Dear Friends in Sewing,

    I have entered my 30th year of servicing all aspects of the sewing industry. My modest beginning started in a second floor room of our first apartment with the "complete servicing" of a 66 class straight stitch Singer and has gradually evolved to a full service "sewing sanctuary", complete with machines, fabric, notions, thread, classes, special events and the occasional organ concert!

    With these thirty years, I can truly say I have seen the highs and lows of the industry and have survived them all. Shops have come and gone. Fads have come and gone - remember "pin weaving"? How about "Rose Bud" - I had two dresses made from that! It saddens me beyond words to see that our wonderful Wrights of Sturbridge has closed but it certainly clarifies that these are hard times for the sewing and craft industry.

    I enter into the second half of this year with a renewed dedication to offering you, my sewing enthusiasts, the best possible service and product I can possibly provide. Sewing and quilting have become important activities of comfort and creative expression and the Charlton Sewing Center is committed to providing a "Sanctuary" for women, men and children to sew, socialize and become community.

    We are also committed to strengthening the sewing, quilting, beading and textile art retail community of central Massachusetts and have developed a map of "where is it" so that when you visit the area you can quickly find all the shops to create your own "shop hop"! You are invited to send me additional names of shops that you frequent so that the map will be as accurate and complete as possible.

    I look forward to serving you in the upcoming years with new product, exhibits and a continued dedication to the sewing industry.

Cathy Racine - owner - The Charlton Sewing Center
New England's Sewing Sanctuary

Charlton Sewing Center is located in Charlton, Ma. We are a short driving distance from Worcester, Springfield, and Boston, MA. as well as Hartford, CT. Nashua, New Hampshire, and Providence R.I. We offer Pfaff, Bernina, Elna and Necchi Sewing Machines and Sergers and have a wide assortment of quilting fabric, sewing patterns and specialty threads. We are your New England source for the Handiquilter home machine long arm quilting system.
For fiber artists, we offer embellishing fibers such as Angelina, crystals and sewing notions from Clover and June Taylor.
We stock a wide assortment of sewing furniture from Horn of America.
We stock Wonderfil Tutti, Wonderfil Frutti, Wonderfil Razzle, Wonderfil Sizzle, Wonderfil Accent, Blendables by Sulky, Varigated Mettler, Robison Anton and other threads for machine embroidery, quilting, garment sewing and home decorating.
We offer sewing and quilting lessons for children and adults.We offer used sewing machines, quilting machines and sergers for all the major brands including HQ16, Bernina, Pfaff, Singer, Necchi and more. We always discount from list price for sewing machines and sergers.