East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop 2019 Part 3

Day 3 Loot

So I managed to hit the final two shops in the hop this morning. I've been to both before. I live close to Atomic Fibers in Oak Ridge but I wanted to make it my last shop so I could turn my card in there.  Plus Oak Ridge had the Lavender Festival going on so I got a chance to visit the festival after I hit the quilt shop.

I stopped at Dizzy Diva's in Knoxville first. It is not in my normal path. It's on the northeast side of town and I have a tendency to go to west Knoxville. So it's been over a year since I've been to the shop. Last time I was there I was collecting 2017's row by row pattern. Since then they have moved to a better location. It's probably a couple of blocks away from their old location but it's easier to find and had more parking. Mom got the ruler they were demoing and we'll most likely share it. It was a 60 Degree Diamond Ruler. She got two patterns that use the ruler. One was a Hot Air Balloon pattern that I want to borrow.

Since I have spent a lot at the other 10 shops I've been to I didn't buy as much at these two. I did get some nice gifts from them and I plan to go back to Atomic Fibers for the ruler they were demoing for the hop. It was the Straight Out of Line Ruler by Creative Grids. They also had some cute Cut Loose Press patterns using the tool I thought would be cute to get.

Final Shops:

• Dizzy Diva's in Knoxville - March
• Atomic Fibers in Oak Ridge - January 

Overall the hop was fun. I got to see some new shops in areas I wouldn't normally go to. I got to save a life and spend way too much money. 12 shops for 3 days. I'm kinda sorry I forgot to get a picture of my punch card before I turned it in.

I did start working on putting the blocks together that I have been collecting. I have 5 of the 12 done. The current one which is September's block I just need to applique everything down. I did add extras to it because it was just a basket by itself. Little Blessings had put flowers in theirs so I found some cute oversized flowers to fussy cut and add to the block. I've very happy with it. I'm going to use the orange thread I got today to applique it down. I want the thread to stick out a little against the yellow basket.

Today's tea was a Raspberry Limeade Herbal Tea. I didn't get a photo but I got it from a vendor at the Lavender Festival. I love the stuff and have purchased it every year at the festival. It turns a dark ruby color and has such a nice fruity flavor. I normally get a bag of loose tea to take home but I didn't get one this year. I did just hit 12 quilt shops. I did get a pretty photo of some sweet peas I passed when going to the Lavender Festival.

East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop 2019 Part two

Bathroom signs for quilters

Since there were so many shops and I didn't think we'd get the trip done on Saturday since they close at 3, we decided to take Tuesday off and go on the second leg of our shop hopping trip. This has been a popular hop with the locals because all of the stores have been pretty busy with other people doing the hop. It's usually funny when you see some of the same people at one store and then the next. A lot of "Hi! again," goes on with that.

Tuesday was a good day because we got lucky with local traffic levels and the shops were open till 5. We left mom's at 8 and got to our first shop in Johnson City a little after 10. During the two hour drive, we passed 5 halves of double wide mobile homes in transport. I don't think they all went together for the same building cause the last one was really old but man that would be a huge building for a mobile home.

The first shop we got to was Bernina in Stitches. It was a cute shop in the downtown business district. The building it was in was one of the older ones with a lot of fun artsy shops. There was a cool reclaimed furniture place, a vape shop some restaurants and a lawyers office called Legal Ladies.

When we were leaving the shop we didn't make it out of the parking lot before a little grey kitten crossed our path. It had just bounced across a 4 lane road into the shopping center. We don't know where it came from but the poor baby was dirty, hungry, and scared. This started the adventure of finding a humane society. Neither of us could keep a kitten. I'm not allowed a pet and the pet fees at mom's place are so exorbitantly high it's ridiculous. We did finally turn it into the Washington County Humane Society. So if you would like a new fur-baby please go over there and adopt. They're overloaded with animals right now.

Day 2 Loot

After that, we hit two more shops, The Sewing Bee and Tennessee Quilts. Both I have to say took advice from Dr. Who because they were bigger on the inside. The second shop was just rooms and rooms of fabric. It looked like it had been an office suite turned into the shop. The second was the entire two-story building near historic downtown Jonesborough. The downstairs was nothing but batiks and upstairs they had a small saleroom and a large open area for classes and more fabrics.

After that our path home took us past Sevierville and we hit the Gatlinburg shop in the area also. We got to The Cherry Pit about 3:20 and to Mountain Stitches by Susan about 4:00. There was no making it back to Knoxville before the next shop closed so we called it a day. I was pretty wiped out after that but it was a good day altogether. 

I did find this TV Spot done for the Shop Hop online. It's done from the Cherry Pit's shop and has a good introduction to the hop. It was neat to see something like this on local TV.

Our stops in order were:

• Bernina in Stitches in Johnson City, TN - February
• The Sewing Bee in Jonesborough, TN -  October
• Tennessee Quilts in Jonesborough, TN - November
• The Cherry Pit in Sevierville, TN - December
• Mountain Stitches by Susan in Gatlinburg, TN - September

Lunch had been a stop at Panera before we left the Johnson City area, so of course my go to drink there is the Iced Green Tea. It's actually a Passion Papaya Green Tea. I don't get it that often because it's got 34 grams of sugar and I need to watch that, but man do I love this stuff.

First Shop Hop - Whistlestop Shop Hop 2015

So way back machine post here. I wanted to go over my first ever shop hop. It's from the year I discovered row by row and it's the reason I discovered row by row. It was before I even started my blog.

In 2015 I had started going to Atomic Fibers as my home quilt shop. I had a friend working there and I hadn't really had a home shop before. I would stop in random shops but I never considered one a home shop. Atomic Fibers opened close to where I worked and I could stop in on my lunch break no problem. The owner introduced me to the concept of a shop hop and I was intrigued. Mom and I got our passports and decided to go for it on a Saturday.

There were 10 shops participating from the Knoxville area to Chattanooga, TN. Right now I can only find 9 of my patterns, so I think I missed one but I did enjoy going on a day trip. I had only been to one of the shops on the list. It was fun to explore new shops and see new things. I fell in love with every one of the shops I went to, even the smallest and most remote shops. I've not seen this particular shop hop repeated, and I still haven't finished the blocks I gathered.  I really need to put that in the WIP file since they are a bit of a UFO right now.

One of the more prominent memories of the trip was driving by the McKee Foods factory in Cleveland, TN. This is the company that makes Little Debbie snack cakes. We stopped by the store and got tons of snack cakes and I picked up a mini duffel in the shape of a Swiss Miss Roll.

During this trip everyone kept asking are you doing Row by Row.  Of course, my question was what is that? I got a crash course and had decided yes I'm doing this. Of course, that meant going back to all these shops the next month.

East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop 2019

Quilt Sample of blocks from Little Blessings

This is actually the first time I've participated in this particular hop. There is another one I've participated in the past with a similar name but this is a new shop hop for me. The East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop has been going on for several years.

This year's theme was quilting throughout the year. They had 12 shops that wanted to participate so each one designed a block based on a monthly theme. They originally had 13 shops and would have done a row banner with it but one was unable to join them this year. Each shop had a demonstration and a special tool they were highlighting and a small free goody to go along with the block. I ended up getting the kits for all the blocks.

Mom and I took Saturday to travel to as many of the shops we could set out bright and early. We had planned 5 and would see if we could squeeze in more depending on the time since shops close at 3. Our path for the first day of travel took us all the way to Jamestown as the furthest shop. We started in Maryville with Twisted sisters because we were aiming to get there as the shop opened. I finished the day at 4:30 when I got home and crashed.

Loot from the first day of Hopping

Our stops in order were:

• Twisted Sister's in Maryville, TN - May
• Gina's Bernina in Farragut, TN - June
• Loose Threads in Harriman, TN - August
• Little Blessings in Crossville, TN - July
• Fabrics N Quilts in Jamestown, TN - April

After that, we had a late lunch and came home. I was hoping to squeeze in Atomic Fibers in Oak Ridge, TN but due to the time change and trying to make sure we hit the further out shops that did not happen. We're already planning on a day two of the trip this week, and we have until June 14th to finish the hop.

Old truck graveyard in Florida

One of the fun things I saw on this drive was passing a riding lawnmower graveyard in Clarkrange, TN. I did not stop to get a photo because it was on private property behind a fence, but it was a funny sight. The yard had several dozen mowers clustered together in groups of 8 to ten and it was very grown up in spots. The grass was as high as the top of the mowers. Several were very old and rusted. There was a neat path mowed in the grass around the clusters though. I have seen something like it on the side of the road in Florida before as an old pickup truck graveyard. Both locations were remote countryside areas. 

That is always the fun of shop hops like this. I get to go to areas that I've never been and see things I would not have seen anywhere else.

Terracotta Greenhouse and the Berry Patch

Front

Back

I was able to finish my Terracotta Greenhouse about mid-May. I took my final photos of the finished quilt several days later because I was waiting for nice weather. They still look a little over exposed in the photo with the light making it practically glow, but I am happy with how this quilt came out. 

I immediately started piecing the strawberry top. I used a bit of Fossil Fern in green from Benartex and the other fabrics I highlighted in my planning post. I had the top finished by memorial day. Then I had a majorly busy week with the rest of my life and planning a few social events. I had to put this top down for now because I have been commissioned for a wall hanging for a friends wedding. I am happy with the progress I've made on completing works this year though.

Today's tea is a fruity herbal the Strawberry Blush Rose. This is the last of my Tevania stash of this tea. I'm truly out after this. I will have to make some more of the blood orange iced tea from Harney and Sons next.