Top 10 Shop Hop

Autumn in Illinois

Shop Hop finds! Christmas fabric, for a couple of Christmas presents.  Need to get a start on a few ideas.  I did find some 30's fabric, but not much.  I think it has about run its course.  Not a lot of shops are carrying it.

My friend, and roomy, Jan, on our overnight top 10 shop hop.  We left by bus at 7:30 am on Thursday.  We were going to visit  8 shops that have been featured in the Quilt Sampler, by Better Homes and Gardens.  Our local shop Prairie Stitches is featured in the current issue and has their quilt on the cover.  We went to shops in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Kathy Winkler, was our bus Mom.  She did a super job.  She is out front of "Life's a Stitch" in Madison, Wisconsin. Every shop had lots of samples and wonderful fabric.  Plus, there were great food treats.

Even found a Barn Quilt!

Ye Olde Schoolhouse in Cedarburg, Wisconsin

The Woolen Needle in Williamsburg, Iowa.  They had a "Wall of Wool".  Could not believe how much wool they had. They dye it all themselves and they had some wonderful kits!  They even  had a fabulous box lunch set up for us. We were at this shop on Saturday.  We spent the night in Dubuque, Iowa

Yellow Creek quilts is in Pearl City, Illinois. It was the last stop on our road trip.  This was just a few of the shops.  We also, went the Millhouse Quilts, in Wanakee, Wisconsin,Vintage Threads in Dyersville, Iowa  and Quilt Merchant, in Wayne, Illinois.  No pictures.  I was too interested in looking at fabric, and forgot to take them.  My bad!

There was even a barn quilt in Pearl City. (It was on the quilt shop.)

Low tressel!  Our bus driver Martin, was great. He used a GPS to get us from one shop to another.  After we left the shop in Pearl City, we were on our way home and came to this low bridge.  Martin, stopped the bus, got out and surveyed the situation.  There was no way our bus was going under that bridge!!  He did a super job backing up and turning us around.  We did not have to make too much of a detour. 

We had a wonderful two days.  Shop til you drop!!  When we arrived back in Oswego, Kim and Susan, the owners of our shop, were there to meet us.  They wanted to hear all about our trip.  As an added surprise, their shop was still open and had supper ready for us.  They had a taco bar set up in the classroom.  It was so nice.  Naturally, we had to check out all the latest goodies in our own local shop before heading home!!