Friends Don’t Let Friends Leave a Shop without Fabric
This is the fabric stash from my first Vermont shop hop.
Way back in the mid-1960s when I first started sewing, there wasn’t much in the way of fabric choices if you wanted to quilt.
Nowadays, there are hundreds of quilt shops all over the U.S. to serve the 21 million people who now quilt in this country. Amazing, huh?
My best guesstimate is that there are 20 to 24 quilt shops in Vermont alone, and this year, 16 of them got together to sponsor a shop hop. Every time you visit one of the participating stores during the Shop Hop week, you get entered in raffles, take advantage of sales, and if you go with friends, as I did, you get to have a wonderful time.
Of course, you also have someone to split what remains on the bolt so you don’t buy too much of one thing.
Notes on Thanks
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of talking about quilting and the books that led me to the quilting universe to a lively group of women at the Wardsboro Library in Wardsboro, Vermont. I had a great time, and evidently, according to this thank you card, so did they.
Personally, I think thank-you cards are one of the undervalued details that make the world go ’round. The recipient always smiles (can you see me smiling now?), and they add a sweetness to the whole experience of appreciating our lives together.
This card was signed by many of the folks who attended the workshop, each with a personal inscription. My favorite is this:
Dear Sonja, You are such an inspiration! Some of the folks who attended your talk have pulled out their sewing machines and bought material. I will be shopping on 3/9 with two of them! Thank you for taking the time to visit us.
Ooooh, to think that I have inspired creativity. It does’t get any better than this!
