Have You Heard?

WICHITA — Jan Munroe started quilting 28 years ago and has been an employee in quilt shops almost as long.

At the first one she worked at in 1982, Munroe says she used to always tell the owner her dream was to one day have a shop.

That dream is about to be a reality.

Munroe and her sister-in-law, Jo Degner, are opening Material Girls Quilt Shoppe in the Travel Air Building in Delano.

“We’re going to have everything you need to get started and just build every kind of quilt you want to build,” Degner says.

She didn’t become interested in quilting until a couple of years ago.

Munroe’s young granddaughter died of a brain tumor, and one of the fundraisers for her Kyrie Foundation was the auction of a quilt.

“It was a kind of quilt that I had never seen before,” Degner says.

She describes it as not-your-grandma’s kind of quilt, although Degner adds that “those are still very cool and very valuable.”

“I saw that quilt, and I said, ‘I want to do that.’ ”

She’s made about 30 quilts in two years.

“This passion has just engulfed me,” Degner says. “I can’t stop.”

She knew that she couldn’t do a shop on her own, so she talked to Munroe.

“We just got more and more excited the more we kept talking about it,” Munroe says.

Degner says they like Delano’s central location, its uniqueness and their shop’s proximity to Sew Much and Twist yarn shop. She says she thinks the businesses will complement each other.

Material Girls will offer a range of classes, which will be taught by Shirley Binder.

Binder owns Prairie Quilts in the Parklane Shopping Center at Lincoln and Oliver.

She’s closing her shop and selling the inventory to Material Girls shortly before that store opens in July.

Degner says she and Munroe want to appeal to traditional quilt makers and other quilters who like “bolder, trendy stuff as well.”

“It’s going to be a fun shop.”