The Pennsylvania Dutch village of Oley consists of one street of tidy homes showcasing some superb Victorian details and architecture. The center of town is occupied by The Oley Valley Inn with a long-standing reputation as a fine dining establishment. The shop specializes in fabrics for quilts, quilted clothing, quilted dolls and toys as well as stencils, threads, fibers and other accessories. A quilt is something that provides more than just warmth. It can be a way of using leftover fabric pieces, a priceless family heirloom or even an intricate work of art.
Most quilts take hundreds and hundreds of hours from conception to completion.
Gail's own love of quilting was instilled in her by her grandmother, who made hundreds of them in her lifetime. Back then quilting was most often used as a cost saving measure to use up all the fabric scraps left over from other projects. Nowadays, quilting is more of a creative process and a means of personal artistic expression for most quilters. Gail Kessler began working at Summer House at a previous location, when the business was owned by Joan Mege. Joan founded it in 1975 and ran it out of her home until the mid 1980's when she moved it to a retail location on Main Street in Oley.