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Last week, June 22-25, my Mom, Ruben and I did the
Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop. We spread it over 3 1/2 days and visited 53 out of the 56 shops. I had never done one before and probably won't be doing another one anytime soon. It was exhausting. Typically we got up around 4-5 am and were on the road by 6am. Most of the days we were visiting the last shop just before closing time of 8pm. This meant on some days I didn't get home until after 10pm. We drove about 1700 miles during the 3 1/2 days.
This is the poster of all of the shop blocks made up into a quilt. A few of the blocks aren't pictured, and one block (the old lady in the middle of the floating blocks on the bottom right) was not possible to get because the shop went out of business and closed before the shop hop. Sorry about the blurry look of this. I can't take a photo of my poster because the flash keeps making a big spot in the center. This pic is from the
shop hop website.
Day 1, Rest area on the way to Vancouver, Washington. Our strategy was to drive as far away as we could at o'dark thirty in the morning and get to the first shop before it opened at 9am. Then we would work our way back home stopping at shops on the list along the way. The theory was, if you missed shops close to home, it would be easy to do those on the last day. But if you started from home and worked your way out, you wouldn't want to finish the outlying shops on the last days because you would be tired and wouldn't want to drive so far to get them.
Day 2, at the Mukilteo/Clinton Ferry, waiting to leave the dock. This day we drove up through Whidbey Island and got two different shops. Then we left the island in the north by the
Deception Pass Bridge (a very high, very scary bridge) and got two more shops in Anacortes. Then north to Lynden and worked our way south.
Goofing around before the Langley quilt shop opened on Whidbey Island.
If you don't know what a quilt shop hop is or have never heard of it, it is a group of shops that organize a couple of days for people to visit each shop. You get a passport, which is just a listing of all the shops, that you take to the shop and have them stamped. In exchange, you get a design for a quilt block and enough fabric to make that block. Each quilt shop designs their own block. Some blocks are pieced, some have applique, and some have embroidery. Kids over a certain age can get either a full size block or a 4" square of novelty fabric.
Here is where I admit that we bent the rules a little. Ruben is only 9 years old but the shop hop rules want the kids to be 10 to get a regular block instead of the novelty fabric. Most of the novelty fabrics the shops were handing out were gag worthy. So, being that my Mom gave me life and as such is a goddess in my eyes, I had her dub Ruben as being 10 for 3 1/2 days. You will be happy to know that he is back to being 9 again now.
Day 3, Bainbridge Island. For some reason we ran into quite a lot of trouble getting to about a half dozen different shops in different towns because of road construction. The GPS on my phone would get us in the general vicinity, then we had to rely on road maps to get us around the construction. They say in Western Washington that we only have two seasons. The rainy season and the road work season.
This is an example of what the quilt shop gives you for your block. On the right is the instructions and enough fabric to make the block. The shops are only supposed to give you three pieces of fabric. If their block requires more fabric they usually had completion kits for purchase ($1-5) that include additional fabric, embroidery floss, transfers, etc. You can see an example of the completion kit on the left.
I have to do each block twice, one for me and one for Ruben. Or as my Mom pointed out, the practice one (Ruben's) and then my block!
Here are my first two blocks. Notice the different initials on the handkerchiefs. I have been doing the piecing in my sewing area, and the embroidery while I watch TV. I'm enjoying doing the embroidery because it gives me something to do. Usually when I watch TV I feel impatient because I'm not doing anything useful. It is hard for me to just watch TV and not do anything.
Here is the next block I am in the middle of working on. This one is taking me a lot more time to do than the first two blocks because there is a lot more embroidery. It is done in a simple back stitch. I had to look all the embroidery stitches up on the internet because I've never done embroidery, although I will probably do more in the future.
Has anyone every done a shop hop or something similar?
