East Tennessee Shop Hop 2020

East Tennesse Shop Hop Shop list

This year's shop hop got delayed a little. It had 10 shops participating. Two of the shops did double blocks instead of one so they can have a total of 12 blocks for the hop. One of the shops from last year decided not to participate and one of last year's shops closed. That did keep me from having to drive all the way out to Jamestown, but I did make the trip to Johnson City.

Downtown Johnson City

We split this up into three days. We were going to do more on day two but were a little tight on the budget so that trip was rescheduled.

The hop was originally scheduled for June but was rescheduled and extended due to COVID. This year's theme was "Blooming Blue in Tennesse" featuring the Leah collection by the Beginning Fabrics. The blocks were designed by Marti Michell. It looks like an exclusive pattern for the shop hop because I was trying to see if the overall sampler had a name but I couldn't find one. The individual blocks do have names.

Outdoor Gallery in Johnson City

Sat July 12tn

• Little Blessings - Crossville - 4 Curtain Call & 7 Center Stage
• Loose Threads -Harriman - 2 Blowing in the Wind
• Gina's Bernina - Knoxville  - 8 Folsom Favorite

Mon July 13tn

• Twisted Sisters - Maryville - 9 Crossed Tower



Mural and Flowers at Cafe in
Johnson City

• Dizzy Diva - Knoxville - 6 Tempest in a Teapot

Sat July 18th

• Bernina in Stitches - Johnson City - 5 Sukey's Corners
• Sewing Bee- Jonesborough - 11 This kit is being mailed to me so I don't have the name.
• Tennessee Quilts- Jonesborough - 12 Junior Rockets & 3 Big Top
• Cherry Pitt- Sevierville - 1 Rolling Along
• Mountain Stitches by Susan- Gatlinburg - 10 Hearts Among the Stars

Mom's Haul

Overall I got to explore some of the areas I didn't stop to look at last year and had a fun road trip with mom. Both of us ended up with a massive haul. I can't say I'll ever have as massive a haul as I did from Quiltcon Last year but this was fantastic.

I was going to turn my passport in at Gina's but since that shop is the closest to mom I decided to have her turn hers in there and I turned mine into Susan's.

My fabric haul

Quarentine Stash buster

Fabric Selection

My local quilt shop has decided to do a stash diving mystery quilt. Since most quilters have a bit of stash built up it's easy to pull from and gives us something to share. You can find the clues on The Fiberology Lab's Youtube page if you want to join along. The current quilt is pretty simple so far, but we still have two more clues to go. I don't think she's going to do anything complicated to make it easily accessible for all sewing levels.

Latest units.

The first clue was fabric choices along with cutting instructions. I started with a batik jelly roll I had purchased recently and a couple of solids. I chose a dark blue background and a dark grey contrast. There is a lot of tonal difference between them and the strips, but I'm interested in what the final outcome is going to be.

Fabric Selection for the next mystery quilt.

Go watch the videos and play along. She's going to be doing a second stash diving mystery quilt next week. I got the fabric requirements for that one and got them ready to begin.

Tea today is actually a walk down memory lane. Over 10 years ago I stumbled into a tea room/ gastropub in Mobile Alabama. I don't even remember the name right now, but I had never been a tea room and it looked interesting. I was on vacation with my friends and they usually go along with my suggestions. I've been told I'm good at finding fun unique places. This one was near the university and it was my first experience with English high tea. I loved it so much, it made me want to look into more tea rooms after that. Now I've always been a tea lover but I think the experience made me obsessed.

Work in progress

I like many are staying at home as much as possible. I am lucky that right now work has not sent us home. I'm still working my regular hours, but my normal social schedule is on hold. You would think this means I can be twice as productive. I don't feel I am but I've got a bit of a progress report.

I finished the International Mystery Quilt top and made a backing for my snowball pattern. I pieced the borders out of scrap I was provided and that took forever. A lot of time was added because of being exhausted from stress. The backing I used a cute snail fabric I had gotten from a short bolt sale and some scraps. The backings always go together so fast. I started to pin it up but realized I didn't have enough pins left. I need to quilt something else before I can start on this. That pile is a bit tall.

The next was did some work on dad's temperature quilt. I'm trimming the squares as I sew them into strips so this is time-consuming. I also feel I have the attention span of a magpie and keep getting distracted by lots of other things going on around me.

I've been on Instagram constantly lately. I decided to join the Alison Glass and Guicy Giuce  Mini-Series Sew-along. #MiniSeriesSAL. I have picked some recent Tula Pink fabrics I've picked up and I'm adding a few fat quarters I got from my row by row win last year. I need to buy the patterns but I'm waiting until payday. The sew-along is for 10 weeks and starts this week. If you go to their Instagrams or Alison Glass' page you'll find all the info and sign up for it.

The other thing I saw on Instagram was Jay Bird quilts did a heart block tutorial. Under #jaybirdcares, you'll find a free step by step tutorial using her sidekick and hex and more rulers. I did a couple. They're so easy I'm thinking of doing more.

Tea is a blend of bags. I make a pitcher of ice tea usually once a week. I usually use 6 small tea bags and since they're flavored teas I play mix and match, I have 1 bag of Sugar Cookie, 2 bags of Honey Green Tea and a large bag of Jasmine. The other two overwhelm the subtle jasmine flavor and make it taste like a sugar cookie more than anything. I won't try this mix again.

November First Saturday Fiberology Visit

I went to the fiber review for Fiberology Lab's first Saturday this month. I turned in last month's block and we decided the blocks are going into a charity quilt. I don't think I'm going to get a chance to get a photo of that finished quilt but I loved seeing everyone's blocks. This month we previewed a chocolate scented fabric by Lewis & Irene Fabrics. We got a sample of Chocolate Box Mint.

I also got an easy quilt pattern called Tumblebug. I have since given this to my mom but not before making a quick lap quilt out of it. I used a half jelly roll that I purchased last month from Joann's that was of cute forest critter themed fabric focusing on foxes, owls, and butterflies. I used almost the entire thing to create the front. I'm planning on using the few scraps I have to make a pieced backing. I also found tags mom made for me that I plan to put on the quilt. I put this one together in a day.

Then I had to look at the project I'm going to use my chocolate fabric sample for. I had picked up two other fabrics in the line and had debated on the idea of a mug rug. I found a designer on Instagram Ellis & Higgs that had a cute Christmas pattern line out. One block was a candy piece and it was perfect for this idea. She also pointed me to a blog called Polkadot Chair that had a neat potholder tutorial. I decided to make that with the block and a mug rug. Now binding round things is something I haven't done yet. So the potholder didn't come out perfect, but I did make extra blocks to practice with.

The Knoxville area has a new Boba Tea cafe. It's called Hey Bear Cafe. They have a lot of options to customize your drink, and they sell some prepackaged snacks. It was a nice place to hang out for a few hours. I sat there and cross-stitched because I didn't want to go home yet. I got a jasmine milk tea with egg custard. It was so good.

First Saturday Fiber Review and Challenge

Fabric and my new ruler

One of my local quilt shops does a fiber review every first Saturday of the month. My first Saturdays are usually full up anyway but I decided to add going to this. It's conveniently early in the morning which gives me time to go and then do the next regularly scheduled group activity I do for first Saturdays.

Fiberology Lab is a quilt/yarn shop so they review and introduce brand new products and talk about upcoming events and classes. This was my first time going but she gives away a free item and gives us a challenge. Last first Saturday she gave away a mini charm pack and gave everyone a challenge to make something with it. When you bring the item back the next first Saturday you get $5 off whatever you purchase that day.

This month's challenge was to make a square out of a free fabric she gave us. We were given a fat eighth of a new fabric she got and she encouraged us to use more of the line if we could. She did say she wanted to use the blocks as part of a shop sample if we don't mind. I did purchase a few more of the fabric in the collection to make my challenge block. I also picked up the ruler she demoed. It's a 45-degree Kalidescope & Dresden plate ruler from creative grids. I ended up using the ruler to make my challenge blocks. I wanted the ruler to help make a Halloween quilt I had an idea for. I figure this was a good test for it. I like my blocks and I can't wait to show them off next first Saturday.

The shop also does a sit n stitch 3 times a week.  I can only go to the one on Tuesday nights because the other times are while I'm at work. It's a nice time to be social and if I need any help with a project I can ask the shop owner's advice.

Tonight's sit and stitch was quiet since there were only 4 people. It's handwork only. Most of the people that go, crochet or knit. I can't do those but I have enough handwork with my million hexies project to keel myself busy. I usually grab dinner before I get there and tonight's tea came from dinner. I stopped at McAlister's Deli and got a tea to go with my sandwich. I like their tea. It's not something that stands out as very different, but it's still a good tea to have with lemon.

Berry Patch Pattern Planning

Photo by Quilt Mod

Recently I was looking for inspiration on how to quilt up to my Terracotta Greenhouse quilt and I found a blog Swatch and Stitch talking about Robert Kaufman's Spring 2018 Quilt Market setup. It had a pattern in the Berry Patch fabric line called Berry Patch. It's a cute strawberry quilt. The pattern is a free download from Robert Kaufman's website.

Photo by Robert Kaufman Fabrics

I immediately wanted to do this quilt. I decided to shop my stash and see if I can find some great fabrics for this quilt. The quilt uses a background fabric, fabric for the stems and two charm packs. I have several charm packs I've not done anything with and really wanted to use one of them but picking one was the hard part.

I decided to pick my background first then figure out what I wanted my strawberries made out of. I chose this cream-colored textured fabric for my background. It's got some pattern but it's light enough to let the strawberry fabrics stick out. For my charm packs, I found a Pineapple Fabrics pack and a Robert Kaufman Blueprint Basics pack. I still have to pick a fabric for my stems. I'm thinking I had a green that would work but I've changed my mind. I'm going to look at more of my fabrics and see what else I want to add to it.

Even though I'm planning this quilt, I am still quilting my Greenhouse quilt, so I can't start anything with this yet. I'm already excited to start the next project.

Tea today was the Mango Dragonfruit drink from Starbucks. I know it's not really a tea but it's so tasty. This photo is actually from when I was running around downtown Knoxville to visit the farmers market. I know I go to looks like I go to Starbucks a lot but most of these photos are from the bookstore I love to visit.

Panels

I've a collection of a few panels. I can't help myself. I see them in the store or in magazine samples and I want to do THAT quilt so bad. I get them and pull together some accent fabrics. I take them home with all the intention of working up a great panel quilt. And that's as far as they get. I

 have the fabrics and panels in my stash and they get buried with the next one. I will admit to having a bit of ADD when it comes to thinking of, starting and finishing quilts. My finished ones are very few and far between compared to what I have waiting. So here are some of the great panels I have, excluding what I went over in a few of my recent posts.

• Natural Thicket by Gingiber. Woodland Critters that's what drew me to it, but Alas I don't know what to do with this thing. I've got it in the pile to find ideas for.

• Geisha Woodprint blocks. This is one that I got from a friend. She got it in a thrift store in Florida but I believe it's by Kona Bay Fabrics. Every time I go to their website it says it's inaccessible so I can't look up manufacturer information. This is another beautiful panel that I've not made up my mind on what I want to do with it. Hopefully I'll come up with something soon.

• Cat-i-tude by Ann Lauer for Benartix. I have a couple of fabrics already picked to go into a project with the panel. I just haven't planned it out. I love cats and the jewel tones in this one is gorgeous. This was one of the panels I got from my recent shop hop post. 
• Van Gogh Iris Panel by Robert Kaufman Fabrics Another much beloved artist. I do love when paintings are turned into something I can use. I don't know what I'm going to do with this either but I have two panels to play with once I figure it out. 

• Haunted House Panel. This is one I got as part of a shop hop back in 2016. It was a fun trip with mom with 4 shops in Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. I got a quilt pattern at my last shop on this trip and have started it. So this is a bit of a WIP. I'll have more details about the fabrics and the panels once I get the WIP post started for this one. 
  
• Day at the Museum Impressionist panel. I actually only saw the degas square when I had to have this. My cousin has a print of one of Degas's paintings at our house. I've always loved his techniques. Again don't know what I'm going to do but it will be fun when I figure it out. 
  
• Santoro Gift of Friendship Panel by Kori Kumi. I found this one while on a shop hope and couldn't pass up how cute it was. I did start trying to figure out what I wanted to do and then got distracted and put it away. I was unhappy with what I had started to do and unfortunately haven't had the motivation to go back. This is slightly a WIP but I need to give myself a fresh look. I love these sweet panels and want to do something with them.
  
• Santoro The Traveler By Kori Kumi. Another so cute panel, this one I split the panel with my mom so I only have half the squares. I picked it up at my local shop. I want to do a separate project with it and not use it with the other Kori Kumi I have. I think I picked up more accent fabrics that was part of it's collection. 
  
• Crab Shack Panel by Two Can Art for Andover. This one I got lots of fabrics to do something with because I had picked it up on a shop hop and making a project with the panel had been on my mind. I just don't know the lay out yet and I've always tried waiting until I finish a project to start it. Then I forget that it's there waiting for me. I put it in my reorganized project piles so hopefully it will get something done to it this year. This will have to be another project planning/ WIP post soon.

Today's tea is Harney & Son's Royal Palace tea. I made a mistake of getting a glass at Barnes and Noble Cafe and then had to have it. I did end up buying two tins because they had a special on two for $15 when they're regularly $10 a piece. It's a Earl Grey with lemon. I've never had lemon in my earl grey but I do like it. This one is part of their Historic Palaces Collection. It is part of a charity that takes care of the royal palaces.

Shop Hop Saturday

Big Pile of fabric

JoAnn's haul

Last weekend I did a bit of a shop hop with my mom. It wasn't anything strictly planned but that's what it turned into. Mom and I actually started it with a stop at Tuesday Morning and Joann's on Friday. I got a pinwheel by Benartix for half off at Tuesday Morning and a few fun fabrics from JoAnn's. They had a Van Gogh panel for 30% off and I got a cute sushi fabric.

Mountain Creek Quilt Shop haul

Saturday's quest actually started with my recent obsession at searching online for Japanese fabrics. I'd been researching Nippori Fabric town and have been watching too many YouTube videos about it (way too many click the links). I plan to go one day. The main plan was to go to Mountain Creek shop in Greenback because they have a bin of salesmen samples. They fill it up every once in a while and will have Japanese import fabrics. I got some pieces from Food Land by Leicen. They're small but enough to use as accent pieces for a table topper or lap quilt. Sorry the photos blurry but I got a few fat eights and some cute frog and mushroom fabric. I have so many ideas for this I don't know where to start. I also got a cute pair of scissors that is pen shaped. I saw someone using it in a journaling video and was so happy to find it.

Twisted Sister's Haul

Since Maryville is so close and it's been awhile since we went to the shop there we decided to visit Twisted Sisters. They have moved to a new space since I was last there and it's huge in comparison. It's like they have a labyrinth of quilting fabric. The parking situation is so much better also. I wasn't terrified of running into things on the narrow area they had before. Here I got a panel from the Cat-i-tude collection which I just saw in a magazine the night before. Panels had been 20% off so I scored a deal. Also ransacked their clearance section for fantastic deals. I got some Art Gallery Fabrics that I had passed up before because of their price. If you're ever in the area I suggest going just to see how big this shop is.

Gina's Haul

So Much Fabric

The final stop after lunch was also a why not. Mom lives in Knoxville close to Gina's Bernina. I love this shop. It's always got something new and surprising. They also had a sale going on. Surprise! For all the sales we hit I had no clue any of them were going on. I got only a few things from this shop because well I had a big stack already. I did get a cool USA panel in black and white. I also had a package of fat quarters from Missouri Star when I got home.

With all this fabric I've got a few projects thought out. I am going to do some pre-plans soon and sort my existing stash.