KALONA

What makes up the fabric of Kalona? Quilts, of course, given that the town is the Quilt Capital of Iowa, but if you were to look around the downtown shopping district, you might also say antiques, as vintage goods feature in many shops. Sometimes you’ll also find that quilts and antiques marry, as they most certainly do during the Kalona Quilt Show & Sale every spring.

At Collected Treasures Antiques & Quilts, a new shop opening March 1, quilts and antiques also marry, although the two don’t become one; rather, each retains its own identity. And that makes for a beautiful and inspiring relationship, as you will see when you visit the shop.

When it became clear that English River Antiques and Collectibles would be closing for good at the end of 2024 due to the death of its owner, David Caplan, friends Martha Ann Crawford, Colette Yoder, and Ann Yotty lamented the loss of another antique shop. Boxcar Treasures had moved out of Kalona a couple years earlier, and the fate of Pink Begonia was in question as the building was up for sale.

“We didn’t want this to be an empty space, and Martha Ann and Ann now had nowhere to go with their stuff,” Yoder says of the situation they faced.

All three of them had experience in the local antique, vintage, and handmade market, so they knew the lay of the land. Yoder grew up in Kalona, helping out at her parents’ retail businesses, and she creates her own quilts and memory bears; Yotty had been buying and selling vintage at Pink Begonia; and Crawford had been manning English River for a decade, getting to know its customers as well as selling her own finds.

“We decided we would just explore it,” Yoder says of the idea that they could continue the tradition English River Antiques had started in the B Avenue storefront, only reimagined as their own. When the retail space went up for rent, “we asked about it real quick.”

Crawford remembers the three of them, who all serve on the Kalona Historical Village board, chatting out in the summer heat during the Cemetery Walk at Sharon Hill, mourning the loss of another shop. “Somehow you just have to go be what you don’t want to lose sometimes,” she remembers thinking.

“It was kind of a meeting of the minds that this is something we could do and that we would enjoy doing,” she says. “I don’t know whether we rescued the building, or the building rescued us.”

Needless to say, the trio nabbed the space and went to work ‘rescuing the building’ in the first months of 2025. It took five days for the remaining English River merchandise to be moved out, and then the space was cleaned. Crawford, Yoder, and Yotty moved in, asking Hardman Painting to give the dark walls a fresh new shade of sky blue.

Then they invited vendors to rent space and set up their displays, which folks were eager to do.

“We have 19 vendors,” Yoder says. “We have a variety of everything, from antiques, collectables, Pokemon cards, an Elvis collection, quilts, wall hangings, table runners, homemade purses, homemade teddy bears, pretty much a little of everything.”

The ratio is about 30% handmade, 70% antiques and collectibles, the ladies estimate.

“We have something for every generation,” Crawford adds. “We get a lot of teenagers” – who head right to the Pokemon cards – “and then we get students from the university who are setting up an apartment and want to come find some vintage stuff.”

Out-of-town adventurers who seek things to add to their collections, whether they be teapots, cookie jars, or classic toys, are another group who will likely find something that catches their eye.

“The only thing we don’t really have is tools,” she concludes, although “guy things” are expected to materialize.

Each of the co-owners has their own role in the business: Yoder is managing the shop, as she is skilled in this regard (she is also office manager at The News next door), while Crawford and Yotty are “the worker bees” who will assist customers.

On Valentine’s Day weekend, the ladies opened the shop for a trial run, which “considering how cold it was, went really well,” Yoder reports. Although freezing rain was predicted for that Saturday, it never manifested, and plenty of shoppers made the trip to Kalona. Everyone who previewed the store left with purchases, and nearly every vendor made a sale.

“We’re piggybacking on Dave’s success,” Crawford says, and while she may be right – English River had developed a 5-star reputation over the decades – surely the new owners are contributing some special magic of their own. The welcoming and spacious store that exists today, with plenty of space to move through for those with assistive devices, is thanks to their own efforts and vision.

But don’t take this reporter’s word for it; find out for yourself at Collected Treasures’ grand opening on Saturday, March 1. A new world of Kalona-style charm awaits.

Collected Treasures is located at 417 B Avenue, Kalona. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday – Saturday.