First Day of the Hop - June 1

Well, day one is at a close and I made it to 10 shops today.  I did get started a lot later than I wanted to, so I could have gotten a couple more in, but that's life.  I was a beautiful day, sunny and just the right temperature.  It was fun to be out in the sun all day, instead of indoors, working in a basement with virtually no windows!

Country Threads was my first stop today.  They are only a few miles down the road from where I live but I don't shop here much.  They have lots of reproduction fabrics and I'm just not into repros right now as far as my quilting goes.  The have a new little garden house in front of the store and I always enjoy their flowers.  The shop also has cats and one of them took a liking to the way that I scratched her and started following me around.

The second stop was at The Honey Barn in Goldfield.  This is a smallish shop with an eclectic mix of fabrics.  I run into a couple who are hopping and geocaching.  Sound like something fun.  So far, I've been like the first one or two customers of the hop to register, judging by the prize drawing slips.

The next shop is in Vincent and is a quilt shop that also has fashion accessories, gifts and serves food in the back of the shop.  Here is a link to the Facebook page for Mrs. T's Mercantile: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mrs-Ts-Mercantile/147205689236.  The shop has fabrics, threads and sewing machine accessories.  Your  purchase will be rung up on an old-fashioned crank register that really rings! Look at that beautiful sky.

I decided to go to the Gingerbread House in Webster City next.  It meant doing a little backtracking but that's OK, I'm on vacation!  This shop is in an older home and has fabric and gift items on the main level and holiday decorating items on the 2nd floor.  The ceiling is really short upstairs but the trip is worth bending over and walking around.  I have purchased several Santas over the years at this shop for my collection of 'tall' santas and I find another one today.

Fort Dodge is the next stop and I have to pick up the rocking chair here as well as visiting 2 shops.  The first shop is near downtown and is new to me, Tillie's Quilts.  I see that they have the some of the Bittersweet collection by Nancy Halvorsen, but I don't have the info on the amount that I need, so will have to make a trip back this way to get some.

After the pick up at Mcgregors Furniture, it is off to The Family Quilt Shop.  This is quite a small shop. They have their batik fat quarters flat and in a big bin so you can see the entire piece of fabric and get the color gradation that you want.  I really like this idea.

The next stop was an adventure!  Got to love summer with all of the road work.  Finding Lee's Quilt Shed was an experience.  Once the new highway is finished, it will be easy to get to, but not so much now.  It is a cute little shop, lots of patterns and the owner is very friendly and helpful!  She had written directions to get me to the next shop around all of the construction.  Yah!

Towne Square Quilt Shoppe in Lake City is a shop that I have been to before.  It is small, very neat and organized and has a trunk show at this time. Here is the Facebook link:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Towne-Square-Quilt-Shoppe/142476009131743  They also had some great gingerbread cookies today!

Carroll, Iowa is the location of The Yarn Basket and Quilt Shop. This shop has a very nice yarn shop in the front and a quilt shop 'out back'.  They have a nice selection of pre-cuts and I found a cute panel that had the numbers 1-10 in three languages with appropriate animals in the proper number!  It will make a cute little quilt.

The last shop of the day is Threads, Etc. in Glidden.  This shop does long-arm quilting and has a selection of fabric and lots of kits.  The shop is neat and open and everything is easy to find.  They have several bolts of a fabric line that I need to finish a quilt, so they are on the list to contact again.

My day ended in Jefferson when I found the Ben Franklin closed when I arrived.  The brochure states that the shops are to be open until 6 PM, but I guess that not everyone got the memo.  I drove to Ames and ate at Hickory Park.  Since my son graduated from Iowa State, I have not been down this way much and the restaurant really has great food.  Home to bed and to start the hop again tomorrow!  It will be a shorter day as I have to be in Rochester and Minneapolis later in the day.