Thursday, September 25, 2014

Shop Hoppin'

When I lived in Utah
I used to go on their quilt store Shop Hops each year 
with my girlfriends.
But, now that I live in Arizona,
this is the first time I have attended the
Maricopa County Hop
Theme: Rally In The Valley
What an experience!
I was invited by my friend Denise
who coordinated 4 car loads of ladies.
Denise was amazing.
She had printed out Maps and Instruction Binders for each car.
These ladies have gone together for several years
and are quite experienced hoppers.
Judi stocked her trunk with cold drinks in a cooler
and boxes for each one of her riders to stash their purchases.
W.O.W.
I learned a thing or two :)
Some of the stores on the list 
were quite a distance from my home in Chandler.
Consequently, I had never been to them before.
Fortunately Rally In The Valley lasts 9 days
so there is plenty of time to drive from here to there.
We started with the store that was the farthest away for us
Arizona Quilts
in Surprise, AZ
is 55 miles away, and an hours drive.
A nice store with some beautiful quilts.
I especially liked this version of
Lori Smith's
Quilt Block Sampler
Our next stop (and my first time to visit) was
Sun Valley Quilts
in Sun City, AZ
Lots of fun things here too,
and everyone found a lot of quilty goodies.
With Denise's great directions and instructions
we managed to reach 7 of the 11 stores the first day.
I felt
Sew Blessed 
to be invited along with these wonderful ladies.
On Monday I was able to finish up with the last 4 stores on my end of the valley.
Rally In The Valley 
runs through Saturday the 27th
if you would like to join along.

1 comment:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I have heard of these and some ladies in my area participate - they drive from the central part of the state to the west and then north and come back down to the central part again - I have heard there are a lot of small shops in the northern part of the state but I haven't tried it - well need to check some of them out one day - did you fill up your box :)