Beehive Shop Hop Review

The Beehive Shop Hop was going on the same time as the Wasatch Shop Hop and I would also like to make a review of this hop.  When I started this endeavor I only knew about one of the hops and it consisted of 13 stores.   I thought that is easy to do.  But then I stupidly found out about the other and the next thing I knew I went to 31 stores.  I will not go over my buys in this post but I can tell you that out of 31 stores I think there was only 3-4 of them that I made it out of with out buying something.  So yes the piles of things we bought are huge (and we did win a few little prizes along the way) . We entered into 31 separate drawings for prizes and completed our passports.

The first night Wednesday, Tanya and I went to dinner, but on the way to dinner we stopped at 3 shops (dragging Jared and Julia along the way).  The first shop that we visited is the closest beehive shop on the list and it was Brooks Fabric in Bountiful.  This is the 2nd closest of the 31 shops to my house. It is a favorite of Tanya's (I had never been there before but she had) Their selection was huge and their staff friendly.  Yesterday I made comments on a few about friendly and I want to explain why I made some of those comments.  The green thread Jared bought as a reward for being good. He has a fascination with thread. 

When Tanya and I would walk up to the table or area at more then 2/3 of the shops the store owners would look at Tanya and only her and talk to her.  They would act like I was not even in the room.  Most of the giveaway items we got for example were handed to her.  This annoyed me to no end.  I am the quilter and they have done some, but not much compared to me.  I am not one that likes to be ignored.  So if you are a shop owner and you are reading this (yes serious lack of pictures in the post I tend to avoid posts like this)  please pay attention to the guys don't just blow us off.

Now that my rant is over I will continue.  The second shop we went to was Bennion Craft in Kaysville this was not what I expected it, was a craft store with fabric in the corner.  I did enjoy their selection, but it is a bit out of the way for me to come back for any thing other then the hop.  This shop was the last to go to with Jared and after 3 shops I decided that he definitely would drive me wild before we made vary many and would not be invited on future hops.

On Thursday our first shop of the day was My Heritage Fabrics.  The selection was good, but this was the first shop I totally felt snubbed.  I asked them a question and they did not even act like I was there.  Yet when Rebecca and Tanya when they walked though the door got greeted with leis.  They had some nice batiks, but I am not sure if I would take the long drive here again for the service I got.   Though I think the girls liked the store.

The next shop we went to was another Bennion Crafts and I liked this one a lot, mostly because I won a fat quarter as well as my wife.  Again not what I would expect as a sewing store, but they did have a great selection of material.  It is not far from Weber State Collage where I got my Bachelors In Computer Science.  Its funny the building they are in is the same one that I bought most of the books I used while taking classes. So it felt like going home.

The next shop was Sew Right Fabrics and at this point in the day Thursday they were all running together and this one does not jump out in my memory to me.  So sadly I cant say much about it.

The next shop was a chain store Cotton Shop and we visited 3 of these.  Rebecca found some great discount deals in the back and I got distracted by all the sewing machines they had on sale.  Some of which were almost a temptation to buy other then I can't decided which I like most (and I spent all my money buying material).  This was the last shop we made it too on Thursday.  We tried one other, but it was closed early so It ended up the last shop and will talk about it at the end.

On Friday we started on the other end of the list and at first I though I had left the country with the surroundings I found.  This is not the typical architecture I expected to find down in cow country.  But I did finally find the first shop Morganson Custom Frame and Sew Forth.  This is a frame shop that inherited some material when another local shop closed.  This was a small store about what you would expect in a small town like Payson.  It was a very tidy shop though.  This is one of the few places I did not buy any thing.  This not because what they did have was nice it just did not have any of the sets I had been looking for.

The next shop I loved though.  Gracie Lou's it was way larger then I expected out in the middle of no where (Yes I am a city guy and this area was a little more country then I expected) (insert the Bull Here) yes that was literal they had some long horn just down the street.   The staff was more friendly then most of the shops we visited.  Both my wife and I agree that this is one of those shops worth the drive way out of the way to visit.  Lucky for me its also close to my Grandma's house, so I have a double excuse to drive that way.

After leaving leaving we even ran into a Lama.  You might find it funny but the 3 pictures here were all with in about 300 feet of each other less then 4 blocks from Gracie Lou's  Got to love the great combo.  Sadly I did not take any more pictures the rest of the day.

The next shop was another Cotton Shop and they are definitely decent places.  They have some high end, some middle of the road and some lower end fabrics.  The 3rd one we visited had some fantastic kids dragons that I plan to go buy (ran out of steam by this point to stand in line at a cut table) ,but nice shops.

Fabric mill was next on the list, not a giant shop but nice.  Enjoyed the material and the people at the counter were friendly as they cut some material for me.   I had a enjoyable time at the counter as some guy was trying to pay for his wife's take and each time they got transaction completed she added another item.  I think he got rang up 3 times while my material was being cut.  It made me giggle.

Next up was The Quilting Cottage this was a tiny house which had material stacked in the tub in the back. They had 2 wonderful quilts made of the Ghastly's out on the lawn that made me wish that I had brought the camera.  If it was not for packing baby Julia through 31 shops I would have taken a picture or 2 more, but I was so tired just packing her (she is gaining weight). Any way the shop was small for a big guy like me, but had lots of great material.

The next shop on the list was smaller Just Sew, but in a area I like visiting just off the Alpine Hwy (I love going for drives up the Canyon) and never knew the place existed.  They gave away some cute Bee's Wax (by the way what is that for?)  Rebecca found a cute pattern she liked there.

The next shop we visited was My Sister's Quilts it is just up the road from where I work (way way up the road) and it is one I loved a lot.  We actually visited it twice once to visit and once to hunt for one of our passports from the other shop hop that Tanya dropped on the ground.  They were one of my favorite shops and I will visit them again and again.  I won a small fat quarter bundle in a game there and I bought a pile of stuff.  They had the most fantastic Batik quilt on the wall and a wall of fantastic batiks which I plan to come back and buy.

The next shop is the only shop on the list that I will never visit again.  My wife tells me I should not comment about this, but I am going to.  The shop is The Material Girls Quilts.  I have been too and bought more then $200 in material from this shop and every single time they act like I do not exist.  I am a guy, but just disregarding my existence is bad.  I follow their blog and even there they snub me and never answer my comments.  One time while visiting I asked some one a question and they did not answer me.  I just put the stuff down I was going to buy and left.  This time around I went into the back where they had their treats and was the only one at the table.  They did not say a single word to me not even hello.  My wife 5 min later walks up they strike up a conversation put a lei around her neck and give her a prize.  Me I don't exist.  oh well, I have found 30 other shops to visit.

This was the last shop (on the Beehive  Shop Hop) that I visited Friday.  Saturday I finished up my last 3 shows and need less to say I was tired.  So you have Cotton Shop love these a chain and will visit again (above I talked about the dragons I will go back for). Then on to Fabric Center which I saw some neat scout material that I wanted to buy, but Julia was acting up so I did not stay long.  Its a older building but had a nice selection of material (though one of the lights were out and it was hard to see some of the material in the dark) but I would visit them again.

The Last shop I visited was Floyd And Lizzie's and it was a great one to have last.  I loved the shop and would visit it again.  They had some wonderful material's and great sewing machine.  I even got suckered into a contest which I will talk about most likely in my next post.  But this ends the hops and as my wife says I do not think we will ever try to do 31 shops in a couple days again.  It burnt me out, but I have a pile of stuff to show you in my next post if this one did not bore you to death.

Lets Make a Purple Charm Quilt

The other day I agreed to doing a "Quilt Tree" this is a no money involved way to get to send others and hopefully get in return some fabric.  The deal is this.  You will get from me 2 six inch squares of fabric along with a copy of the letter explaining all of the rules.  In short you take the top name off the list put yours on the bottom copy the letter and then send out a total 14 - Six inch squares to the top name on the list and 6 others that you know. If every one sends it to friends and no one is a slacker you should end up with about 72 or so squares enough to do a purple quilt.

So what I need is people that are interested.  I need at least 6 of you to commit to playing the game.  Do not fear if your not the first 6 responses still put in if interested.  Do not put your address right away I will email you back for that (don't want them search spiders to add you to any silly mail spam lists) just put a message that you are interested and I will send a email to get your address.

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).

Link A Finish Friday #19 And Giveaway

The Goal for me this year is 52 Finishes in 52 weeks help keep me honest and show off your own finishes at the same time its a Link A Finish Friday!!  I as counting the other day and in a couple weeks I will pass my 52 quilt mark.  I might have to be upping this goal some.

The most popular quilt from last week was from http://fabricengineer.blogspot.com you can click on the link to go to their blog or click on the image to go to the post about this quilt it is named Quilt 11.  I can understand the simplicity of a name like that.  I totaly love how it was done it is pretty cool and even the back has a block up on end in it also.

Starting this month and going forward I would like to add a give away with my Link A Finish Friday.  It is amazing that I have been doing this now for 19 weeks in a row.  I have not yet picked exactly the prize for this month but Tanya and I have decided it will be in the size range of a couple fat quarters a month.  This is from my personal stash.  Most likely I will offer 2 different selections to the winner and let them pick.  So 1 winner 2 fat quarters.  To be entered you have to link up a finished quilt or a quilt in progress quilt (yes I know its a link a finish Friday but see rule number 1 below) Thank you to all those that have participated in the past and I hope even more in the future.

<center> <a href="http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/search/label/LAFF"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlg1CtkP_w_gCP_2zdsIXYXILI3c9WKrATFksD8K0z_EqO4Hw8a_fQlcnMBvjwKjkQ_TSHwLiTcYwoPr25tm-xR_7Mlyoy_JMt-ZEDRpzNjh9eqft7EmSqUexMgXh-VGMf3hH2FpEpaQ/s1600/961059p0w26Lp8.jpg" width="125" /></a> </center>
Thanks again for visiting Richard and Tanya Quilts and supporting  our quilting adventures.

So for the rules.

1) Who likes rules. Toss them out.
2) Add a link to your finish blog or where ever you show off your finishes (Not limited to quilts but I like them the most).
3) Visit a few of the finishes and comment or encourage them on.

Not Required but fun to do

1) Follow my blog.
2) Follow the blog of all those that link.
3) Link back to my blog.
4) No finish, go quilt and stop reading the web.

Batik progress and a giveaway

Today is Flag Day here in the USA. My son James is a Boy Scout and I got him up early and we put up flags around our neighborhood. I though since I am up and the sun is just peaking over the mountains here in the Salt Lake Valley I just had to show off how the quilt is looking.  I have the center of the top completed, this is the biggest to date pieced top for me.  I am still debating (wife tells me she wants it a little bigger then planned) about how big I want the borders.  So tonight I will be looking at the amount of light gray and dark gray I have and figure out how I can do the borders.  You can see with the top row folded over the swing set it hangs quite a bit down.  My guess is its just under twin size now?

Last Saturday we took my mother in law to visit her son in vernal (3 hours from my home) while she was visiting us (5 hours from her home). We were all sitting around the couch admiring Julia when she rolled on her side and I thought it was so cute I had to take a picture.  Showing off she flipped onto her tummy.  She now just 4 days later is not content to lay on her back any more and she has even rolled her self over and slept on her tummy.  At 11 weeks old this is a pretty big accomplishment for her and she is ahead of the norms on doing such.  She is going to be mobile soon.

Last Thursday my family took a drive up to Silver Lake (near Brighton Ski Resort in Utah) to show my mother in law the mountains here in the valley (she is from southern Utah and said the northern mountains are not worth visiting and we wanted to show her they were).  Any way some one saw me holding a camera and said oh did you see the mother and baby moose?  I have never seen moose up here, yet they have signs all over telling about them.  I ended up hiking a mile before I got close enough to take this picture.  It was taken from about 1/4 mile away (Even though it looks 10 feet away) thanks to my 400 zoom lenses on my Nikon D90 I was able to take this.  About 4 minutes after I took this picture, the baby walked out into the open to take a drink.  I went to take a picture and the camera just did nothing.  Note to self, to not miss cute baby moose bring an extra battery.

Yawn I know who cares about all of that I said something about a giveaway.  First off I want to say that all of my giveaways have been provided by me.  I do not yet have any sponsors (but would love some if any one is looking to do that) .  I do have some advertisements from Google displayed on my blog and I do get a little money from that (note little means at current rate a year tell I will get a check). If you like any of the things in the advertisements please click on them and check them out.  Each click will increase the amount of giveaway's that I am able to do.

Alright enough of that.  On to what I am giving.  Sadly I am not sure what that will be as of today, but I wanted to tell you how to enter.  Yesterday started the Beehive Shop Hop and the Wasatch Front Shop Hop's here in Utah.  I would like to share some love from what I get along the way between the 2 their are about 30 stores.  I have taken off today and Friday from work.  Tanya, Rebecca my 14 year old, Julia and I are going to go visit as many of them as we can.  Last night Tanya and I visited 3 of them on the way out to dinner.  We got 16 fat quarters and material to make one of the block's that they gave the pattern away from.  No I did not win any of these, but I would like to share some of the love once we get back from our adventures.  I plan to take the camera and share some pictures.  So the what is not known but will be in the next 2 days now on to the how.

I have been doing a Link A Finish Friday every week for the last 18 weeks and I would like to increase the awareness of it.  As such I would like to give to those that link up.  So any one that has already linked up in June or any one that does link up between now and the end of the month will be entered.  Please make sure the email listed on the link is valid for you or leave a comment on one of the posts linking too you.  http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/search/label/LAFF is a link to the tag for the most recent posts.  Also at the top of my blog in the main page is a re-cap page for all previous LAFF (Link a Finish Friday in short).  Also I have got a new button that you can put on your blog though its not required to win. (note to self if this works out and it gets a good response we will have a giveaway every month on those who link up).  Oh one last thing on the LAFF I understand that not every one has a finish every week.  If you have progress on your quilts link that up I still want to see what your working on.

<center> <a href="http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/search/label/LAFF"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlg1CtkP_w_gCP_2zdsIXYXILI3c9WKrATFksD8K0z_EqO4Hw8a_fQlcnMBvjwKjkQ_TSHwLiTcYwoPr25tm-xR_7Mlyoy_JMt-ZEDRpzNjh9eqft7EmSqUexMgXh-VGMf3hH2FpEpaQ/s1600/961059p0w26Lp8.jpg" width="125" /></a> </center>
Thanks again for visiting Richard and Tanya Quilts and supporting  our quilting adventures.