The City Quilter is New York’s most extensive and comprehensive resource for both occasional and professional quilters and sewers. Husband and wife team, Dale Riehl and Cathy Izzo, opened their shop in 1997 based on a passion, and have since turned it into a center for all things quilts. Today, they have several thousand feet of retail space, an equal number of bolts of colorful fabrics - cotton, lace, velvet, silk and batiks - as well as threads and other materials and tools including sewing machines. They are unique among quilt stores for having a line of New York City-themed fabrics with an eye toward tourists who want a piece of the city to work into their lives...but, as a proud New Yorker, I, too, took a special interest in these amazing pieces of art. Most recently, an impressive Grand Central Station design was created in honor of the celebration of the building’s one hundredth anniversary.
When I returned to City Quilter in 2015, Dale and Cathy had expanded their collection to include sixteen New York City fabrics, including a children's Manhattan-themed A to Z print. There is also a new boutique in a corner of the store where customers can purchase ready-made rain jackets, pajama pants, night shirts, and more, all made using the special New York City fabrics.
Next to the boutique, City Quilter sells Bernina sewing machines at a variety of price points. The shop welcomes everyone from novices to experts, offering over 150 workshops a year catering to all levels and skill sets. Bright and supremely colorful, City Quilter is a feast for the eyes, but more importantly, it is warm and welcoming environment for quilters and non-quilters alike. People hum along at their work, sewing and picking up supplies and exchanging pleasantries with one another. Cathy cites quilting as a zen experience, calling it “yoga for the lazy.” Dale added, "You don't need hand-eye coordination at all. It's so easy to create a unique design." The couple showed me the high-tech capabilities of some of the sewing machines. Some could be programmed to automatically sew along a set pattern. City Quilter sell special inputs that allow you to sew standing lace structures, stuffed animals, and even designs that gain dimensions with the help of 3D glasses. Before I left, Dale and Cathy took me to the basement to see the Long Arm machine, a mechanism that allows you to fix a large quilt in place and move a needle over it, rather than having to feed yards of fabric through a stationary point. As the Long Arm weaved over the quilt, Dale turned to me with a twinkle in his eye and said, "It's painting with thread!"
