Saturday, June 16, 2012

Wasatch Front Shop Hop Review

Over the last 3 days and finishing this Saturday, My wife and I, along with both my girls have visited  27 quilt shops.  We have 3 last ones that we will visit Saturday.  I will focus this post on the Wasatch Front Shop Hop as we have finished all 13 shops in this one. I will post tomorrow about the Beehive Shop Hop when we have finished it (17 shops).

The first shop we visited was Quilter's Haven, I have been to this shop many times as its the closest one to my home and right next door to my dentist.  Jared went last wed night to this one with us and it had hamburger cookies, so he gives it a thumbs up as rating.  I enjoy this shop and would continue to visit it again.

Second up on my visits was the farthest from my house.  It is My Girlfriends Quilt shop located in Logan Utah.  It is way north from our house.  They made us work at our entry into their giveaway as they made us hunt for Alice and track where we found her in the store this was a lot of fun and work at the same time.  We really enjoyed this shop it was packed with a lot of wonderful things.  The the one thing that sticks out in my mind at this shop was upstairs they had a tree that was made/wrapped in material for a kids play room and it was pretty cool.  This shop is worth visiting again if I am up in the area.

The next shop we visited was in Brigham City Utah a shop named Village Dry Goods.  I enjoyed their selection. It had no room to move in the shop.  They had a ton of great materials, but lacked the space for all of the people attending.  I was not overly excited or under excited, but I think what stole the show for me here in this city was seeing how far along the new Temple they are building is on its construction.  It is not finished yet (it has a plywood front door) but is a really pretty improvement to this little town.

Piper's Quilts & comforts was the next shop we went to.  I enjoyed this shop, but did not enjoy the small space.  This shop is in a old house and being a big guy with things hanging all over the place I was always worried that I would knock things down.  The whole time I was paying for the items I bought, I was afraid the lady ringing me up was going to smack her head on the stairs (the desk was under them).  The shop was nice, but I personally dislike that location in town. I try to avoid Sugar House at all costs, because the streets (traffic & parking) in that area are terrible.

Elaine's Quilt Block was the next up on the list of these to visit.  This store is not far from where I worked once in Cottonwood Heights.  This stores theme was Mash.  The truck out front was a great touch.  I really enjoyed this store, its one that I will go to many more times to come.  They have a fantastic collection of batiks and many other fabrics.

The next shop was Mormon Handicraft this store is inside Deseret Books.  I had been in this book store before but had never noticed the fabric upstairs.  I enjoyed this shop a lot.  The fabric did not stand out to me as much as the patterns did.  I bought 2 patterns one of the Salt Lake Temple and another of 4 other temples.  One of the things on my to-do list is make a quilt of the Salt Lake Temple which I can see from my house.

The last shop we visited on Thursday was Pine Needles it is located in Gardener Village.  I enjoyed this this shop and would come back again.  I was so tired by this point that I could hardly stand and was so glad to climb into bed.  (note: I went to about 8 other shops Thursday that were in the other shop hop and will review that in my next post.)

Friday started out with us out driving all the way south and working our way back towards Salt Lake.  The first shop we visited was Corn Wagon Quilt Company.  This is one of those shops I just loved. It had a I Love Lucy theme and they were very friendly.  I will visit this one again.  It is a long drive from my house but totally worth it.

Next up was The Stitching Corner, I enjoyed this shop and it will be the most memorable because Julia won a door prize for being the cutest and youngest customer in the store.  She got herself a fat quarter.  They did play a game while we were there which was fun.  You had to find safety pins they scattered around the room.  Before we left they played a second time and some lady had 40 plus pins picked up in the 40 or so seconds they gave to play.  Can you say some one cheated? Hum..

Next up was American Quilting this shop I enjoyed.   I for the life of me can't think of what to say about this store mostly because my brother called just before I went in and told me my truck (My moms truck, its just in my name, I pay taxes and insurance, but don't use it) was towed.   My brother had been using it and that he wanted me to come and get it out of hawk.  Any way long story short I can't remember this store.  Maybe Tanya can say something nice when she comes and edits this post. It was a nice store, but nothing really stood out.

The next shop we visited was Broadbent's in Lehi.  I loved this shop, not because of the selection of materials, but because of the game they played.   They had a wheel you spun and the possibility of getting a prize.  I lost of course, but Tanya on the other hand went to Jail  Their theme was Gun Smoke and they had a jail.  They even took her picture for a wanted poster.  I am going to have to see if I can get a copy of it.  I have to say I did a poor job of taking pictures, as I was too tired dragging baby Julia in and out of so many shops.  This shop also had a lot of glass/breakable items area, but we tend to be a family of "Bull in China Shop", so we only looked at fabric.

Thimbles & Threads was the next shop I visited and I really enjoyed it.  They have a wonderful selection of material and most important a wonderful staff that was friendly to me.  They were doing a Gilligan's Island theme and I had to take a picture of the out side before I wandered off.  This shop is just up the street from where I work and is one I would gladly go again too.  I just can't say enough about how nice it was.


The last shop we visited on the list of 13 shops (Hum I should count and make sure I did not miss one as its hard to think about only the one hop when by the time I got to this shop I had visited 27 already not just 13).  I was I glad to finally get to this shop.  It was fun and a challenge to get the cards stamped at each shop and back into my wife's purse, so they would not get lost (and she lost one, but don't tell Tanya I said she lost one or she would be mad I told on her).  We had to go back to a shop and find where she dropped it on a floor, while getting the baby Binky out of the purse.

OK All I can say is WOW when I think of Quilt, Quilt, Quilt, ETC their store is so big it does not fit into one building.  We first started in the building on the south side of the street and was amazed at all they had.  If you have ever seen those quilts with candy, fruit and other crazy fabric and wondered where you can find it, this is the spot.  I have seen quilts done with the food fabrics and they are a lot of fun and one day will go back and get some.  They had the theme of Cheers and you got to visit the bar.  Tanya and Rebecca both won fat eights from the root beer pong.  They had soft pretzels and nachos along with "soft" drinks on tap.  I had thought I had been and seen every thing when my little girl dragged me down the hall and into the room with the batik's and all I can say is wow they have a lot of them and I had to force myself to not buy too many things here.

So well its no 12:30 am and Tanya wants to review this before it goes live, so I will end here.  I will show off all my wins, and um check book losses in a few days after all of the store reviews.  But I can tell you this.  I can't afford to do this too often, I don't think I got out of more then 1-2 of the 27 shops I went in with out buying something. The table almost fell over with the stack when we took pictures of it. Oh well, this was our stay cation shopping spree, since vacation plans were messed up by teenagers activities and Tanya goes back to work next Monday. So off to bed I go!! Only 3 more shops to visit and I finished my crazy shopping spree of visiting 30 quilt shops in 3 days.  Yes I am nuts and oh am I tired.  Night all (see so tired I just cant stop typing OK I really need to go bye).






7 comments:

Coral said...

Well done! So many shops in so few days (daze)!! I don't think there are 30 close by to me. I'm glad Julia enjoyed herself, I'd have been full of trepidation taking such a tiny with me.

Cindy said...

Wow! My hat is off to you two!! Doing one shop hop is impressive but two!! And especially having Julia with you! She must be such a good baby. I've been to most of the shops you mentioned and agree with your assessments. I love Quilts Etc (in fact I was in there yesterday and bought a huge amount of white background fabric)..I just wish it were closer to my house. While I'm not doing the shop hop, I am off to two stores today, Bennion's (the former Ben Franklin) and Gardiner's Sew & Quilt in Ogden. I don't think Gardiner's is part of the shop hop but they are having a 25% off sale off just about everything today. It's a great store and you can't beat that kind of sale!

Teresa Quilts said...

Wow! I envy you that you have so many quilt shops to visit! I wish Alabama had that kind of showing in quilt shops. We don't have very many around where I live. Actually it is about thirty miles to the closest one. Glad you had a great time!

Mike Pearson said...

Thanks for sharing, love to hear your guys' adventures :) Happy Father's Day!!!

Thimbles and Threads Quilt Shop said...

What a whirlwind tour! I can't wait to see the post of your finds and purchases. Thanks so much for the kind words about our shop. Hope to see you again soon!

Anonymous said...

You mentioned some stores I know! I loved seeing the picture of the temple. I like the design they are using on that one. It fits into historic Utah temples. That was a whirlwind 3 days. I can't believe you did it as a family, too. Stacey and I just visited 5 stores with her two one day, and they really were angels, everyone said so, but it was exhausting!

Melissa said...

Wow! That is a whole lot of shops! I made it to 4 of the Western WA hop on Wednesday and was ready to fall over afterwards! I am going to try and hit a few more tomorrow.

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