Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.
~Camile Pissarro



Darci Schipnewski, founder and designer of PastThyme Patterns often gives credit to the "humble places" in life that have given her the inspiration for the patterns she creates.

Darci grew up in a rural setting on her parents dairy farm near the banks of the Minnesota River in Lac Qui Parle county.  From an early age she found a love and appreciation for nature, and simple things, both of which can be found in her designs today.

Darci initially began her designing with cloth dolls while she sewed under a name of Darci's Dolls.  Darci quickly became well known in the area as well as many craft shows for her Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls.  She also created Sugar Beet Dolls ( a beet shaped doll that relfected the work of many farmers in the rural area) that became instant successes at many area shows.

From doll designs came a dream to one day have a quilt shop and her dream came true in 2002.  She opened up Shades of the Past Quilt Shop next to her husbands repair shop in Clara City, a small prairie town in rural Minnesota.  

What once started out as simply a free pattern of the month to attract customers into the shop snowballed into what her pattern company is today.  Darci still designs a free monthly pattern for the group of ladies who meet once a month for their "Woolie Wednesday" meetings.

As Darci began expanding on the cotton section of the shop, so did her patterns to reflect this growing addition of more cotton bolts.  
Today, Darci designs in both hand-dyed wools, wool felts, and cotton fabric prints.  
  

Darci feels blessed to have had such wonderful love and encouragement from her husband, children, parents, and many friends along the way to help share her love of creating and quilting with people like you!