QuiltMouse

Friday, November 8, 2013 – The First Day of the Quest!

Morning was spent at stores in Warrenton & Winchester, VA, and Hagerstown, MD.  You can read about them in my previous post Here.

The afternoon found us heading to Mt. Airy & Gaithersburg, MD. I think this was the very first time that we’ve ever visited 5 stores in one day!

Weather was beautiful and driving through the rolling hills we saw the last lingering colors of fall.

Our fourth stop of the day was at Patches Quilting and Sewing, which is located in a two-story house on Main Street in downtown Mt. Airy, MD. The parking lot is located in the backyard and you enter through the door at the top of the drive.

Jackie and her staff were welcoming, friendly & helpful, as always – a pleasure to visit. Who were having more fun, the store or the Questers?

Leaving Patches, we took the back roads (I don’t like highways much anymore!), and arrived at our final stop of the day – Capital Quilts, in Gaithersburg, MD. They were not expecting any bus loads of quilters, so we had a nice long visit. There have been many changes in this store over the past year – so much new to see!  Hubby sat, snacked & visited while I wandered looking at all the quilty stuff!

Each shop has a scavenger search item which Questers are encouraged to locate.  Once located the Quester is given a clue.  Once we complete the Quest and receive our Tote bag we will have 11 clues to enable us to download sections of a free quilt pattern.

Our stores are so generous!  We receive a different free quilt pattern from each store we visit.  These can be made with the charms that we either buy or receive free if we spend over $30.  So much fun to see what has been designed by these talented quilters using the charms and the Quilter’s Quest special fabrics.  We are surrounded by amazing Quilters!

Day #1 was finished and we were home 5 Quilt Shops, about 10 hours and 238.3 miles after we left.

I need to download and review the pictures we took on Day #2, so that may not be posted until tomorrow.  The Quest goes on for another week.  What are you waiting for, come join the fun!

Quilt Mouse

Each year a group of Local Quilt Shops in the DC/MD/Northern VA area put on a shop hop which is called Quilter’s Quest.

We have it on our calendar, and set aside time to visit the 10 shops over a 3-day period.  There are 3 shops in Northern Virginia (Great Falls, Warrenton and Winchester) and 7 shops in Maryland (Hagerstown, Gaithersburg, Mt. Airy, Catonsville, Towson, Annapolis and La Plata), so we have a lot of miles to cover.

I like to stay between 30 minutes to an hour to visit at each shop.  The shop owners/staff have invested many hours making samples, bundling kits, and even making snacks and I enjoy visiting with many of them.  I follow a number of them on Facebook and shop at the stores whenever I can during the year.

Many shops offer buses to take quilters around the shops, which takes 2 days.  We could possibly manage it in two days, but I don’t think it would be as much fun.

The shops feature special fabric, designed just for the Quest by Jinny Beyer (Jinny Beyer Studios, Great Falls).

There are daily drawings for prices and, if you get your ‘Passport’ stamped at all shops you get a tote bag and are eligible for some very nice prizes.

This is the 6th or 7th year we’ve followed the Quest.  We visited all the shops in 2007, 2011, 2012 and will get to them all this year. The other years we visited as many as we could.

So, we’re ready, are you?

Quilt Mouse