In place of the tellers and loan officers, customers can now find handmade gifts and exquisite locally made quilts at Patti’s Quilting and Gifts.

The building also holds the Hairology by Courtney salon.

Patti Anderson has been doing longarm quilting out of her home for seven years or so. Her search for a storefront coincided nicely with Heartland Bank’s move to its newly-constructed building in June.

“It took up so much space,” Anderson said. “I’ve been looking for a building quite a few years.”

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter Patti Anderson explains her long-arm quilting machine in the front room at her shop, Patti's Quilting and Gifts. She operated her quilting business out of her home for years, but appreciates having the extra space of a storefront.

The new shop offered even more space than she needed. That’s why having her daughter-in-law’s salon move in as well was a good option.

“She was in a building around the corner. The overhead was so high, we decided to share some of those expenses to make this more doable,” Anderson said. “I’d probably have room for another of that type of business, if they wanted to rent out space.”

Courtney Anderson likes the arrangement.

“It’s nice and big. Also, I have her to talk to when I’m not with a client, so I’m not as lonely,” she said.

Courtney Anderson started her studio in February 2016, and moved into the new building July 15 this year.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter This unusual art piece came from Haiti. The scene is made out of a flattened oil can. Variations of this kind of metalwork are available at Patti's Quilting and Gifts.

Since there was still more room, Patti Anderson decided to find other things to sell.

“We do a little bit of consignment,” she said. “I just decided to carry some gift things, and it snowballed from there.”

Iowa-made aromatherapy items are now on her shelves, as well as patterned cloth, pillows and candles, and some special items from Haiti.

“They make these out of oil cans,” Patti Anderson said of an intricate metal sculpture of animals marching onto Noah’s Ark. “They take an oil can and flatten it out, and then they start cutting it and punching it.”

Patti Anderson said she goes to Haiti quite often on mission trips, and when she was last there in February she simply came upon these in one of the towns.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter Courtney Anderson puts the finishing touches on a haircut for Rose Mallison at Hairology, her salon in the back of her mother-in-law's quilt shop. Moving her business into this building helped save on overhead costsÑand also gives her someone to talk to when she doesn't have a customer.

She’s been to a lot of places through Ioway — Individual Outreach With Youth and Adults.

“We’ve been to Mexico, inner-city LA, lots of mission trips. Haiti’s my favorite one,” Patti Anderson said. “I shouldn’t have a favorite, but I do.”

She officially opened her quilt shop Sept. 5, although it’s been a slow “soft opening.”

“We’ll probably have a grand opening in October or November,” Patti Anderson said.

Patti Anderson has been quilting since she was in seventh grade, and had the shop in her home since 2010.

“My mom’s a big quilter,” she said. “I was a stay-at-home mom with my boys, and I decided I could do this and be a stay-at-home mom.”

Now that they’re grown up, she has more time for her work.

“This is the first time I’ve been in retail,” Patti Anderson said. “There’s lots to learn that I never thought I needed to learn. I didn’t really plan all this; it all just kind of snowballed after I got started.”

She grew up in Gowrie and has lived there all her life, along with her husband, who also owns his own business.

“We stuck around because he wanted to work for the family business,” she said. “We wanted to raise our kids in our hometown school district.”

The school was called Prairie Community when Patti graduated. She then went to AIB and majored in business management.

She’s happy to be able to keep the historic building open.

“I think it was built in 1910,” she said. “I would like to someday maybe restore it back to original.”

It seems a lot bigger inside now then when it was a bank, Courtney Anderson said.

“It looked kind of small before, but it’s huge now that all those big desks have been cleared out,” she said.

Of course, the building still has its big walk-in safe.

“I do a little bit of heat press stuff, so I’ve got my heat press in there,” Patti Anderson said. “I’m just getting started with that. I’m doing some Jaguar shirts, blankets, stuff like that.

“Everybody’s always wanting to see in here. I should have put my gifts in here.”

Courtney agreed with her mother-in-law that Gowrie was a good place to live.

“It’s good to be in a small town where you get to know everybody on a personal level,” she said. “You get a lot of connections in a small town.”