Mini Shop Hop

Good morning, All!

Last Saturday was a lovely day and I decided to go on my own little Quilty Shop Hop. I picked a couple places I'd never been, jumped in the car and headed out.  The only plan I had in mind was to hit a few of the shops on my list with my eyes open for batiks, some white fabric & a pair of pinking shears.

I started by heading to Richmond, NH - a town I'd never been to, but it didn't seem like it would be all that hard to find.  It was a bit of a challenge as I gave DD "Jack," my GPS for her PA trip and it was still with her.  I had checked out how to get there via Google Maps and, again, it seemed easy enough.  About 3/4 of the way there, the road I thought I was supposed to take was OBVIOUSLY not the one I needed, so I went on, hoping I'd see something that I remembered from the directions.  I ultimately did and just before I was about to stop for directions, I came upon my first stop: Pickering Farm Quilt Shop.

The first thing I noticed was how much bigger it was on the inside than it appeared on the outside.  Here's a view as you walk in the door: FILLED with fabric and quilting goodies!  Diana, a very kind and wonderful woman, greeted me immediately and as I was a "first timer" filled me in on what I would find and then set me loose to explore.

I particularly like those blues on the bolts in the lower left corner!

One might expect to find fruits at a "farm"!

I am VERY into batiks and kept coming back to this lovely section.

You'll notice gorgeous fabrics, LOTS of patterns and wonderful quilts all throughout the shop.

 Many of the quilts, Diana told me, were quilted by her husband with their long arm.  NICE work, Steve!

Loved these bright fabrics!

 As you can read on their website, the folks at Pickering Farm carry MANY reproduction fabrics, but as you can see with the batiks and the lovelies above and below, there's plenty of variety for the fabric shopper.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stop there and it was a great place to begin my day.  I walked away with some Hoffman batiks to get me rolling.  I will definitely be back!

From there I found my way into Keene and made a brief stop at both New England Fabrics (always fun to see what they have) and Joann's for those elusive pinking shears, with, I will add, my 40% off coupon!  :)

Then it was back on Rt 9 for a stop at one of my favorite quilt shops: Quilted Threads in Henniker.

If you're from around here, you might remember when they were in a tiny building back closer to the highway, near the grain store?  It barely had room to move in, but they FILLED it with gorgeous fabrics.

Well, they've "come a long way baby" to where they are now and it's MARVELOUS!

They were out of stock on the pattern for this bag, but I'm on the list for when it comes in!

The highlight for me was seeing a quilt I am at the VERY beginnings of called "Over The River and Through the Woods." Some one had actually made one and it was on display - it was soooo cool!  I'm still working on the stitching, but I've seen how wonderful it will look someday!

I got some stunning white on white for the borders of my next quilt for DD's coach... but that's another post.

I was tempted to head home at this point, but something said, "oh go on... just one more..." so I took some back roads and got myself over to Bedford for my final stop of the day at The Quilt Patch.  What a little gem!  The owner, Sue, greeted me warmly and we jumped right into quilting conversation.  She had some wonderful little sets of batiks, my fabric of the day, so I tucked those into my bag along with some ideas and information that she was kind enough to share.

Looks a bit like that blue I saw earlier.

 

Like my other shop stops, I will definitely be back!

Here's my "stash" after the days travels: some batiks, those pinking sheers and a lovely piece of white!  It was a great day and I can't wait to go back!

Where would you go if you could create your own shop hop?  Hey, what's stopping you, right?

Go have fun!
Carrie