It all started in 2015, when I mentioned to Tom that there was such a thing as a nation-wide, themed shop hop, named Row by Row. The premise is that the participating stores would design a horizontal or vertical quilt row in the theme. Customers would visit the store, pick up the row pattern (for free!) and hopefully do some shopping at the store. As the customers accumulated the rows, there was a challenge: use 8 or more rows in one quilt .. pieced/appliqued, quilted and bound ... and bring the finished quilt back to a participating store for a prize. If you used that particular store's row in the quilt, you got some additional prize.
I've never done one of the shop hops because it's a day long ... or multi day long ... affair. I didn't want to drive myself to all the stores. But Tom was intrigued by the prospect of using his GPS to find unknown stores ... kinda like geocaching! So, we plotted 2 shop hops ... one from Auburn, CA back down I-80 to Fairfield and another (on a different day) from Walnut Creek south to Santa Cruz, CA. It was delightful and Tom didn't even harass me about the time (or money!!) I spent in the stores!
On a totally unrelated but relevent topic, this past February, Tom bought a new-to-us, small (17') travel trailer. He was like a little kid in a toy store! He spend every waking moment working on bringing the 1986-era trailer into modern times. When it became travel-worthy, we began to take overnight trips to "anywhere", just to try it out. He began to think of a longer trip. He became antsy for a longer trip!
So, that leads us to THIS adventure ... Geocaching the PNW (Pacific North West) quilt stores! We have two daughters who live in Seattle, WA, who have been urging us to visit them. This was the perfectexcuse reason to do so! Tom proposed .. and *yes*, this absolutely, positively, 100% WAS Tom's idea ... that we do a shop hop of our own on the way to Seattle. On the way north, we'd visit all the shops within 5 miles of the east side of I5; on the return trip, we'd hit all the shops within 5 miles of the west side of the freeway. It sounded so outrageous that I agreed immediately!
Y'all remember the saying, "the best laid plans of mice and men ... "? Well, our plan was altered slightly over time. I have a cousin who lives in the San Juan Islands. He has been encouraging us to visit him and his wife for some time. This was a perfect opportunity to do so. So, our plans changed from simply going to Seattle, to visiting Lopez Island. And then heck, as long as we were there .... let's take another ferry and visit Victoria, British Columbia! and yet another ferry to Vancouver, Britsh Columbia and THEN take the return trip back home ... but instead of using I5, which is INCREDIBLY boring, we'd take the coastal highway down Washington, Oregon and California.
Tom has a program that lists all the quilt stores in the US; from that he printed out all the shops along I5 within 5 miles on either side. I researched them, removed the stores that we had already gone to previously, the stores that had since closed, stores that weren't quilting stores (but were listed anyway) and chain stores. That whittled the list down to ... wait for it ... 81 stores. Goodness Gracious. Tom thought that was wonderful. Just look at all that geocaching he would get to do!
While the idea of visiting all these stores should have sent me into paroxysms of ecstacy, honestly, I don't NEED anything right now. I have everything necessary for the projects I am working on. I have more fabric in my stash than is decent to talk about. I just don't NEED any particular thing. I can't tell you how depressing it is to go into a quilt store and KNOW that you just don't want to buy anything at that time. Such a doggone waste. But, I would buy a nominal "something" anyway, since I *was* at the store.
My *intent* is to blog about it on this alternative blog. This blog is non-published, which means that it can't be "found" by a search engine ... which means that the only way anyone will find it is if they know the exact URL ... highly unlikely for a random person to accomplish. So, if my good intentions remain ::ahem:: good, I'll type up my notes of the day into a blog entry. And you'll have something to read. If I become a complete lamer, you won't. :-)
-Shelley
I've never done one of the shop hops because it's a day long ... or multi day long ... affair. I didn't want to drive myself to all the stores. But Tom was intrigued by the prospect of using his GPS to find unknown stores ... kinda like geocaching! So, we plotted 2 shop hops ... one from Auburn, CA back down I-80 to Fairfield and another (on a different day) from Walnut Creek south to Santa Cruz, CA. It was delightful and Tom didn't even harass me about the time (or money!!) I spent in the stores!
On a totally unrelated but relevent topic, this past February, Tom bought a new-to-us, small (17') travel trailer. He was like a little kid in a toy store! He spend every waking moment working on bringing the 1986-era trailer into modern times. When it became travel-worthy, we began to take overnight trips to "anywhere", just to try it out. He began to think of a longer trip. He became antsy for a longer trip!
So, that leads us to THIS adventure ... Geocaching the PNW (Pacific North West) quilt stores! We have two daughters who live in Seattle, WA, who have been urging us to visit them. This was the perfect
Y'all remember the saying, "the best laid plans of mice and men ... "? Well, our plan was altered slightly over time. I have a cousin who lives in the San Juan Islands. He has been encouraging us to visit him and his wife for some time. This was a perfect opportunity to do so. So, our plans changed from simply going to Seattle, to visiting Lopez Island. And then heck, as long as we were there .... let's take another ferry and visit Victoria, British Columbia! and yet another ferry to Vancouver, Britsh Columbia and THEN take the return trip back home ... but instead of using I5, which is INCREDIBLY boring, we'd take the coastal highway down Washington, Oregon and California.
Tom has a program that lists all the quilt stores in the US; from that he printed out all the shops along I5 within 5 miles on either side. I researched them, removed the stores that we had already gone to previously, the stores that had since closed, stores that weren't quilting stores (but were listed anyway) and chain stores. That whittled the list down to ... wait for it ... 81 stores. Goodness Gracious. Tom thought that was wonderful. Just look at all that geocaching he would get to do!
While the idea of visiting all these stores should have sent me into paroxysms of ecstacy, honestly, I don't NEED anything right now. I have everything necessary for the projects I am working on. I have more fabric in my stash than is decent to talk about. I just don't NEED any particular thing. I can't tell you how depressing it is to go into a quilt store and KNOW that you just don't want to buy anything at that time. Such a doggone waste. But, I would buy a nominal "something" anyway, since I *was* at the store.
My *intent* is to blog about it on this alternative blog. This blog is non-published, which means that it can't be "found" by a search engine ... which means that the only way anyone will find it is if they know the exact URL ... highly unlikely for a random person to accomplish. So, if my good intentions remain ::ahem:: good, I'll type up my notes of the day into a blog entry. And you'll have something to read. If I become a complete lamer, you won't. :-)
-Shelley
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