Welcome to the Norman General Store
 Historic Marker |  |  Historic Norman General Store entrance |
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 Our "museum" showcases some vintage items from the Kewaunee area. |  Handmade Birdhouses |  Scarves, Vintage Hats |
 Retro Purses |  |  Miniature Quilt Hangers |
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 |  Quilters Dream batting in assorted weights. |  Old coal furnace. |
 Beads, purse hardware and zippers for your crafting projects. |  |  |
 Relax on the sofa or enjoy a game of checkers. |  Edison LED light fixtures on reclaimed barn wood. |  Edison-inspired LED light fixture with dimmer dial, mounted on reclaimed barn wood. |
 Unique light fixture with LED "Grand" Edison bulb. |  Ceiling mount light fixtures with Edison LED bulbs. |  Imagine the meals cooked on this antique stove. Vintage cookwares are for sale. |
 Vintage phone converted into light fixture. LED Edison bulb. |  Colander ceiling fixture with LED Edison bulb. |  |
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 Vintage Aprons |  Handmade apron with oven mitt. | |
 Greeting cards, wrapping paper, bows and ribbon. | Vintage LC Smith Corona typewriter. |  |
 |  |  Vintage and retro jewelry. |
 Retro and modern jewelry. |  The Antler Shed soaps, lotion and soy candles. |  Wisconsin made baking mixes, jams, maple syrups and snacks. Yummy! |
 |  |  We love to make gift baskets or provide gift wrap services. |
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Use left or right arrows to scroll through photos of the Historic Norman General Store
In 1890, Mary sold the property to John Riha, whose family owned several farms near Norman. In 1904, the Rihas built a new house adjacent to the 1870's general store. These are the buildings that make up the Norman General Store property today. The store building came from another location west of Norman, and it is 20 years older than the house. The summer kitchen was relocated to another community in the 1950's and the store closed in 1968.
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The unoccupied property was purchased by Kewaunee County natives, Jerry and Anne Sinkula, in 1988. Jerry grew up near Norman, and spent many hours at the store during his childhood, when it was owned by one of his father's cousins.
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In 1992, they moved the summer kitchen back to Norman and began to restore all of the buildings. They opened the main house and summer kitchen cottage as a bed and breakfast in 1996 and reopened the General Store in 1998.
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In the summer of 2016, Gary and Denene Eagleton discovered the historic Norman General Store & Cottage for sale online. They quickly fell in love with the property and made an offer. Leaving behind the heat and humidity of Florida, the couple moved north at the end of September 2016.
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June 2018 the Norman General Store was reopened. The Summer Kitchen Cottage is available for vacation rentals.
My great grandmother was a quilter. I remember her as always wearing an apron with bits of fabric safety-pinned to it. I now know that those pieces of fabric were parts of her quilt blocks. The fabric was cut with scissors, using templates made from cereal boxes, and the blocks were hand pieced. Her quilts were usually finished with self-binding and they were all hand quilted.
My official start to quilting began over 20 years ago with the Leisure Arts publication "Teach Yourself To Quilt". I did...I read and completed all 13 lessons and made the nine block sampler quilt. But I had a lot to learn and joined a local quilt guild. I found a new friend, Cathy, who became my quilting mentor (my BQFF) and we have enjoyed many adventures in quilting.
I was encouraged to enter my sampler quilt into the state quilt show because it would be a great way to receive impartial advice about my quilting. I found out that my hand appliqué stitches needed to be closer together and that I had a "good binding technique". My appliqué has improved and I'm still using the same bias binding method.
There is always more to learn about quilting and I look forward to sharing ideas, tips and techniques with my fellow quilters. Denene