"Vintage" Reveal: Tin Cup Store

Way back in 2019, hubby and I went ATVing in Colorado for the first time. We stayed at Taylor Park Reservoir. One of our rides took us to the almost-a-ghost-town of Tin Cup, Colorado. Getting off our ATV's, I was immediately smitten with the rustic Tin Cup Store and I took this picture.

Almost right away after returning from that trip, I started wanting to render my photograph into fabric. In the intervening years I’ve thought about how to do it. When the most recent list of prompts was announced and “Vintage” was among them, I knew Tin Cup Store’s time had come. Here is my finished quilt:

This is what Wikipedia tells us about Tin Cup, Colorado:  

In October 1859, prospector Jim Taylor panned some gold from Willow Creek, and carried it back to camp in a tin cup; he named the valley “Tin Cup Gulch.” For years the area was the site of seasonal placer mining, but no year-round communities were established, partly because of the danger of Native American hostilities.

In 1878, lode deposits were discovered in the area, and the town of Virginia City was laid out in March 1879. By the 1880 census, the town had a population of 1,495. As Virginia City, it was incorporated in August 1880, but confusion with Virginia City, Nevada, and Virginia City, Montana, caused the residents to change the name. The town was reincorporated in July 1882 as Tin Cup.

The town population declined when the mines were exhausted. The post office closed in 1918, and the last town election was held in 1918.

 Here's an image from when the store was still operational.

(Image credit: "Tin Cup store and gas station" by peterichman is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

Although some sources claim Tin Cup Store is still open during the summer, I have my doubts about that. When we visited in 2023, the doors and windows were boarded up, and it looked completely abandoned. If you're interested, a photo gallery of the area can be seen right here. 

Rendering the photograph into fabric presented some challenges. The first challenge was choosing fabrics I could use to create the scene, while simultaneously maintaining my sanity. I’m sure I purchased more fabrics than the ones shown below, but these were the ones selected to complete my project.

Starting out, it made sense to create the peak of the roof and its shadow first. From there, I could created the sign and the vertical board siding, tucking the “boards” under the shadow of the roof as I went. When I was finished with the first day’s effort, I had it this far:

It took several days, but eventually, I had it finished from side to side.

The horizontal board siding had its own set of challenges. For one thing, there were some important details that I could not possibly accomplish at this small scale. I gave it a lot of thought. I could leave it off, but these particular details gave the building its character. They seemed necessary ingredients to really capture the spirit of the place. And so I printed this small section onto fabric and cut out the detailed pieces I wanted…the elevation of the place at 10,157 feet. Also, the address number and the “Tin Cup Store” sign cut from license plates. Just below it, can you see the “Tin Cup” name created with horseshoes? Cool, huh? And finally, the license plate off to the right. They were cut out and fused like any other applique.

The sign on the log was embroidered using my machine’s triple stitch.

The screen door gave me pause. How could I create a screen from fabric? Eventually, I decided to add tulle over the top of the inner door pieces to create the suggestion of a screen.

There were a lot of pieces and layers, and so I created it separately, then peeled it up and fused it to the whole.

When it was all finished, it looked like this. I just needed a background.

A fabric for the gravel driveway and a woodsy background were selected and pieced together, and then the store was added.

It was quilted pretty simply. I first stitched down all the individual pieces, and then added some meandering in the gravel for texture.

To finish off the background, I added a sort of swoopy branchy thing around the trees.

A green binding was added, and it was finished. It ends up at 18 x 22 inches.

I’m pretty happy with this quilt mainly, I think, because I love the place. Somehow rendering a scene into fabric brings another dimension to what was once just a two-dimensional photograph. It seems to awaken memories in the way a photograph cannot. It occurs to me that it is the attention to detail that evokes memories, but I’m only guessing. Here’s how it looks from the back.

This was a fun project for me, and the fulfillment of a creative dream. I hope you've enjoyed learning a little about Tin Cup, Colorado, and I hope you like my quilt.