BONNERS FERRY — In Boundary County, quilting is a popular pastime for many members of the community. There are a few shops that sell fabric in the area, Stitchin’ Dreams is one that specializes in the quilting field.

They offer batting, backing, fabric, binding and thread, as well as taking orders to stitch quilts together with their computerized machine.

“Most of my life I helped — my mom was a big quilter,” said Stitchin’ Dreams owner, Velda Williams. “I never thought I would sew a quilt together until I was older, but I helped her.”

With many years watching and helping her mother quilt, Williams and her husband decided to make their quilting services available throughout their retirement. Their main service is the utilization of the computerized sewing machine.

“We have a computer-run quilting machine,” said Williams. “We can pick a pattern and adjust it to fit, then we can create patterns for anything anyone can think of. We stand by it to watch, but once we get it set, it can go until it runs out of thread and a bobbin, then it will stop, or when it gets to the end.”

From the reception of a quilt to the time it is returned to the customer is anywhere from a week to 10 days.

“The computerized machine takes a lot of the work out,” said Williams. “A lot of people have a machine that does quilting like that, but they need to guide the machine using the handles, which makes it more time consuming and back breaking.”

Throughout the shop there are displays of quilts and patterns, giving quilters ideas to work with.

“She sews some quilts for display and then sells the kits,” said Harlan Williams. “People see the design and decide to buy the kit. A lot of quilters just need an idea to get started.”

People not only come to Stitchin’ Dreams for ideas, fabric, and kits, they can also bring in put-together quilt tops to be sewn in the machine.

“People will bring the top of the quilt all pieced together, a lot of times they will buy the batting and backing from us, then we sew it together,” said Velda Williams. “Most people do the edging themselves, but I will do it for an additional cost.”

Velda Williams spends a good portion of her time in the quilting shop over the cold weather months. With a wood stove and a comfy chair nearby, surrounded by colorful fabric and quilting tools, it is a cozy place to get some work done.

Stitchin’ Dreams is located at 7316 Olympic Way, near the Woodland Mennonite Church. Their phone number is 208-267-3743 and email is stitchindreams@yahoo.com.