Shop Hop Day Two!

We met up this morning at 3 Dudes Quilting to start our shop hop.  Jacki joined us for the first time, crown and all.  She fits right in with this wild group!  Left to right Jacki, Ros, BJ, Lauren and me.  Kathy took all the pictures of us in front of each store.  3 Dudes is twice the size it was last year and I can't believe I don't sneak in more often...they have a great selection of civil war stuff which made Lauren very happy!  All I bought was the demo special below.  I can't wait to try it out.

Next up was Quilter's Ranch...Ros thought she lost her cell phone and so Kathy went on a mission to find it only to discover it was in the car after all!   

Their demo special were these binding clips which most all of us went home with.  Time to replace the barrettes I have been using.

Next up was Zoe's, they had this thing you put on your finger as the demo.  I can't deal with a thimble so I knew that gadget wasn't for me.  Here we are doing the princess wave in front of the store.

  

We then wound our way through the streets on foot to Cutting Edge Quilts.  The Chandler Food Fest or some such thing was going on so parking was about a mile away and it was upwards of 100 degrees as usual....still this was absolutely hands down the friendliest store of the shop hop.  They all holler out hello as we come in the door and are so friendly.  Their demo was of Anita's Arrowhead which is in a book they were selling.  I LOVE that pattern, but have already made the one quilt and will do another sometime.  Others really seemed to be liking it too.

You can see several Anita's Arrowhead patterns here with Gudrun who was doing the demo.  She is a sweetheart too!

 Finally a shot of Kathy with the gals...I didn't buy anything at this store, but it is close to home and I do get in there the most of all the shops.

There is a really cool purple ostrich out front of the shop next door so we all had to pose there too.  SMILE.  

This Women of Courage quilt was hanging behind the longarm (that is what is across the picture) and I love it!

Next we stopped for lunch at Pita Jungle.  We wore our crowns in and people must have thought we were nuts...now and then people would ask what was going on.  I think they thought we were an odd group of bachelorettes out for the day, lol.  Non quilting people were like HUH when we said we are out quilt shop hopping.  Cracked us up!
Next we made it in to a new to the shop hop shop that I have never been in.  They were a scrapbooking store and now are also selling fabric.  A few months ago several people were telling me how this is their favorite fabric store...I was like huh, never realized that had fabric.  So we found our way in.

 There was a nice gal doing a demo for a curved ruler which I considered buying...she asked us how many shops we had left and we told her one and then she mentioned that store closes in a hour...well we all ran to the car and said we would be back (this store is open til 9!).

When we came back I spotted this beauty.  Seriously LOVE it.  It is made out of Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy.  It is to die for.  I actually thought this was the Cog and Wheel pattern (which they had) but upon further study it was not.  I asked if they had the pattern and they did.  Turns out it is Cluck Cluck Sew's Spin Cycle!  Another pattern I have been admiring.  Once I saw it in these fabrics I knew I could finally seriously dig into my stash fabric to make it.  Best of all this pattern doesn't have circles in it but has much the same look.  I am SO excited for this!

 These pictures of are half the quilt as it was hung folded--one of each side.  STUNNING.  Seriously, I love it, can you tell?

So I bought that pattern and two packages of clearance charms in various fabrics.  

 But before all that happened, we hurried out to Quilter's Oasis (which is near the High School I used to teach at when I first moved here).  This store is quite friendly too, they hooked us up with water and snacks (as most of the stores did).

Kathy is really into the twister look and loved this snowman and another reindeer that they had in the store.  Crazy all the things you can do with the twists!  I think the Christmas tree and reindeer are cuter than the witch's hat and snowman, but all are cute!

Didn't buy anything there, they were demoing a cool curved ruler that did lots of sizes.  If I get to doing another one of the circle quilts I might have to get it, or borrow the one Ros bought.

It was a great day with good friends.  I love these gals!  Was nice to make a new friend...she and I hit it off because she too gets (and used to get) crazy migraines.  She gave me a few tips to try next time and I will be trying them!