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.
