Tu-Na Travels: ♪Over Hill. Over Dale. We Will Hit the Dusty Trail. As the Quilt Hop Goes Rolling Along….♪

Yes, we are going to drive all around Minnesota for the 2017 Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop, again. This will be our fourth year. Last year we not only shopped but also took our first sailboat ride. You’ll find all the links to posts about that journey at the top underneath my blog name in a tab called SHOP HOP. Click it and a drop down menu will appear, click on 2016 Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop. I wonder what adventures await us this year?

Sixty six shops have been busy preparing for us and other shoppers to descend upon them and swoop up all they have to offer. They’ve been busy creating samples of quilts, bags, runners, and other fun things using the exclusive shop hop fabric. In addition, they’ve been designing their 8 inch finished block and cutting a 5″ charm from one of those fabrics which they will present to each of the hoppers for free. They’ve been assembling the incentive prizes.

This is the 11th Annual Shop Hop which brings quilters (and even some of their husbands) from all over the country to scour the shops finding inspiration, fabric, and a special kind of quilting kinship.

We’re all packed and headed down to our daughter’s house in southern Minnesota so we can get an early start tomorrow morning.

As we left North Dakota, and in fact all along the way to her house, we encountered lots of construction. We’re sure hoping this is not a sign of what’s to come.

Just how did we prepare for our quilty adventure?

Perusing the Quilt Minnesota Website

The Quilt Minnesota website is jam packed with all the information us hoppers need including a list of participating shops divided into sections, shop hours, state map, section information and incentive prizes, and the special Minnesota Fabrics designed and printed ONLY for this hop—I’m showing you a few of them here.

Many of the fabrics are available in several different background colors.

Programming the Route

My husband—lovingly named Tu-Na Helper by my sister on last year’s hop—put all the zip codes into the computer website, OptiMap. A minute later it spit out the route map in the order that we should take. While we know we will deviate from that route because of shop hours, it gets us going in the general direction and provides us a base to use the phone to navigate.

To navigate around, we use Google Maps on my husband’s smart phone. My husband puts in the address of the first shop from the OptiMap suggestion, and then when we get to the location, he puts in the next one, etc. Oh, I love technology! We’ll see how off-course it takes us this year.

The fabrics are an exclusive line designed by Emily Krueger and manufactured by Clothworks.

Creating My List

Tu-Na Helper wouldn’t let me go without a plan. So, yes, I have a list which reads:

Patterns

• Florence Flamingo by Elizabeth Hartman
• Lepidoptera by Elizabeth Hartman
• We’re on a Bigger Roll by Java House Quilts

Books

• No Scrap Left Behind by Amanda Nyberg
• The Quilt Block Cookbook by Amy Gibson

Fabric

• Laundry Day (irons, clothes hanger)
• Kaffe Fasset especially olive green
• Low volume prints
• fabric with postage stamps
• White on white
• Minnesota Fabrics.

I wonder which fabric will be the statewide sell-out this year? The one most sought after by quilters. The one that those of us who didn’t pre-order will wish we had. My guess is the lady slipper or the birds will be the first to go. But could it be the fish instead like last year? My husband doesn’t think so, as he prefers last year’s colorful ones. I guess this year’s fish look too realistic for him. But, if given the chance I find some, I might get some anyway. Who knows? His preference might change.

Misc.

• Small apple buttons

There are lots more fabrics to this line including a panel. Check out the website listed above to view them all.

Packing the Cooler

We carry a cooler for lunches. There’s a lot of miles to cover and not a lot of hours to do it in so we opt to eat in the car for lunch and splurge in the evening at local fare. We’ll be restocking at grocery stores along the way; in the meantime, we can enjoy a snack of string cheese and some baby carrots.

While this exclusive fabric can be pre-ordered, I, again, decided not to pre-order. Instead, I will hunt and seek and discover which fabrics I will buy limiting myself to only purchasing one at a shop. I call it a lesson in decision making. Which one can’t I leave behind? Which one do I risk but may not see again?

Deciding to Take the Sewing Machine

Some of you may wonder, why I would do that. Each shop provides a free charm square of this year’s Quilt Minnesota fabrics and a pattern for an 8 inch block. My plan is to buy some of the kits for those patterns and sew a few up in the evenings. After a few days, we’ll see how that goes and whether it was worth bringing it along.

The agate is the state gem. This fabric, by that name, is available in several colors. This one might be a contender for the first to sell-out statewide.

Reminder:

The giveaway to win the Christmas stocking and ALL the stocking stuffers I made for it is still open through August 1st. If you haven’t entered click here to go to that post and leave a comment.

Last year, there were mosquitoes. This year it’s the dragonfly.

The hop continues through August 13th. There’s still time for you to join in on the fun. If you can’t travel the whole state, you might like to visit just a section or two.

What I Learned Today:

1. I don’t need a lot of fabric but I sure do want some more.
2. Whether I am ready or not, the quilt hop will start.
3. If you see me out and about, please stop and say hi. I will try to do the same.

Question: What makes a good shop hopper? Help me list some Shop Hop Etiquette. It will be a good reminder for me. I make a point to stop and shop or at least look around each of the shops. We avoid the grab and go approach. We don’t look at the hop as a race to finish first. But rather think of it as an experience to be enjoyed. It’s kind of like stopping to smell the roses or in this case, petting the fabric.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Linking to:

Oh, Scrap at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Moving It Forward at Em’s Scrapbag