouri Star Quilt Co.’s Birthday Month and we were thrilled to be able to celebrate 8 years as a company. It wouldn’t be possible without all of our amazing fans like yourself. Thank you for all the support! You deserve to celebrate your quilty awesomeness with your very own quilting party and we’ve got all the free printables you’ll need to throw one! Click HERE to download these fun Quilty Party Games and don’t forget the printables from part one of this post HERE.

You can donate the quilt tops from these fun games to your favorite charity! See a list of charities that we’ve compiled HERE. Happy quilting!

October 12, 2015October 19, 2015

MSQC Fall Forum Retreat Recap // 2015

When the Sewing Center first opened for retreats, we looked to our loyal Forum Members to give it a test spin and that’s how the Fall Forum Retreat began! This year, this fun group got to be here for our Birthday Bash and definitely added to the party!

A couple of retreaters even came from as far as Australia!

During the retreat, they all worked together to create this beautiful quilt, later named ‘Passing Pinwheels’. The tag reads: “Passing Pinwheels. A quilt pieced by many hands to provide warmth and love during your troubled time. Missouri Star Quilt Co. Forum Retreat – 2015” From @LOVEMYMACHINES on Quiltsby.me: “This quilt is a custom product of the ladies and gentleman that attended the 2015 MSQC Fall Forum Retreat. Everyone participated in pinwheel construction and layout of the quilt. The result is a beautiful compilation of multi-direction spinning pinwheels.” Click on the image below to read about how the name of the quilt was chosen!

Here is a group photo of all who were in attendance! Many of these retreaters came home with winnings from our Birthday Bash celebration, which you can read about HERE.

Click here for more information on MSQC Retreats and Events or contact retreats@missouriquiltco.com!

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015

Missouri Star’s 7th Birthday Bash & J.C. Penney Days!

Missouri Star Quilt Co. hit a big milestone, turning 7 years old as a company this year! It’s all thanks to our fans for helping us make it this far, and that’s why we planned a big celebration for you all! A lot has changed since day one, but family and friends is still at the center of everything we do, and that’s why we were thrilled to see so many of you visit us in Hamilton this past weekend to help celebrate, not to mention all the love and support that we had online from those of you who were unable to attend. Here’s a little recap for you!

Wednesday Night: We kicked off our Birthday Bash with an intimate dinner at Blue Sage with the Doan Family and guests. It was a wonderful night of laughing, storytelling and incredible food! Check out the awesome photo booth that Ron (A.K.A. Mr. Jenny) made us!

Did we mention laughing? So much laughing!!

At the end of the night, there was a slideshow of the first 7 years of MSQC focusing on family and growth. It brought everyone to tears and was such a beautiful end to the night. Here’s a group photo of those in attendance!

Thursday is when the party really started here in town! We had tons of giveaway contests, including a “Layer Cake” walk, and the Traveling Riley Blake Quilt Show was set up in the patio are as well!

Meet Sue! She was the big winner at the Quilter’s Cash Grab Machine! (You know those machines where the wind blows the cash up everywhere and you have to grab as much as you can? Yep, we had one!) She can buy a lot of fabric with that! 🙂

All of the MSQC employees got a 7th Birthday T-Shirt to sport throughout the event. Here’s the customer service team showing it off with Josh Doan, Jenny’s son, from the Wholesale team! (Is it really work if you’re having fun?) 😉

As part of our 7th Birthday Bash we had $0.77 Fat Quarters in the local shops! It was a Fat Quarter Frenzy!

We held a quilt raffle each day of the Bash and all proceeds went to the local Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. Jenny wrapped up in one as we were drawing the winning ticket, even though it was 80 degrees outside!

Friday evening the Penney Hornets football game was projected on the big screen in the park for all to enjoy! Go Hornets! And look at the beautiful view of the patio all lit up at nighttime! Ah, we love this small town life!

The Birthday Bash continued into Saturday, and J.C. Penney Days was celebrated in the town as well with tons of fun for the whole family!There were blow ups for the kids, a flea market area for the adults and much more. The kids got to take a swing at our “7” pinata full of Auriful Thread! That’s better than candy, right? At least if you’re a quilter! 😉 (We did throw some candy out for the kids as well, so everyone was happy!!)

This celebration wouldn’t have been what it was without our amazing Local Events Cruise Director, Meg (on the right) and our excellent DJ for the event, BJ Scott (left)! Here they are with Sarah, Jenny’s daughter, after a LONG, tiring, wonderful weekend of fun! 😀

Lastly, Saturday evening a couple of live bands played for J.C. Penney Days, and there was a J.C. Penney Look-alike contest! This little cutie was the only contestant, and won a $100 Gift Card to the J.C. Penney’s Store!

We thank you all for making these past 7 years so wonderful and for celebrating our 7th Birthday with us! Here’s to many more! 😀