Quilting Shop and Hop

My friend Susan and I recently took on the daunting task of the largest Quilt Shop and Hop either of us has ever been on.  Twenty-two stores took us 3 days which we combined into 2 trips as we stayed overnight once.  It was a blast and you know, it actually had it's exhausting moments.  We traveled from Galena all the way East to Arlington Heights together, stopping along the way....Gotta Have A Dream To Make A Dream Come True!

What treasures we found!  And so many quilt stores we never would have known of.  They were so excellent I am going to share the list here!  It's a three month shop and hop ending September 30, 2011.  You can still do it!

http://www.northernillinoisqiltfest.com/

We are both hoping we win a prize from one of the stores.  What a moment when we realized that IF we do win something we have to drive back to the store to pick it up.  Yikes!

No problem though.  Susan told me about a fiber store in St. Charles called "A Fine Line".  They were closed when we were in town but it sounds fascinating.  Check out http://www.afineline.org/.  Sounds like they have a very interesting Holiday program.

Pieceful Gathering Quilt Shop - Fox River Grove
Quilt in Joy, Huntley
Sewing concepts, Woodstock
Hopscotch Square, Woodstock
Material Girl Fabric Shop, Crystal Lake
Sunshine & Shadow Quilt Shoppe, McHenry
Acorn Quilts, Rockford
Lucky 2B Quilting, Rockford
It's for Quilting, Rockford
Quilter's General Store, Rockford
Quilter's Haven, Rockford
Phat Quarters, Galena
Quilter's Destination, Arlington Heights
Prairie Shop Quilts, Batavia
Sewwing Concepts, Carpentersville
Basketcases Unlimited, Clare
Judy's Quilt N Sew, Hampshire
Leaf River Quilt Company, Leaf River
Thimbles, Lockport
Prairie Stitches Quilt Shoppe, Oswego
Harvest House Quilting, Plainfield
Sew Generously, St. Charles
Sawdust & Stitches, Elkhorn, WI

Just received dresses for my granddaughters from my friend Tanya.  Want to check out more?  Google "Palmo Originals".  Great fabrics and reversible!!!!!!

 20 Months old now!  What a charmer.
Standing in front of the Zinnia Garden that is beautiful this year.

Tea In Grandmothers Garden Quilt



Me and my hexagons & box!
The crocheted throw with lace trim was made by Mom!

  I'm embarassed to say how long ago I started this project.  It's been untouched for most of that time but it's now time to tackle it again.

I purchased a hexagon paper piecing kit from Jo Quilter in Bellevue.  The little box contained all the stuff you need to do this quilt "on the go" including an old soap box with a circle cut out of the top of it so you have a place to put your garbage!  It included a tiny pin cusion hot glued to the inside of the lid with pins and needles in it, a pair of small scissions, scrap squares of cotton fabrics to begin with tied neatly with a rafia bow and 1 1/2"  white card stock hexagons to paper piece with. I added Thread Heaven to the box...and ended up making my own box, of course. It's a wood box from Hobby Lobby.



This takes forever but it's really quite relaxing!
I'm thinking of changed all the centers to a darker color.  What do you think?




I used all scraps except the fussy cut ladies - in the garden! 
You can see the hexagon with the tea pot. There are berries
in my garden, birds, butterflies, and thanks to Dawn - a peacock!