Row by Row Experience 2019 Wrap Up

There's still a week and a half left to visit shops and pick up patterns, but unless something unexpected happens I've made my last trip for the year. I think I made it to sixteen different shops not counting one that should have been open but wasn't.  

Yesterday it was my plan to head down to the shops in Eugene. I'd been wondering how on earth I was going to combine my collection of blocks into a quilt, then I saw this one hanging at Something To Crow About....

Isn't that amazing? I've got all of the patterns except for the one with the donuts and pie. Now I feel like there's hope I can combine my own random collection into something...that'll include the intricately appliqued crab from The Quilt Loft and the Roadkill Cafe from From Bolts to Blocks.
I'll worry about how to do that when/if I get some rows pieced. 

{The Row by Row Experience} I'm Loving This Year's Theme

Last year, I skipped the Row by Row Experience because I wasn't at all excited about the theme and I had a ton and a half of other things going on. I wasn't sure about this summer, but the theme sounded encouraging. 

Then I saw the block that Yankee Dutch Quilting came up with.

Between the vintage stand mixer and the saying, there's no way I'm not stitching that, regardless of whether or not I make a quilt or visit many more shops.

{The Row By Row Experience} One More Shop

I hate to say it, but I'm losing my enthusiasm for the row by row road trip. It's too dang hot and my car is on its fifth summer with no air conditioning and I'm not about to drive the truck to new shops in towns I'm not familiar with and I've got a ton of other things going on right now. The Row by Row Experience is still great, it's just not working into my life as well as I'd hoped this year.

Tuesday's errands put me within a couple of blocks of Finally Together, so I stopped to pick up the pattern for their row. This is the third location I've visited this shop at over the years and it's by far the best. They've got a ton of sample quilts to look at and a great selection of fabrics and patterns.

I resisted temptation, but just barely and only because I still have new fabric from a couple of other  shops that I haven't touched yet. And it's close enough to home that I can always go back if that panel with the owls won't get out of my imagination. 

{The Row by Row Experience} Quilt Show Weekend

I was trying to get pictures of every shop's exterior but it was hot on Friday and my minivan doesn't have air conditioning and I kept forgetting. So no exterior pictures this week except for the Stitchin Post which I got because it's impossible not to get a picture of that place on quilt show weekend.

Shops: 
BJs Quilt Basket
Homestead Quilts and Gallery
Paisley Fabric and Quilts
Quiltworks
The Stitching Post
Material Girl Fabrics

The quilt show itself is always a lot of fun and, more than anything, it motivated me to pull out my copy of Farm Girl Vintage and start piecing some of those blocks. I was making myself crazy, trying to remember which blocks were in the book and which were the companion blocks. I kind of want to purchase every last one of Lori Holt's patterns.

What are you excited about lately? For me, it's suddenly cross-stitch and Hawaiian applique and cute little blocks with vintage things on them.

{The Row by Row Experience} The Shops in Salem

Luckily for me, most of the Oregon quilt shops are located in convenient clusters that aren't impossibly far from home. Notice that I'm not describing them as close, because some of them definitely aren't. But I'm taking it one shop at a time and hoping to make it up to Washington for a day trip before time runs out. 

Earlier this week we took a road trip that included most of the shops on the way to Grandpa's house.  I'm hoping to visit the Central Oregon shops on quilt show weekend and the Eugene shops soon after that. 

One of these shops was new to me and a couple weren't participating last year. It's a fun excuse to check out all of the shops. Some I may not return to, at least not until next  year's road trips. Others I'll get back to at the first opportunity.   Have you ever come across a shop that changes a dollar a yard more for clearance fabric if you pay by credit card? That was a first for me.


Shops:
Paramount Sewing and Vacuum
Quilt N Stitch
Bernina Stretch and Sew Fabrics
Craft Warehouse
Whitlocks
The Cotton Patch
Discover Quilting

{The Row by Row Experience} It's started!

Someone please tell me that I'm not the only one who's been counting down the days for the Row by Row Experience to begin for 2017! I think we visited something like forty shops last year, but I didn't manage to sew a single row. And I don't feel guilty about that.  

Things kicked off yesterday and there are two quilt shops (sort of) on the way to to the park where the boys like to ride their bikes. I didn't detour to the other three that are close to home. I'll be out that direction soon enough. 

 With everything that's going on at home right now, I'm not sure if I'll have time to visit as many shops as I did last year. I'm trying not to make ambitious plans I won't be able to carry out. Maybe instead of travelling I should try to actually make some rows and put together a quilt?

I definitely want to include both of these!

Shops:
Seamingly Together (Sweet Home, Oregon)
Yankee Dutch Quilting (Brownsville, Oregon)

Stash Enhancement

While I was doing the Row by Row Experience, my folks were travelling in other parts of the state. The rules say that any person who walks in the door can request a pattern. My dad is a person. So is my teenage son. So when we weren't on the road together, I picked up patterns for her and she picked them up for me. 

I think there are another twenty patterns in this stack to add to my collection. Now it's time to pick my favorites and decide how to combine them. When we started, I had my doubts about whether or not I'd finish a quilt. Now I'm thinking I've got at least two in my future. 

Did you see that Sew Fresh Quilts is doing a Quilt Along for the Mod Bear Paw pattern? 

I'm seriously loving this quilt and I've had a Craft Warehouse gift card riding around in my purse since Christmas. I'd gone into the shop once or twice and come out empty handed. Friday, I headed out in search of brown fabric to use in some Bear Paw blocks. 

No luck with the brown, but I did find shirtings and a couple of novelty prints at a great price. 

And a new-to-me brand of sock yarn for three dollars a skein. I was drooling over this yarn a few weeks back at twice the price (plus shipping), so every color they had in stock made it into my cart. Three dollar pairs of socks? Yes, please! It may push my numbers deeper into the hole, but when I want to do some mindless sock knitting in months to come, I'll be happy to have it.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week:  11 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 29 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 22 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 250  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5500 yards
Yarn added this Week: 1752 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9118 yards
Net added for 2016: 3618 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Is it over?

This summer was a blur of fun travels. First it was, by way of Yellowstone National Park, to Colorado to stay at the hotel that inspired The Shining. Then came the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, followed by a week at the coast that included a visit to a not-haunted lighthouse.  Last week, we were at the time share in Sedona...and on the way home we detoured through Moab and back to Colorado to ride the train. Oh, and a night in Las Vegas on the way to Sedona in the first place.

As if that wasn't enough time on the road, I spent a lot of hours driving between quilt shops and picking up patterns as part of the Row by Row experience. On this trip I managed one shop in Reno and one in Cottonwood, Arizona. There were some others we passed, but either the timing wasn't right or I wasn't thrilled about the block, or I was really tired.

The row I really wanted to make sure to get was from the Durango Quilt Company. It's got the train on it! But we pulled into town just after they'd closed for the night and the train ride the next day returned to town just after they'd closed for the night.  And then it was Sunday.

I'd planned a drive up into Washington State to get more rows, but my partner in crime is sick and it's a holiday weekend. So I think I'll leave my total at 33 shops. That's more than enough patterns for a quilt -- although I spent a lot of drive time thinking about the possibilities and I think it's going to be two. One with the really intricate blocks and another with the simpler ones.

I hate to see summer end, but I'm looking forward to Super Sock Scarefest over on Ravelry and Bag It, hosted by Elm Street Quilts.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 18 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 12 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 400  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5250 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 7366 yards
Net added for 2016: 2116 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

More Row by Row Happiness

I'm a little giddy about this. As we've been traveling from shop to shop picking up this year's patterns I've been falling in love with last year's quilts and wishing I'd known about the Row by Row Experience then.

It turns out that a bunch of shops are offering their 2015 and/or 2014 patterns as free downloads -- and Marian at Seams to Be Sew has compiled a list of links to those websites. I would have printed a bunch more, but the printer needs ink.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 1 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week: 0 yards
Fabric added year to date: 18 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 12 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn used year to Date: 4850 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 7366 yards
Net added for 2016: 2516 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Another Leg of the Row By Row Road Trip

Friday, Mom and I headed down I-5 to the eight quilt shops we could visit and still be home in time to make dinner. I think this brings the total number of shops I've visited so far to thirty-one. 

Yes, I do realize that I only need eight rows to make a quilt.  I'm having fun.  The past couple of years have been so crazy that I didn't spend a lot of time in quilt shops. Now I'm making up for it and discovering new places. Of the eight shops we visited yesterday, I'd only been to three before and one of those was at least a decade ago.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 5 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week:  5 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 18 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 13 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 400  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 4850 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 7366 yards
Net added for 2016: 2516 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

More Rows and a Bit of Drooling Over Tiny Things

I added five more rows to my collection this week. The biggest challenge might not be getting where the quilt shops are -- it's getting there while the quilt shops are open! Luckily the shop in Bandon was open on Sunday. Sadly, the one in Coos Bay wasn't. But that's okay. I got a pattern I didn't expect to get, and it's a pretty cute one. 

And I got to stop at the dollhouse shop in Lincoln City. Their inventory had changed a lot in the two years since my first visit, but I had fun browsing. See the second dollhouse from the right on the top shelf? That's the same kit as my dollhouse was made from. 

I'm absolutely fascinated by these itty-bitty dollhouse kits, but I know my fingers are too clumsy to tackle one. (And I know where a youtube tutorial for a much simpler one is so I can build my skills a bit for spending serious money on something I'm pretty sure I can't do.)

Weekly Stash Report

Three quilt shops and the dollhouse store with not a single thing added to my stash or collections. I was good this week!

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 5 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week: 0 yards
Fabric added year to date: 13 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 7 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn used year to Date: 4050 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 5526 yards
Net added for 2016: 1476 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Weekly Stash Report

While we were in Sisters for the quilt show, Mom and I took a road trip and visited eight more shops to add to our collection of rows. I know you only need eight rows for a quilt, but we're treating it like a fun scavenger hunt and seeing how many shops we can make it to before the end. 

Of course you can't visit that many shops without falling in love with some of the quilts on the walls... Quite a few of those were from books that one or the other of us already owned, but I did have to bring home these. There's one other quilt I loved, but I talked myself out of it and now I don't remember its name or even have a clear picture of it in my head. (It was black and cream, with appliqued baskets and embroidered flowers and pieced setting blocks. Ring any bells for anyone?)

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 5 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week:  1/4 yard
Fabric added year  to date: 13 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 7 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 100  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 4050 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 5526 yards
Net added for 2016: 1476 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

It's Definitely an Experience!

When we were in Colorado and I called my mom to tell her about the hotel and that amazing elevator she asked if I wanted to do the Row by Row Experience with her. I had no idea what she was talking about and I've got a lot going on already, so I responded with a kind of vague "I'll look it up when we get home."

Then we got home and I looked it up. Then I stopped at the first quilt shop, which happened to be closed, and saw their row by row quilt from last year hanging in the window and now I'm totally hooked. I dragged my boys to ten quilt shops this week, seven on one day.

If I'm counting right, there are eighty-nine participating shops in Oregon alone. I've already done the ones that are closest to home and I'm not sure how many more I can get to, but I've already got more than enough patterns for a quilt.  And some of them are absolutely fantastic -- do you see Sasquatch in the upper right hand corner?

My only problem is that it's impossible not to see rows from other impossible-to-get-to places and fall in love with them. A shop in North Carolina has possums on their row!  One of my younger sons aspires to be a wildlife rehabilitator an is more than a little obsessed with possums. I need that row.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 5 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week:  1 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 13 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 7 1/2 yards

Yarn used this Week: 400  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 3950 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 5526 yards
Net added for 2016: 1576 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.