Shop Hop - the long day

14 hours, 450 miles, 8 quilt shops, 8 women, 1 Suburban.   Saturday was an estrogen-drenched day of fun.  I know that somewhere there are photos of people sleeping in the car from early in the day, and drinking in the bar at the end of the day.  But here, you will only get photos of the spoils of the Shop Hop.

Friday night, younger daughter hands me a letter from her home-ec teacher (excuse me...."teen living" class) which states that if she wants to pick her own fabric for the 9-patch pillow project, she needs to bring 1/2 yard of fabric 1 and 1/3 yard of fabric 2 of her choosing.
"Mom, do you have any fabric I could use?"
Seriously?  Can you say "Duhhhh"
After looking through the stash she falls in love with this lone friendship square in an odd shade of blue.

There are some second-choice options picked as well.

The selections on the right contain enough scraps to make a 16" 9-patch, provided that the teacher allows scraps.  And my task for the shop hop was to find more of the dark batiks like the ones shown,  that might go with that light teal on the left.

I was pretty successful in my finds.  And when she's done with her picks, I should have enough fabric for a nice lap quilt.

One of the nice things about shop hops is getting door prizes.  One of the bad things about shop hop door prizes is that they are often things that I am unlikely to use (like brown fabric and cute embroidery patterns).  Here's a partial sampling.

I had a great time with a fun group ladies.  Especially since I got to help 2 of them pick out batik fabrics for projects they were working on!

Shop Hop Round 1

As we were out looking for replacement mirrors for the  new bike, I made a quick detour to the LQS to pick up my Shop Hop Passport.  Normally I would have by-passed this door prize, but seriously...how could I resist.   Nothing says "Bad-ass Biker" like a quilt shop fob.

Mom, if you remember how to get to my blog and you are reading this, please be sure you're sitting and take a deep breath before continuing on.

Today was my first ride on my Big Girl Bike.  OK, it was really my first REAL ride ever.  I took a 15 hour motorcycle skills class last weekend and discovered that despite never having ridden before, I was actually pretty good.  And when I was "just looking" this week, I found the bike I wanted at a reasonable price.  Perfect way to practice? Shop Hop.   I bought 7 pieces of batik that I did not yet own.   The sewing gauge and pressing tool were door prizes.  We passed on the yard stick at Cindy's since we were on the bikes.

Have you seen this Kaufman print?  So worth the outrageous $12.50/yard for a 1/2 yard to make headbands.  I'll wear it on the bike.

And at staff meetings at work.

I think I can fit more fabric into these saddle bags than I can possibly afford.

But if I'm wrong...please note in the top right of the photo, that the bike has a very nice luggage rack.

Note to self: buy cargo net for bike asap...just in case.

Treasure Valley Shop Hop

OK...I'm a little annoyed.

I've been in 2 of my LQS's in the past week and only inadvertently discovered that the Shop Hop in my area starts TODAY.

In shop #1...they were cutting FQ of batik in preparation for the hoards.  Cool.  So I went to shop #2 to find out more details, and only the owner in the back (who was consulted twice) could provide any info before it "officially starts on Thursday".  Seriously?  Have they never heard of SOCIAL NETWORKING?   Shop Hop was not on the blogs of either of my LQS.

Even my most  Internet-savvy shop had nothing.

The reason that I was even made aware of this was that someone "Googled" Treasure Valley Shop Hop and stumbled upon my random entry at #8 saying I was looking for someone to go with Oregon with me and she left me a post.

Sheesh.  So...this is my Public Service Announcement.

Treasure Valley Shop Hop, is listed as Treasure Shop Hop and starts today.
Boise Basin Quilters (BBQ) have the most comprehensive description that I could find.

Most of the links to Treasure Shop Hop don't work, but after tons of searching found this one that does.

Emily and I are doing the Oregon loop on Saturday.  Look for a tall brunette cruizin' with a red-head.  Buy us a round of fat quarters when you see us.