QuiltMouse

It is always fun to go shopping.  It is especially fun Quilt Shopping!  At Quilt Shops the staff are friendly & helpful; and if you are a ‘regular,’ it can be like visiting with friends.

While Quilt Shopping, you can meet & visit with lots of interesting people.  At one store in Pennsylvania, I met a lady from Australia who was taking advantage of the large selection of fabric.  She told me that “back home” she didn’t have quilt shops like we have.

BUT, on a Shop Hop the fun is so much more!  There are a number of shops working together.  There are door prizes.  There are lots of fun & beautiful fabrics and the shops have lots of samples & kits. A Hop can become a Mini-Holiday, especially when you get to spend some quality car time with family & friends. 

My DH and I like to take several days and do the Quilters’ Quest in our area.  We take our time, enjoy the drive/scenery, eat out & visit lots of friendly shops/shoppers!  This year I had a special time visiting the three ‘Western’ shops with my Cousin, Karen, a new quilter!!

This year, the Quilters’ Quest Shops’ Projects included 10 Free Quilt Patterns – a different one at each store.  Each store had a Strip Set – a package of Ten 2-1/2” fabric strips.  If you spent over $30, you got one set free, or you could buy a set for $5.  Collect all 10 different Strip Sets and use them to make one of the featured free patterns.  Each store offered a finishing kit for their quilt.

DH has a number of ‘responsibilities’ during the Quilters’ Quest.  One is to take pictures, so we can later remember what we saw!

Quilters’ Quest 2012– Quilts from Strips VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I’ve got the Strip Sets – Now what will I make with them!

Tomorrow – More Fun at the Quilters’ Quest – Scavenger Hunt.

Zonya’s ready to hit the Road!  She has our Quilters’ Quest 2011 Bag and she’s ready to fill it up!

Today’s agenda was to visit the four “Local” Quilt Shops participating in the Quilters’ Quest that are on the Eastern Loop – La Plata (Southern MD), Annapolis, & 2 in the Baltimore Area – Towson & Catonsville.

Shops open at 9:30 AM, so we are heading to the farthest store – Material Girls, in La Plata, MD.  We discovered that they actually opened at 9:00 am, and a bus-load of quilters sponsored by Jinny Beyers Studio had just arrived moments before we did!  This is a nice, large store; so even though there were lots of shoppers it didn’t feel too busy.  We had a nice visit with Mike and checked out their expanded shop and all the Bernina’s they have.

I picked up a cute little pattern and a few fat quarters.  The pattern makes 3 different sizes of runners – one is small enough to cover the top of the toilet tank! 

 Our 2nd stop was in Annapolis, Maryland, at the Cottonseed Glory Quilt Shop. This shop is in the bottom floor of an older building in the Historic District.  We got to the shop just a few minutes before the bus that followed us from the last store.  Unfortunately this is a small store with lots & lots of fabric, but little moving room.  I picked up a couple of fabric panels, fat quarters and a couple of yards of fabric.

We headed north and went to Bear’s Paw Fabrics in Towson, MD. There were a few other shoppers, so we had a nice quiet time to shop.  We got some pictures of the quilt the store made with the Quest Strips. We’ve been getting lots of pictures at each store, and I will post them in an album later.

Finally, we got around a very busy Baltimore Beltway and arrived at our 4th Shop of the day – Seminole Sampler, in Catonsville, MD. Like Bear’s Paw, this store is kind-a out-of-the-way, and not in a ‘typical’ shopping center.  It is one of the smaller stores, but friendly.  There was a lady there working on a quilt to be donated to a family in NY suffering from the affects of Super-storm Sandy. Quilters are wonderful! 

They had made lots of nice items using the Quest Feature Fabric and were thoughtful enough to make kits.  I picked up a pillowcase kit (top/left under the basket) and a table runner kit (center/bottom). I also found a pattern for a table runner (center/left in picture) and a small zippered purse (center/right in the picture) that uses the strips that are part of the Quest.

The day was getting late, so we headed west on 40 and stopped at The Canopy in Ellicott City, to pick up some BBQ for dinner.  So ended our Day #2.

BTW – The BBQ was delish!

Well, it’s begun!  This year we have 10 whole days to Quest!  This is good because the 10 “Local” Quilt Shops that make up the MD/DC/VA Quilters’ Quest are scattered all over the place.

This is the 5th time that we have participated in the Quest.  In 2007, I was new to quilting and this gave me a chance to learn where the Quilt Shops were in the area.  If I remember, we went to all 10 shops.  The next couple of times, I don’t remember making it to all the shops.  Last year we did complete the Quest.

So, today was Day #1 of the 2012 Quest.  We started this morning about 9:00 am and got home about 3:00 pm – putting 94 miles on the car.

First we headed north to Mt. Airy, MD, and Patches Quilting & Sewing was were we began.

We timed it just right.  They had just had a busload of shoppers leave and another busload was on it’s way.  We had a nice visit with the staff.  I found a ruler that I needed and picked up some fat quarters and the shop’s featured 2-1/2” strips.  Each store will have a different group of strips and after stopping at all 10 shops we will have 100 2-1/2” strips and 10 different quilt patterns that can be made with the strips.

The next shop we went to was Capital Quilts in Gaithersburg, MD.  I guess you can call this “My Local Quilt Shop.”  This shop is the closest to our house.  I picked up a yard of the special, limited edition Quest fabric, plus some “Mary Ellen’s Best Press Spray” and a couple of Fat Quarters.  I picked up their free quilt pattern and when you spend $30 or more you get the strips free.

Finally we headed to Great Falls, VA, and to Jinny Beyers’ Studio.  Jinny is known nationally & internationally as a quilt maker, author, lecturer & fabric designer.  The Limited Edition Quest Fabric is her design. So many pretty fabrics!  I could have spent all day there!!  Each shop has a number of quilts & other projects featuring the Quest fabric. There was a BOM (Block of the Month) included in the pre-Quest Newsletter which highlighted the Quest Fabric.  I purchased a kit to make a quilt/wall-hanging using the BOMs.

Tomorrow – Day #2 – 4 Shops/The Eastern Loop