This new Tucson quilt shop wants to bridge the gap between quilt-making generations 🧵

Bailey Stout hopes to bridge the gap between older and younger generations through quilting, sewing and hand-dyeing fabrics.

That's why she opened by & by, a quilt shop that houses specially-curated fabric and pattern collections, including ice-dyed fabric that Stout dyed herself.

“I just want it to be an inviting space for people my age who maybe want to get into sewing or just like some sort of hand project,” the 34-year-old shop owner said. “Or even younger generations and show them that your grandmother and your great grandmother's quilts are beautiful and wonderful and made with love, but that doesn't have to be your aesthetic, it could be different. And you can kind of find your own aesthetic and what you want to play with if it's something that's interesting to you.”

Unlike traditional quilting, the next generation of modern quilters are doing things a little differently. They are straying away from traditional muted tones and patterns and are using bright solid colors, thick stitches, negative space and more minimalist designs.

Stout carries fabrics in solid bright colors, non-traditional florals and a few funky patterned fabrics featuring designs like bananas, octopi and mushrooms.

“I think it's important for younger kids and even people my age to maybe connect with that creative part of themselves,” Stout said. “And maybe sewing is not for them and that's fine, they can find that out.”

“I just kept telling myself that it would get better, ‘by and by’”

Stout started by & by as an online business during the pandemic after she was furloughed from her job as a program manager in the global education office at the University of Arizona.

But as someone who grew up in a family that owned a department store, she knew she wanted to open a retail store someday. But she wasn’t sure what her niche would be.

In 2014, she tried quilting for the first time and fell in love with the idea of hand projects. She was introduced to modern quilting through QuiltCon, an annual five-day convention filled with hundreds of modern quilts, workshops, lectures and shopping.

For Stout, modern quilting was a way to get through difficult times in her 20s or what she refers to as her “redacted years.”

“I went through a very tumultuous, tumultuous year,” she said. “I had to move in by myself, I didn't have money for internet, TV or anything. I just moved home from Spain, there were no jobs. It was a wild time. And so I needed something to keep me distracted or busy. I wanted something to keep my mind off of other things but also be productive because I'm a Capricorn and I guess that's just part of my freaking existence.”

But those Saturdays and Sundays she spent quilting allowed her to connect with herself and something bigger than herself — the world of quilting — while working through life’s difficulties and creating something significant with her own two hands.

“I kind of just sat with that pain through quilting and quilting really kind of became like therapy,” Stout said. “I just kept telling myself that it would get better ‘by and by’ and it would be better in the future. I wouldn't always feel like this. I wouldn't always be stuck.”

Now, she is the president of the Tucson chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild, an international guild dedicated to the “growth and development of modern quilting through art, education, and community,” according to the guild’s website.

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After running a successful online shop for the last year, she decided it was time to open a brick-and-mortar location because she felt like she was missing that in-person connection with customers.

“I knew for me that the online thing was not going to be long-term,” she said. “I knew that I needed to have a brick-and-mortar space, so I could have that opportunity to speak to them, you know, and interact and build a community and to have people know what my face looks like because maybe they're not on Instagram or social media at all, so I think that has been a challenge is building that community in the way that I want and also, like, personally crave.”

By & by officially held its grand opening at its new physical location at 2569 E. Fort Lowell Road, near North Tucson Boulevard, on Saturday, April 2.

The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.

The location is also a drop-off spot to donate quilts for Quilt for a Cause, a Tucson organization that raises money for “organizations in Arizona that provide treatment, support services and research for breast and gynecologic cancers,” according to their website.

Creating community one stitch at a time

Although there are many other quilt shops in Tucson, Stout said she plans to work in harmony with the other businesses because they each have their own “flavor.”

“All of the quilt shops in the area are owned by an older generation than me,” Stout said. “But I think that the next sort of generation of quilt-shop owners are my age and we're thinking differently about how to engage the younger generation in sewing. I don't know what you think of when you think of quilting, but quilting, like many other spaces, it's a predominantly white, cisgender, women's space. So (we’re) thinking about how to think outside of that. And just because that is the dominant group doesn't mean that there aren't folks outside of that box sewing and creating. It's just making space for those voices to be heard.”

Whether you’re a lifelong sewer or have never picked up a sewing needle, Stout hopes you’ll leave the shop feeling inspired (even if you don’t pick anything up).

As Stout finds her footing with her new physical location, she plans to spend the summer developing future seminar-style workshops and classes, including ice-dyeing and eco-dyeing, quilting and possibly sewing.

By & by’s first workshops kick off this summer with two classes by Elana Bloom of Solstice Studio. The two workshops include an eco-printing course from 2-5:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1 and an eco-dyeing class from 3-5 p.m. Sunday, June 12.

Even though Stout works full-time at her university job and full-time at her new quilt shop, that’s not stopping her from continuing to find the best ways to connect the Tucson community to the art of quilt-making and other hand projects.

“If they're remotely interested in sewing, quilting or just getting involved in some sort of artistic expression with textiles, keep an eye out for our future classes and endeavors on that front because that's really what I hope to grow,” she said. “And that it's a really inclusive space and so we welcome everybody, whether you've never even looked at a sewing machine, but you want to come in and try. We're really welcoming and inviting and we'd love to have all the newbies.”