Tucked in the lush green farmlands of southern Minnesota. A retreat from the hustle and bustle of every day life.
The Cozy Quilt Cottage.
We had a wedding in Lanesboro, Minnesota last weekend and I wanted a place where everyone could relax and regenerate. This was the perfect place.
The owner of the cottage, Anne, lives right across the driveway from the cottage. She is originally from Stillwater and has owned the home for nearly 8 years. Her husband Bob just passed away last June and she is slowly adjusting to life without him. She told me since his passing she has come to realize the things that need to done.....and things that don't need done so much. Her committment is to keep The Cozy Quilt Cottage up and running and I pray that she is able to maintain.
The cottage was originally built as a handicap residence for the two sons of the original owners of the house that Anne now lives in. The sons were adults and because of certain disabilities were able to live on their own, but not without some supervision. Their parents built the cottage for them, and the cottage is completely handicap accessible. After that family moved on the main house and cottage were purchased by someone who owned a quilting shop. She turned the cottage into a quilt shop. Lovely handmade quilts filled the cottage, quilts that she made and also quilts that were made by nearby Amish families, and she lived in the main house. The quilt business and the amazing quilts soon outgrew the cottage and began taking over her own house as well. She was forced to sell the property to move to a larger location.
When Bob and Anne looked at the home they discussed with the woman who owned it their thoughts of purchasing it and turning it into a whole house rental. The woman was very excited for them and told them it was her quilt shop and was called The Cozy Quilt Cottage. They really didn't know if they wanted to keep the name. She convinced them it could be lovely to keep the "quilt" theme. Anne and Bob decided she was right and asked if she could leave a quilt to get them started and they would pay her for it. She told them she would be happy to leave one, but insisted they did not pay her for it.
After closing on the property Bob and Anne returned to The Cozy Quilt Cottage. Opened the front door to take a look at what was going to become their new cottage rental and were excited to see what the quilt looked like the previous owner had left for them.
They were surprised and amazed beyond belief.
She had not only left one beautiful quilt......
She had left a beautiful handmade quilt on every single bed!
She had also left quilted runners and throw pillows that matched, quilted wall hangings, quilted placemats and even quilted squares to put your drink on. She also left several non-quilted items such as hangings and plaques about quilting.
They couldn't believe their eyes. The Cozy Quilt Cottage was filled with handmade beautiful quilts gifted with much thought and love. How perfect.
And it is.
When I was talking to Anne about the gifted quilts and their lovely story she told me of another story.
She had a group of women quilters stay at the cottage. There was about 8 of them. Anne and Bob had went into town and were not present when they checked out.
Upon Anne and Bob's return they went into the cottage to begin to clean it. She noticed the ladies had left an envelope on the kitchen table, which she assumed contained their check for the fee for their stay inside. Anne didn't pay it much mind as she went about her business of cleaning. When she entered the twin bed guest room she noticed the amazing heart quilt that hangs on the wall there.........was......gone!
She was beside herself and broken. How on earth could they have taken it. How could this happen?
She went back to the envelope that she figured contained their check for their stay and opened it. There was indeed a check in there for their stay......but also another one........for several hundreds of dollars and in the memo on the check it said "Quilt".
What? How could they assume that they could just take one of her quilts and leave a check for it. Again....how could this happen?
She tried several times to contact the ladies, but never did get them. She said she then released it to God and had to accept that as much as it broke her, it was gone.
Two years later she was on vacation several hundred miles away from her home and she decided to go to a quilting show that was going on downtown in the little town she was passing thru. As she was walking along she looked up at one of the display tents and she recognized the ladies in the tent. They were the ones that had stayed at her cottage and had taken her quilt!
She approached them and she told me she couldn't control her emotion. As tears began to flow down her cheeks the words just started to come out of her mouth. How the quilts had been gifted to her.......that they were like her children.......and she would never consider selling any of them for any amount of money because of what they meant to her.
The ladies were stunned. They had no idea and a horrible mistake had been made.
They explained to Anne that while staying at the cottage they had seen a little plaque that read "Quilts for Sale". This was something the previous owner had left behind as it was not really a "For Sale" sign, but just a cute little sign for the cottage. Well, because of this sign they began to look on the back of the hanging quilts and noticed there were little tiny price tags on the back of each quilt. Of course, this made perfect sense, because it had been a quilt shop and the previous owner and the Amish had had these quilts for sale. The previous owner had not thought about removing the tags and Anne had not known they were there. These ladies had seen the little sign, seen the little tags on the back of the hanging quilts, put two and two together and thought they were for sale. They made their choice, left a check and took their quilt.
They promptly got Anne's quilt returned to her and to its home on the wall in the twin bed room.
I can guarantee you......there are no longer little price tags hanging on the back of the quilts and the little plaque has been removed as well. Although it has been replaced........
If you are in need of some rejuvenation and meditation this is the perfect place. If you love to look at and appreciate the time, hard work and talent that are required for beautiful quilting and would like to wrap yourself in it for a delightful stay.......
The Cozy Quilt Cottage has you covered!
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Anne working in her garden
We have been going there for years. Many times we break out the fishing poles and have always had good luck here. Tonight we didn't do any fishing. Just relaxing, swimming, grilling, and watching the few boats that passed by.
