left: A three-story, 19th-
century brick Victorian is
home to The PickleDish.
below: The Spiral Lone
Star quilt, designed by Jan
Krentz, incorporates bright
contemporary prints.W
hen you pull up to
the stately brick
Victorian housing
The PickleDish Quilt Shop and
Studio in Carleton Place, Ontario,
you might think you’re actually at
someone’s home. In this case, you’d
be right. The shop, named after a
variation on the Double Wedding
Ring quilt pattern, fills the first
floor of the brick structure while
owners Jan and Steve Kittle live on
the second and third floors.
Carleton Place, about an hour
southwest of Ottawa, was once a
thriving mill town known for a rich
logging and timber industry. The
wealth created by this industry
resulted in homes like the Kittles’,
which were built as status symbols
as well as domiciles. Today, the
community is quiet and thriving,
with a growing population of new
homeowners who enjoy their
proximity to a popular lake district.
The old home is a perfect spot
for Jan’s shop, as she is a passionate
proponent of marrying traditional
with contemporary. She might, for
example, incorporate unexpected
colors or change up the scale of a
tried-and-true pattern. She’s a
fabric fanatic and carefully curates
an inventory—also a blend of
traditional and modern—that
customers won’t find in the other
17 quilt shops within a 60-mile
radius of The PickleDish.