Eileen Roski's shop on Broadway did more than bring colorful cotton fabric to Dunedin quilters.

It stitched together a sisterhood.

The owner of Florida’s largest quilting store, Rainbow's End Quilt Shoppe, across from Sam’s Seafood, didn't set out to carry over 25,000 bolts of 100 percent cotton fabric, but Roski’s life hit a snag in 1982 that ultimately brought her sister and niece into business together.

To make more money, the company she worked for was moving out of state, but she did not want to move with them.

Roski imagined that it was possible to follow a new pattern in her life. She called her sister, Maryellen Facsina, and they agreed to open a craft consignment store on Douglas Avenue in downtown Dunedin.

While Roski was trying to not move out of Florida, her sister was trying unsuccessfully to move to Florida. Facsina was living in Ohio but when she told her boss she was leaving, he said she was too valuable for him to lose. So Facsina spent almost 30 years flying back and forth each week. She worked in the shop on the weekends and her daughter Michelle Facsina, a college student, stepped in to help fulfill the daily needs.

A while after the business opened, Maryellen Facsina started quilting. She displayed some pieces at the shop, and one day the wife of a Toronto Blue Jay came in and asked if Fascina could teach her to quilt.

“Bring some friends and we’ll create a class,” Facsina replied.

The sisters ordered 500 bolts of fabric and their life’s needle changed direction once again. They outgrew their Douglas Avenue location within a decade, and moved to 941 Broadway, where they have built it into the largest quilting store in Florida.

“We have seen a big increase in young customers who are using our fabrics to make beautiful, creative clothes and crafts that they sell online,” Michelle Fascina says.

Knowledgeable staff, attention to detail, spectacular displays and the fact that they have everything is what keeps Rainbows End growing. Aside from the large cotton collection they also carry silks, velvets, ribbons, sewing machines and hundreds of books.  

Want to Go?

Stop by and look at all the fabrics, get your sewing machine repaired, or take a purse-making class taught by a local designer, and then review your experience on Patch!

• Where: Rainbow's End, 941 Broadway
• Contact: 727-733-8572, www.​rainbowsendquiltshoppe.​com
• Hours: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, closed.