Smokey Mountain Quilters Ruby Jubilee Quilt Show for 2021

This year I decided to also participate in the Smokey Mountain Quilters Ruby Jubilee Quilt Show. This was actually my first time at this show. The show is a fundraiser for the quilt guild. Mom said she had been a member of the guild in the past but neither of us is currently a member. There is a fee to enter a quilt but we do get into the show for free for one of the two days it is held. It is a bit smaller show than the Mountainfest one held in Pigeon Forge but there were several quilts that had been in that show in this one. 

I did not win anything this time, but I do know the person who won in my category and also won viewers' choice! Hunter from Mountain Creek did a fabulous job with all the quilts he entered. I am so proud of him. It was good to see him and Sam since I can't get to that shop much. Overall I enjoyed the show a lot and am glad I got to visit. The show was held at the end of July and will probably be next year around the same time for anyone interested. I also have a photo gallery here of some of the quilts I took pictures of. 

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

2020 Mountain Quiltfest

I wanted to go to Quiltcon this year but it just wasn't in the cards. There is always next year. I did get to go to Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge. It's in my own backyard so it doesn't make sense to not go. Unfortunately, I only got to go the last day. I was unable to make it to any of the special events or classes but I did enjoy seeing the show.

Mom and I got there a little after 1. That meant we had 4 hours and we had missed all the antique quilt bed turnings. We did get recognized by some of the ladies from our area shops that we visit. I am on a budget this year because I'm planning a trip to Florida in May, so I have a small haul. I got three mystery charm packs from Missouri Star and three fat quarters from Mountian Creek Quilt Shop.

One of the fun things was a lady brought her pet monkey. It was cute as can be. She said he was a baby and could not be left alone. I didn't try to pet him because he was very agitated by the crowds. Of course, the quilts are a major highlight. It's always fun to see what people have done. One year I'm going to submit one of my quilts. I just need to get the guts to do it.

I have more photos available to see on my google photos album. I took over 50 photos, so there is no way to include them all here.

I'm going to do a double tea today. Normally just one tea spotlight a day but since I didn't post much I've got a few extra photos. I have a holiday tea to share. It's the Harney & Sons 2020 Lunar New Year Tea. It's got a toasted rice and coconut flavor to it. I would say it's not something I want all the time but it was a nice specialty tea. I did buy it and the Birthday Party tea because they had a special of two for $15 going on. I also recently found a vintage storage jar at a thrift shop. I reorganized my tea area upstairs so that I would have more space and store things better.

First Saturday Fiber Review

I went to the normal first Saturday fiber review at Fiberology Labs. It's been fun to go to this. She handles it like a club meeting. She talks about all the new stuff coming in and gives us a project for the month. We then have a show and tell of what we did last month and if we finished the project last month. There's also a schedule of what is going to happen for the month with special events and classes. Since she sells both fabric and yarn she does a different session for yarn a couple of weeks into the month. It's gotten so popular she's got to have two sessions for each.

For this month I had the heart coster I made from last month's project. I also had 6 months done on my temperature quilt and almost all my Homely Houseplants done. I have one left and it's ready to frame. We were given a panel fabric as our free fabric sample and a pattern. There were three different patterns of a drawstring bag, apron or placemats. I got the placemats. I'm thinking of using different fabric for the placemats and make a baby quilt out of the panels. I don't know if I will give it to my cousin who is about to have a baby or give it to Project Linus. I need to do it before I decide that.

For tea today I've got one from January. I had taken several photos of different places and teas and I haven't gotten to use them because of not posting enough. There is a new boba tea place near work. It's Tealicious and I love the place. I can get as much sweetener or as little as you like. Also, you can get as much ice as you like. The menu has a lot of choices. They have a few small snacks but mostly focus on the tea.

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.

Row by Row Experience 2019

So this year's row by row theme was Taste the Experience. I wasn't certain about this year because I didn't end up making last year's. I did get into traveling for the rows this year and found time to go to some new shops because of it. I had a few of the rows put together before I started my hustle for Dragoncon but I didn't start the bulk of working on Row by Row until I got home. Even then it took two weeks for me to get my attention back to sewing. I had a touch of the con crud the first week and then spent another week obsessing over if anyone got the tags I hid.

When it was all said and done I made 8-row patterns and found a new way to connect them all. The shapes lend themselves to a different looking quilt then what I've done in the previous years. I think I like this one a lot. I finished it on Sept. 29th but wrote the 30th on the label because I worked myself to death and forgot what day it was. I was tired of looking at the thing.

Not as many shops were participating in my area so quite a few are from out of town. I had gone through Georgia for half the rows. I was able to turn the quilt into my local shop. The shop owner has seen all my previous row by row quilts and said she thinks this one is my best yet. I feel the work put into this one.

Small errors that caused a few headaches

I do have to say, every time I've participated in the challenge, I do learn something new. This time it was the pineapple row that taught me something new. I have been told next year is going to be completely different so I'm excited to see what happens next.

Shop Hop: 2019 Row by Row

flowers at the rest stop

So for this year's Row By Row I'm a bit behind in gathering patterns. Up until today, I've only gotten one from my local shop. Mom and I had a road trip to try to fix that. I went to the Northern Atlanta area to stop at four shops. Most of the shops were new to me and I am always excited to visit a new shop.

Atlanta is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from my home. We set off at 7am to try to get to the shops early. We had a few setbacks due to rain, but thanks to my GPS rerouting me I did get around some serious accidents with no problem. We chose to hit the shop the farthest away and work our way back home.

Antique Quilt at the Cotton Farm

The first shop was InTown Quilters in Decatur, GA. I have been to this shop before. It's a cute shop that had some unique fabrics. They had some precuts of the Ruby Star Society Pop collection. There is one fabric in this bunch I really wanted but I had a budget today and getting the fat quarter bundle was not in it. I will have to keep an eye out for this one though. I did get the kit on their row by row pattern. Their row is called Mmmmm... Donuts. It's 4 donuts using the drunkard's path block. I love the colors to this one.

Antique toy on display

The second shop was The Cotton Farm in Roswell, GA. Their row is the square format called The Big Chicken. I will admit it's not my favorite out of all of them I've gathered so far but I love the shop. It has to be my favorite out of all the ones I visited. It's got such cute kitsch to it. I enjoyed poking around. It's in a converted house in a nice neighborhood. I passed it up first because I didn't see the sign in the yard. They used so many beautiful fun antiques as decoration and display places for the product. They even had an antique toy washing machine. I got several fat quarters from them but there was so much fabric I wanted.

Shopfront for Tiny Stitches

The third shop was Tiny Stitches in Marietta, GA. This was the largest of the shops we visited today. It was a two-story building with the downstairs being classroom space and the upstairs being shop space. They had lots of fun nooks and cranny's to look into. Their pattern is called "Taste the Experience." It is 4 mason jar glasses on a picknick table. I love this pattern but again budget-wise I couldn't get the kit. I did get several fat quarters from Anodover's Full Moon collection. Andover also has a free pattern for this collection to download if you go to the link.

Halloween Quilt from Cottontail Quilts

The last Georgia shop we went to is Cottontail Quilts in Kennesaw, GA. This is another shop in a historic district that is in a converted home. The neighborhood was a fantastic area I would love to explore if I had more time. It's near the Southern Civil War Railroad Museum. I have been to this museum before. It's a fascinating place to spend a few hours. I never realized the shop was nearby. They were having their Christmas in July event going on. They had a sale on all Christmas items as well as a couple of drawings going on. Their row by row is a sun next to a watermelon that looks like it on a picnic table being attacked by ants. I purchased the kit with this one since it had the cutouts included, Intricate cut-outs can be difficult without the right tools and this was one of the cases where it's better to go the easy route with the kits. I did pass on some cute Halloween panels they had because of budget reasons but I hope to get them later.

the bathroom of Tiny Stitches

During this shop hop, I ended up going to each shop's bathroom and as funny as it sounds all of them had cute bathrooms. The two older buildings had fun characteristics that reflected something about the shop. One being the kitsch theme or the other with the classic country look. Tiny Stitches had an elaborate Paris themed mural and decor gracing theirs. All of them had quilts to display.

Chattanooga Quilts window display

The last shop I visited was on the way home. I rushed to get to this shop because I didn't know if I could get there before it closed. I went to Chattanooga Quilts in Ooltewah, TN. I love this shop. It's in a historic building that the owner always has fun decor and antiques. We did make it to the shop 10 minutes before closing. Their pattern is a cute ice cream cone with several scoops. I did get the kit with this one also and a piece of ice cream cone fabric for the backing. When I saw their pattern online I knew I had to have it.

Final Loot for the day

This makes my 6th pattern total because I had gotten the Pizza block from Fiberology Lab several weeks ago.  I plan on starting on what I have now. I hope I get time soon to go visit two more shops before the deadline. I know my local shop hasn't had a winner yet so time will only tell.

Tea today was this Zevia Organic Tea I picked up to try. I did not like it at all. I am not partial to stevia. It tastes too chemically for me and I wanted to give ita chance. The artificial chemical taste to this made it unpleasant. I will stick with my sweet n low thank you.

Shop Hop Project update and gadget find

Photo by Atomic Fibers

I have been very busy. I can always be accused of having too many things going at once. I started putting the blocks from the shop hop together almost immediately when I started picking them up because I was more worried about buying the kits and never putting them together. I took about two weeks to get the blocks completed. I roughly spent 20 hours total but the summer has been crazy busy for me. Several nights I haven't been able to work on them.

The photo I have is before I put the final border around it. I cut each block to 12 inches and put a small 1 1/2 inch border around each block in colored fabrics. I tried to use scraps for some and complementary fabrics for the rest. I also tried to pull the fabric I got from the shop hop for these borders. I think I used stash fabric for two but overall I am happy with the results. I did go to my local shop to show them what I've done. Since I haven't taken a photo of the finished top yet I'm using the photo Atomic Fibers posted on their Facebook page for now.

I did go back to the shop to get the demo ruler they had for the shop hop. It's the creative grids Straight Out of Line ruler. I also found a 25% off coupon in my pattern kit from them so I used it on the ruler and picked up some of the Mr. Domestic fabrics I love that they had on the clearance section. Overall I'm happy with what I picked up and can't wait to use my new ruler. They have a free pattern that comes with the ruler and also lots of videos on their site to use. One of the best things about their company is that they give us nice demos.




One of the saddest things I've found out since the shop hop is that Atomic Fibers is going to close. While I was hunting down the photo of the top they posted I noticed the closing announcement. The owner is going to retire to spend more time with her family. I am happy for her and hope her the best but will miss the shop.

The other thing I got recently was a gadget to use when I'm ironing. I had seen this at CVS several years ago and didn't pick it up because I didn't think I could use it until recently. My cousin bought two for cup holders on her lawn chairs. I hadn't found it since and I know a good google search would have yielded results but I wasn't in that much of a hurry to find it.

I have a problem with my fabric spray falling off my ironing board as I iron. It gets in the way and my ironing board is unstable because one of the legs is shorter than the rest. My dad bought the ironing board online for me and didn't realize the flaw until I opened it up. It still does its work. I just have to be careful not to jiggle off things. That means leaving stuff on the board is dangerous.

I found my clip-on cup holder at Bed Bath and Beyond. It was on sale at the time so I got it for about $3. When you clip the full part up it becomes a wine glass holder and turning it the other way it becomes a regular cup holder. So far it has passed the wobbly ironing board test.

Today's tea is the Ito En Koicha Tea. Ito En is a Japanese brand that is commonly imported to the US. I know if I ever get my dream trip to Japan I will not lack in things to eat or drink. I love this brand. The tea is unsweetened, which is something I need, but it is smooth. This flavor is a robust brew and has more flavor but still no bitterness. I know a lot of times unsweetened tea is bitter but they do not have that problem with this brand. They have a few different flavors but this is actually the first time I got this one.

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.