After successful careers in the medical field, Patrick and Dawn Farrier took the unlikely step of filling a converted, ’70s-era bowling alley in Buellton with an array of goodies for people who love to sew. Initially driven by a simple desire to make new friends, they launched a creative revolution that reaches well beyond the boundaries of the Santa Ynez Valley.
Nothing less than fabric-shop-as-spectacle, the couple’s aptly named The Creation Station encourages customers and friends (often one and the same) to indulge their artistic impulses, sew to their heart’s content, and especially, to “fear no color!”
“It’s not your grandma’s quilt shop,” Dawn admits with a hearty laugh, her cherry-hued hair revealing an artist’s heart. “When people see they have that creative side, it opens them up to making things that might not even be garments and to try stuff on their own.”
Eye-catching displays include old-fashioned ironing boards holding notions, bedsprings hung with quilt patterns and a shimmering backdrop of aluminum pop-tops suspended from bicycle wheels.
“Every display is something we’ve built or made from found objects,” says Patrick. “We try to reuse things that are being thrown out.”
Among the fabric, ribbons and thread essential to quilting and sewing, observers will notice an assortment of vintage sewing machines and, yes, antique lawn sprinklers.
“People come to our store for all kinds of reasons,” Patrick smiles. “For our collection of oddities, to see my hair—which has been orange, purple and blue—and because we encourage people to work beyond just quilting.
“We get every age here,” he says, “moms, kids, teens, grandmas, grandpas. Multiple generations come to see the shop.” Every June Creation Station serves as an unforgettable stop on a weekend shop tour hosted by members of the Central Coast Quilt Shop Association. Every year Dawn and Patrick choose a theme for Creation Station for the shop tour, and set up a Shop Challenge, inspiring customers to make a quilt using at least one recognizable portion of a particular fabric.
Quilters who participate in the Shop Challenge must complete their quilts about a month before the tour. Everyone receives a “participation treat,” while the winner, determined by a Viewers’ Choice vote, gets a gift certificate for 20 yards of fabric.
“This year I found fabric with ‘Pow!’ and ‘Bam!’ on it,” Dawn explains, “so we picked superheroes as the theme, but ones that we made up. We had Battgirl and Bobbin, I was Brainstorm and my dad was Superdad: Man of Spiel. If a new customer came in, we handed them a giant ‘Pow!’ cutout, so Dad could spot them and give them a tour of the store.
“Next year’s Shop Challenge theme is ‘A Blast from the Past,’” she continues. “And the shop theme will be bowling. We want to set up a real bowling lane, so if a customer gets a strike they win something.”
The Creation Station maintains a retreat center next door to the fabric shop, where quilters can learn beginning quilting techniques or the finer points of machine quilting from experienced teachers. Rounding out the faculty, Dawn’s mom, Darlene, teaches students how to knit and crochet with fabric scraps.
The Farriers also host regular, weekend-long “Brown Bag” retreats, where participants, including Dawn, can “hang out, have fun and just sew.”
A ground-breaking Men’s Retreat drew masculine quilters from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo County for three days of power stitching. “It’s a chance for guys to come together and be creative,” says Patrick, who has made five quilts himself. “We set up a grill for them, because guys always want to grill.”
Dawn holds a theory about the sewing arts and the effect that The Creation Station has on her friends and customers. “We’re their therapy,” she declares. “Buying fabric is cheaper than professional therapy and I like to think we’re providing a community service. It feels like home here,” she adds. “A lot of people feel like it’s their store, too. It’s not just a business, it’s our open door life that we share.”