Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Road to Oklahoma Shop Hop

When Mom asked me if I wanted to go on the Road to Oklahoma Shop Hop I said YES. We have never done a shop hop from beginning to end and I thought it was about time. We had such a great time getting to see all eight shops. We did five shops Thursday and three shops on Friday. We made the BIG MISTAKE of not staying all night in a hotel on Thursday though. We spent most of Friday morning back tracking to where we left off in Oklahoma. Aaugh!! We took notes and won't be making that mistakes twice. We now have our sites on another state. My daughter Ashley wants to come next year to make it a three generation trip.

We started at Alva, Oklahoma at the shop Fabrics & More Etc. Mom visits this shop the most because it is the closest and absolutely wonderful!! We picked up our passport book and our first block. Each shop designed and sold a block pattern using Moda's Minnick and Simpson Charlevoix fabric collection to make a quilt. They then sold the finishing instructions and kit to make their unique quilt that used all of the eight different shop's blocks. We loved all eight quilts. How can you pick a favorite they are all beautiful! Here are the photos of each shops unique quilt design and the owners or managers of the eight shops.

This is a photo of Fabrics & More Etc. quilt in Alva, Oklahoma.

This is Sheri and Mary Ann owners of Fabrics and More Etc. above in front of the 2009 Moda University BOM quilt. I don't know how I didn't catch them smiling because they are always smiling! I think Mom and I were their first customers for the shop hop. It just shows our dedication to getting out of the starting gate early .... to buy fabric of course.

This is Liz and Gretchen a mother and daughter team above. Their shop is Quilter's Depot in Ringwood. They also put on a quilt show in a community building close by. They served delicious BBQ sandwiches with sides for a small fee also in this building. It was our lunch on Thursday and it was delicious. Super friendly shop!

Randa, above is the owner of Prairie Quilts in Hennessey. She has a wonderful big shop in a 100 year old historic building. She even installed a elevator to get up and down for classes and shopping ease. This is a great feature since we believe we have to pack our studio in order to take one class. Have I mentioned that all these stops usually included free cookies. The iced sugar cookies at her shop are worth mentioning....delicious! Randa is one of those ladies that can get a lot done and has a great shop to show for it.

We climbed into her front window to get this photo above. This is Terri in front of her quilt. She is the owner of The Quilting Post in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This is a college town and the home of the Oklahoma State University. I just love college towns they offer so much!

Above is Michelle, owner of Sooner Quilts in Guthrie. I love this town for antiquing also! Mom and I thought we couldn't possibly need more fabric and then we walked into her shop after buying in all the previous shops and started buying. What were we thinking that we didn't need more fabric!!! She had a Minnick and Simpson trunk show from the designers so it was an added treat for all of us traveling quilters.

This is Verlinda (the manager) and Toni of Oklahoma Quiltworks. They won my prize for most demos going on. They have also started a sign up for my new Merry Christmas quilt in their shop and showed me the first three blocks. They even ordered three different bolts of fabric to get the perfect fabric for the skin color. This was our seventh shop and we still found more fabric to buy of course!!

Above is Billie of Patchwork Place in Norman. She was actually talking to Sheri from Fabrics & More Etc. our first stop when we stopped to see her, our last stop. She had the perfect white on white fabric for my next project.

Above is Suzy of Completely Quilted, Ponca City. We missed meeting her daughter Nancy who co-owns the shop. I thought their quilt design looked like a modern day Navajo blanket. Very creative! Suzy does the quilting in their shop and it is beautiful.


At the end of the two day trip we had filled passport, more fabric, less money and memories to last a lifetime! I can't wait to go on my next one! Thank you to all these amazing shops and their employees who worked so hard to put on such a great event! You should all plan your schedules to go next year!

5 comments:

  1. You are an adventurer! I thought about going but wasn't sure I wanted to tackle all of those miles. Those shops sure do look neat though. May change my mind for next year.

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  2. How fun! We are having a statewide hop in Texas in the fall.

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  3. Amy

    Thank you so much for the pictures! Loved seeing them.

    Laurie

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  4. Amy
    Hope to see you in Houston
    Thanks for the nice post, everyone in OK made Charlevoix look fantastic - appreciate seeing the wonderful job on the Hop
    Polly Minick

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