Treasure Shop Hop Day #4

Day #4 found Beth, my 2 boys and I taking a little road trip north, to the mountains!  Our first stop of the morning was at Stitch n' Snip in Garden Valley, ID, an approximate hour and a half drive.  This was a small shop packed full of goodness!

Another hour and 45 minute drive to McCall, ID and we visited Granny's Attic and Huckleberry Patches.  At Huckleberry Patches, I found this beautiful Yuletide Magic panel that I absolutely love - I cannot wait to turn into something wonderful (hopefully).  I decided I'm a sucker for Christmas fabric, I really could have purchased a fat quarter bundle (or more) of the coordinating fabrics in this line.  I haven't noticed this fabric at any of my local quilt shops, but I haven't actually looked, I just happened upon it while in McCall.  I'm either going to have to search down here or find an excuse to go visit this shop again.

Thanks for joining me on our Shop Hop journey.  Next year I'm thinking we'll get crazy with it, maybe have more interested members from our quilt group go with us, do all shops in a weekend and stay in a motel somewhere overnight, dress up - crazy hats, huge sunglasses, sequins...I'm not sure.  I just think it would be fun to get as crazy as we want with a large group of people.  Though, don't get me wrong, I really did love the quality time with Sara and Beth on day 1 (and Beth on day #2 and #4) - we've been friends awhile, but it has been a long time since we've spent so much time together and it was fabulous!

Treasure Shop Hop Day #2/#3

So, my Day #1 post was titled Treasure Valley Shop Hop because that's what I thought it was...turns out, I included the "Valley" on my own (we do live in the Treasure Valley so I thought that's what it was).  Anyway, Day #2 (Monday, April 18th) consisted of my friend Beth and I traveling to Kuna, ID (not much of a travel really, Beth lives about 2 minutes away) where we went to Knit One Quilt Too (no website that I could locate), a quaint little shop that is great for knitters and quilters alike.  Of course, wouldn't you know I didn't take any photos of the local quilt shops...I guess because they're closer I didn't think about it.  Next we went to Nancy's Quilts and More (again, no website) - you might remember me talking about the shop in this post.  After Nancy's we thought we'd take some of the back roads to get to downtown Nampa, ID (Nancy's has a Nampa address too, it's just out in the country).  We figured it was going to be an easy trip and surely we could figure it out despite the fact that neither of us had ever been this way.  This is another reason I really wish I had a camera with me (we did have our phones, but thought about taking photos after the fact): we got lost!  It didn't seem like we were driving for very long (time-wise) but we ended up about 10 miles from where we wanted to be, though, probably drove an extra 20 or so at least to get there.  Well, we weren't really lost, we just ended up taking the back roads, the more scenic route.  We were driving around something neither of us had ever heard about - the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge and it was really quite peaceful.  I happened to glance out of the window and saw a huge body of water of which I couldn't see the other side...I had thought, up until this point, that it was just a swampy/marshy area.  I exclaimed, probably rather loudly, "is that a giant body of water?!!!!" And Beth just started laughing hysterically - that was a yes.  It was such a memorable moment and I wish we would have taken our pictures by some of the Wildlife Refuge signs.  

We were just assuming at this point that we were at Lake Lowell - it was the only body of water in that area that we could have been at, unless of course we had drive a whole lot further than we thought.  Stop #3 of the day was Bluebird Quilt Studio in downtown Nampa.  This is definitely not my favorite shop for fabric but everyone is nice and they seem to do a lot of classes, and block of the month type projects that seem fun.

Day #3 was Tuesday, April 19th.  My friend Sara (different than Day #1 Sara) and I were able to go to the 2 shops in Boise, Quilt Expressions and The Quilt Crossing, while my 5 year old was in school (I dropped him off at 1230 and had to pick him up at 3...I was late).  I love Quilt Expressions - it's huge, has a great selection of fabric and my dream is to take their longarm class so that I would be able to rent time on the machines (they have like 5 or so in their shop).  The Quilt Crossing is also fabulous - great selection of fabric and I had 2 gift cards from my Birthday, and I only used one that day!

Join me again to hear about the final day and last 3 shops!

Treasure Valley Shop Hop Day #1

This past weekend was the start of the 10th Annual Treasure Shop Hop.  Last year a friend and I just happened upon the Shop Hop while in a local shop and once we found about it, we were hooked and we visited all of the local shops that didn't require more than a 20 minute drive (because there are also some in Oregon and McCall, ID up to 3 hours away). When we found out that the grand prize for visiting all 16 shops and getting your passport stamped was a $50 gift certificate from each shop (that's $800 in quilt shop money, people!) we knew we'd have to get serious about it this year.

Unfortunately that friend is only 2 weeks away from her due date with her second baby and I think she decided it might not be a good time to drive 3 hours from home in remote areas that we're all unfamiliar with. Though, don't get me wrong, we were prepared - we had talked about a plan for delivering the baby in the car, she was even going to bring sterile scissors for cutting the umbilical cord. We had invited all 12 of the ladies in our local quilt group but most couldn't make the trip, which I think was okay because not really knowing where we were going etc, this gave us a chance to test out the route we were taking and decide if it was the best plan of attack (which, I think it is not). It was kind of a trial run of the entire Shop Hop (which, this year consists of 14 shops) and it was fun, but I think next year we'll be doing things a little differently, as far as driving routes, etc.

Here are a few pictures from our adventures on day #1 - we left about 7:30am and were back at 5pm - lots of miles...I can't remember how many, nearly 300 I think.  I won't explain pictures all in great detail as that may be a bit boring for most of you and I do not want to bore you!

(my traveling companions and good friends Beth and Sara at a rest stop in who knows where)

(stop #1 - Quilts Plus in Halfway, OR)

(Sara at stop #2, Traditions Quilt Shop in Baker City, OR - this was followed by stop #3 at LaDonna's FiberArts, also in Baker City, OR)

(Stop #4 - Charm Shack Quilt Shop in Ontario, OR)

Stop #5 - Marilynn's Pickets and Patchwork in Nyssa, OR

Stop #6 - Cindy's Quilt Shop in Caldwell, ID

It's definitely an experience to visit so many quilt shops, some most have very nice people and others you kind of get the feeling that if you're not a regular, or perhaps fit a certain stereotype, you don't feel as welcome.  Sometimes you go into a shop and wonder how in the world they are still in business.  Some share their space with antiques, coffee shops, and bakeries.  More than one of these 6 shops listed were directly next to a "hole in the wall" type of bar...hmm....

Every shop created and sold kits for a block.  They were all similar in that they used batiks, but other than that I wasn't really impressed with the coordination of the blocks.  Each block is sold for $5 and $2 of that goes to Project Linus.  It's maybe kind of hard to visualize in the picture but these are the blocks from the first 6 shops.  A local blogger has made all of the blocks and posted them on her blog - check it out!  I'm not going to be making all of these blocks.  They are going to be distributed to my quilt group and we'll put them all together for a charity quilt.

  

Maybe, before too long, I'll post about visiting shops #7-14!

Graduation, Part 2

I had given Hunter the choice to stay home with Dad and Calvin, or to come with me on a long car ride.  He chose to come with me, but I guess I forgot to mention the part of sitting through a really long and boring graduation ceremony because not 10 minutes into it Hunter was crying and wanting to go to Grammy's house (where Calvin was spending the night).  My dad had to take Hunter for a walk, then Hunter was taking pictures to help pass the time.  He ended up doing great - better than you can expect from a lot of 3 year olds!

Hunter sitting on Nana's lap, nearly sleeping

After the ceremony we met Adam outside and headed to another building for a small reception and then we did some family pictures.  We walked all over the place which was great for Hunter to release some energy.

Adam, Dad and Clela

He's smarter than he looks - ha ha

Hunter with Uncle Burbs

Adam, Mom and Gary

Me, Burbs and Gidge

He didn't sleep the whole way up - the way home was a different story

Hunter and Mackenzie sharing the iPod

Congratulations to my brother - we're so proud of you and know you'll accomplish wonderful things!

Adam's Graduation, Part 1

Friday, May 15th Hunter and I packed up in my mom's car with her, Gary and Mackenzie and spent a good portion of the day driving to Clarkston, WA where we stayed in a motel the night before my brother Adam's graduation.  It was at dinner that night, after driving around Clarkston and Lewiston, ID looking for the perfect place for dinner, that the significance of Clarkston and Lewiston occurred to me.  I'm pretty sure it must have looked like a light went off because everyone turned to me wondering what was going on.  Of course my mom and Gary thought I was slow...but I can always count on my sister to be right there with me (no offense, sis) - she hadn't gotten it yet, either.  Do you get it?  If I put it in the order Lewiston and Clarkston, does that help?  No?  Okay LEWISton AND CLARKston - does that clear things up?

Hunter took this picture of Mackenzie taking his picture

Hunter trying out the nice motel bed!

Hunter took this not so fabulous picture of me

I took this one of Mackenzie who was doing a photo shoot of some sort of Hunter.

Hunter sound asleep in the morning.  He always ends up with the most bed when sharing with 2 adults - how does that happen?