Local Quilt Shop celebrates second anniversary

KISSed Quilts will be celebrating its second anniversary of being open in Grand Coulee Monday, June 15, from 10 am-4 pm at 301 Main Street.

Shop owner Marlene Oddie will offer a special sale and signing of her new co-authored book, "You Can Quilt! Building Skills for Beginners".

Oddie, an engineer who now teaches classes in and creates designs using her passion, quilting, opened up the shop in the little building that was previously an ice cream shop.

Now, among over 200 bolts of fabric, thread, notions and patterns that local quilters might need she plies her big quilting machine to make freehand designs that win awards across the nation, and she writes for a national quilting publication.

And this year she's found a way to do her part to boost local tourism a bit.

Her shop has joined 2,500 others across North America in a shop-hop promotion in which quilters visit participating shops to pick up a free pattern for a row in a quilt, which they can combine with rows from other areas to represent their summer travels.

With this year's "Row by Row Experience" theme being water, Oddie has designed a row that features the Grand Coulee Dam Laser Light Show, which has water as a background.

She hopes it will attract quilters from far and wide. Last year, area quilt shops reported 50-150 visitors specifically to collect the patterns.

The event runs from June 21 to Sept. 8.