Shop hoppin'!

Hoo, boy - it's been a LOOONG day!  This week is the Maricopa County Independent Quilt Shop Association Quilt Shop Tour!  My BFF, Rachel, and I attempted to complete it last year, and got most of the way through.  Ok, she completely finished it, but I still had a few stores that were unvisited...  It's a fun little shop hop - you buy a passport for a few bucks, get it stamped at every shop you visit, and if you get the whole thing stamped, it's entered into a drawing for some awesome prizes.  After our adventure last year, we both knew we wanted to do it again this year.  The chances of winning the prizes aren't that high - one of the shop owners we chatted with today said that his store alone had sold more than a thousand passports this year!  Multiply that by 13 shops, and, well...    The real reason why we're so excited to do this every year is because it gives us the opportunity to visit some shops that we don't get to often (some are 50ish miles away).  Each of the shops also demos new products or books, and we always discover something insanely useful.  In fact last year's hop was when I discovered friction pens and the Lil Twister for the first time.

This year, we also decided to be really committed to finishing.  That meant that I took a day off of work, Rachel set aside her studies, and we spent an entire day hitting all 13 shops.  Here's how the day went down! 

Shop #0 - STARBUCKS!!  Must get fuel for the journey!  

Yup, I made the cup cozies.  Planning to make more for my craft fairs! 

Necessary, primarily because we started at 8:30 am, and had to drive 47 miles to our first destination, which was... 

Shop #1 - In Stitches! 

This was a shop I didn't get to last year, so I was excited to check it out.  They had some fun stuff, and it was definitely a good start to the day.  I wound up picking up a charm pack (note the beginning of a theme throughout the day), and some little dauber thingies that they demoed, which are supposed to be super helpful at fishing lint and other grodies out of your machine.

Shop #2 - Quilter's Bee

Another one I didn't hit last year.  Here, they demoed a different type of template for making twister quilts.  It's a pretty cool technique, and I went ahead and picked up the template.

  I also picked up a couple of fat quarters, and yes, another charm pack.

All of the shops were also challenged to make their interpretation of the Arizona State Block.  Here's the version that Quilter's Bee put together:

Shop #3 - Sun Valley Quilts 

At this shop we had the treat of seeing Kaye Wood, who now lives in the Valley and teaches classes here, show off some of her quilts and techniques for cutting fussy cuts.

Shop #4 - Arizona Quilts 

This is a great shop, and even though it's on the other side of town, I visit it relatively often.  They were just getting ready to set up a display for Good Morning! by Me and My Sisters, and as you can see, they couldn't make much progress.

Rach and I and the other shoppers were pulling items faster than they could put them up!  Of course, I indulged in some charm packs...  

You can also see my passport here in this pic! Quite a few stamps to go at this point... 

Shop #5 - The Olde World Quilt Shoppe 

Oh.  My.  Word.  I love this place.  It's the kind of quilt shop that would cause me to go broke if it were any closer to me.  It smells like heaven when you walk in.  The displays are GORGEOUS.  Simply paradise.  

This picture doesn't even BEGIN to do the shop justice... 

I actually held back here.  I did get the demoed item, which was a pretty amazing pair of scissors.  They are going to be shipping them out to me, since they were so popular that the shop was sold out after the first couple of days of Shop Hop.  (I'll post more details about those when I get them - can't remember the name for the life of me!)  I also picked up some French General Yardage cuts and I also succumbed to bag fever.  Yes, I picked up the pattern for the Weekender by Amy Butler.  I probably won't tackle it until after the craft fairs are done, so the holiday season should be pretty curse-word free.  

Shop #6 - Quiltz

At this shop, Grandma Nell demoed some pretty cool techniques for using melted crayon wax to "paint" fabric that's been cut and backed with steam-a-seam, for applique.

Pretty neat technique, but not my cup of tea.  They've got a great selection of fabrics, and I wound up picking up a small FQ bundle.

Shop #7 - Bernina Connection

This shop is actually relatively close to my office, so I stop by here occasionally for the random notion or two.  The product they were demoing was a template that helps you to construct piping and trim the edge.  Not really something I'd use, so I passed on that.  It was pushing 1:30 pm at this point, so we were darn hungry too.

Time to refuel!

(We did stop at Rubio's to refuel ourselves, too!)

Shop #8 - etc.

I cannot believe I've never been here before.  I was thrown off by the fact that they are primarily a scrapbooking shop.

Just look at that stack of layer cakes in the foreground!

But, whoa.  Pre-cut nirvana.  Probably the most modern-friendly LQS I've been to.  The first time I've seen Flea Market Fancy in person!!  They were demoing a template that helps to make curvy scalloped quilts, but right now, curves are not something that I'm interested in at all, so I went straight to ogling all the pretties.... I held off buying anything here, because I just couldn't choose.  I will be going back.  Soon.

Shop #9 - A Quilter's Oasis

Marmalade.  Got me some.  Yeah, buddy!  'Nuff said.

Shop #10 - The Quilter's Ranch

The demo here was pretty cool - got to see a number of different patterns/uses for some of the new vinyl/oilcloth that's been coming out.  I didn't pick anything up on this trip, but I could see coming back for some of that Bungle Jungle oilcloth - wouldn't that make super cute, and yet practical, bibs??

Some of the projects included shower totes w/ mesh and zip bags!

Shop #11 - The Cutting Edge

This quilt shop is actually the closest to our home, so Rach and I get here relatively often.  We poked around a bit, but the finish line was looking sooooooo close.....  so we didn't stay long, and headed over to:

Shop #12 - Zoe's Trunk

This is probably the shop that I frequent the most, so there wasn't much new to discover here, but that never keeps me from getting in trouble.  I got a new thingy for my finger, which looks like a large banjo finger pick, but helps with turning out corners and splitting seams for pressing, etc.  Hoping that I can manage to stop burning my fingers now...  I also picked up a Little Black Dress charm pack (yes, yet another charm pack...), and a few FQ's and half yards of Dear Mr. Claus.  Can't wait to play with it!!

Shop #13 - 3 Dudes Quilting

Our final destination!  Whew!  I am so glad this was our last stop, since the guys always have freshly baked, homemade cookies for customers as they walk in.  Ahhh....

I picked up some Little Gatherings yardage that I needed to finish a project, and a couple of fat quarters, and got my last stamp.  I was able to hand in my passport, fully stamped and finished!  No pictures here, because we were D-O-N-E - done! We hopped back in the car, and arrived back at home at about 6:30 pm.

A very long day, but all throughout, Rachel and I had a great time.  Beyond just collecting some new goodies and seeing new products and techniques, we had an awesome day hanging out.  Last month was officially the 20th anniversary of the two of us meeting in driver's ed class, so it's pretty fitting to celebrate by spending all day in the car, no?  Can't wait for next year!


**Edited to include Zoe's Trunk.... Rach noticed that I only had 12 shops down, and wanted to make sure that we got full credit for hitting **13** in one day!