2012 Western Washington Shop Hop Days Two and Three

Friday, June 22, 2012:

               Sarah had to meet her boyfriend Andy at SeaTac airport at 1:30. From there, they were going to his house in Snohomish. So I decided I’d try to fit in a few shops that were fairly close by in the morning before I dropped her off.

My first stop was Parkland Parish Quilts, near Pacific Lutheran University. This quilt shop was formerly a church. The man stamping passports and giving out their block was sitting inside a confession booth. When I handed him my passport he asked if I had any sins I’d like to confess. I told him that I was guilty of neglecting my quilting. My other sin was getting off to a late start, so I didn’t spend much time there.

Parkland Parish Quilts, Parkland, WA

Yesterday the sun was shining on me the entire drive up north to Lynden and back home. It wasn’t shining today. The rain was back and apparently people had forgotten how to drive in it. I had planned on taking Hwy. 512 to I-5 south to get to Shibori Dragon in Lakewood, but the line to get onto I-5 was backed up so far I abandoned that plan and decided to take the surface streets.

I made it there despite road construction and getting confused because Lakewood streets form curvy triangles instead of blocks which would make an interesting quilt, but are hard to figure out in a car. Shibori Dragon specializes in Asian fabrics and wearable art with an Asian flair. I wished I had more time to look around, but I didn’t, so I got stamped, got the block, and got back on the road as fast as I could so that I could make the airport run with Sarah.

Carriage Country Quilts, Des Moines, WA.

I picked her up at home and got back on the highway. Traffic was heavy, but we made it to SeaTac airport on time. After I dropped Sarah off, it was on to Carriage Country Quilts in Des Moines. The shop is in an old house a few blocks away from the Puget Sound.  It was bustling, so I didn’t spend much time upstairs. The sale fabrics were down in the basement. Now, some of them are in my basement.

At the east end of Hwy. 516 in Kent, is a new quilt shop, Running Stitch Fabric. I liked that it’s located in the historic downtown section. They said that they had been open for 14 months, but this was their first shop hop. This inviting shop had lots of batiks, and I’m glad that they’re fairly close because we’ve lost shops in Auburn and Renton. I’ll remember to visit them when I’m up in that area.

Running Stitch Fabric, Kent, WA.

When I left Running Stitch Fabric at 3:30, I had thoughts of going to three more shops in Maple Valley, North Bend, and Buckley, but traffic was so heavy, I almost gave up and went home instead. It should’ve taken me 15 minutes to cover the 8 miles to Hwy. 18. Instead, it took me 45 minutes. At the last minute, I convinced myself to go to Taylor Creek Quilt Studio in Maple Valley thinking that while I was there, traffic on Hwy. 167 would ease up.  

I got to Taylor Creek Studio in a downpour. Parking is very limited so I had to park near another business. This used to be the tiniest quilt shop on the shop hop, not much bigger than my bedroom, but they expanded a little upwards, to a second floor. They were friendly, but I was feeling a bit like a drowned rat and I was trying to get home by 5:00, so all I did was get the block and get stamped.

Gridlock on southbound Hwy. 167.

Traffic was still horrible on what should’ve been a short ride home, but I made it home by my 5:00 deadline. That way I’d have time to make the apron for the bridal shower tomorrow. It was a shorter day than yesterday, but I collected five more blocks, and I got to visit a new shop.

Saturday, June 23, 2012:

One of Johnny’s college roommates, Marissa, is getting married and another former roommate, Renee, drove over from Tri-Cities and stayed overnight with us so that she could go to the bridal shower too. I whipped up the apron last night and just had to tack the finishing touch of a flower on it in the morning. When I ran out to buy a cookbook to go with the apron, the thought of squeezing one quilt shop in before the shower crossed my mind. Then sanity returned and I vetoed that idea.  

Cupcake apron for Marissa.

The shower was fun, and the bride really liked the apron. It had special meaning because Marissa was commandeered into my daughter’s cupcake baking frenzy for her boyfriend’s piano recital at WSU. Sarah was grateful for the baking, and also for the cleanup that Marissa did. That apron would’ve come in handy.

After the shower, I got right back into shop hop mode, at the mini level. This time John joined me. We left at about 3:30 and focused on nearby shops.

I hadn’t bought enough of the fabric that I lined the cupcake apron with to make two more aprons. I showed John a scrap before we left and asked him to keep an eye out for it.

We drove south on Meridian to Creative Quilter in Graham. I’ve taken classes at this shop so it’s familiar. They didn’t have the cupcake fabric, but on the clearance table they had two stunning Asian fabrics, so I got enough to make an Asian style jacket (featured in a Sewing Expo seminar). The owner of the shop told us which road to take to cut down to the Orting Valley.

Wild Rose Quilt Shop makes my top five list of favorite shops. They have a great selection of fabrics ranging from Civil War era reproduction prints to batiks, and from Moda fabric lines to playful flannels. I enjoyed doing their mystery quilt challenge twice, wondering what the quilt top would end up looking like each time. 

One of these days I’d love to round up some of my quilt buddies for a quilt retreat upstairs in Wild Rose Quilt Shop. It would be a dream getaway. John likes this shop too because he gets a kick out of the owner’s husband (actually he probably owns it too). He’s friendly and always wears cowboy boots, sometimes a cowboy hat too.

Our last stop of this shortened shop hop day was our hometown quilt shop, The Quilt Barn in Puyallup. We looked all over the shop for the cupcake fabric. I found some of the coordinating fabrics, but not THE ONE, and I didn’t find anything good in clearance, so I left with only a stamp and a block.

Three stores total on Saturday, not a huge amount, but it was still a worthwhile day of shop hopping.

Laura Keolanui Stark is labeling the blocks that she’s gotten on her Shop Hop poster with post-it notes. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.