2019 Western Washington Shop Hop

     It started off as an ordinary day in my life: Zumba and then lunch with John in down town Puyallup. After a couple of sushi rolls, John went back to work and I headed home for an afternoon of gardening and housework.

      On the way, my day veered off course. I took a different route home and instead of driving past The Quilt Barn, I pulled into the parking lot. I don’t visit this shop very often. I’ve been trying to be good since I have a serious case of “so much fabric, so little time,” and am trying not to add to my over abundance. Maybe I’d just peek at what they had in their sale section.

     The sale section had moved to the other side of the shop. On the way over there, I found Marti Michell’s miter ruler which I’d seen used on a YouTube video, so I picked that up. I didn’t put it in my basket because I didn’t have a basket, since I wasn’t planning on buying any fabric.

     It seemed more crowded than usual for a Wednesday afternoon. There were several women in the back classroom. I assumed they were in a class.

     One of the sales ladies asked if I needed help. Out of nowhere, I remembered an episode of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting TV program. A long arm quilter on the show encouraged viewers to practice their quilting skills on a panel of fabric. The panel she had worked on was a gorgeous flower.

     I Googled it on my phone, showed it to the sales lady and asked if they had that panel. They sure did! She said she was amazed at how many people watched Fons and Porter and came in to get that specific panel. Then she took me to a row of the flower panels in a rainbow of luscious colors.

Dream Big panel by Hoffman fabrics.

     On my way to the cutting table with the stunning panel, I found a few more bolts of sale fabric and got a bit of a bicep workout lugging them across the store. Laura's fabric store wisdom says: When you can’t carry anymore, it’s time to leave the store. At the counter, I discovered why they were more crowded than usual.

     I had chanced into the last days of the 2019 Western Washington Shop Hop which would end on Saturday. So of course I had to buy a poster of the quilt, and a bit of extra shop hop fabric before they ran out.

     The passports and the shop’s kaleidoscope block kit was back in the classroom where I’d thought there was a class going on. Not only did they have their free 8” x 8” shop hop quilt block, they were also participating in the Row-by-row quilt hop, so I also got those free instructions. And just like that, I went from a simple lunch with the hubbie, to shop hopping.

    What is a shop hop? Independent quilt shops design an 8x8” quilt block using fabrics specially designed for the shop hop. Then they give the pattern and instructions out to traveling quilters for free. They also offer a kit with all the necessary fabric and embellishments to create the block, usually for less than $5. After getting stamped at 14 shops, you turn your passport in at one of the shops and it will be entered into a drawing to win prizes.

     Back in the car I studied the passport to see which shops were participating. There were only 35! I thought back and realized that I hadn’t done a shop hop since 2012! Why? For many reasons:  I already have too many quilts lined up to make, some years I didn’t like the shop hop fabrics, and for the last few years, I wasn’t in town.

     When I was actively shop hopping, at the peak there were more than 60 shops in Western Washington participating from the Canadian border down up north all the way down south to the Oregon border. For one of the shop hops, a friend and I stayed overnight in a hotel up north near Mt. Vernon to make it easier to drive to Lynden and Bellingham earlier in the day.

My 2019 Western Washington game plan.

     While I was in The Quilt Barn, another customer asked which shop she should go to next. I suggested Parkland Parish Quilt Co, in a former church. The lady cutting my fabric told me that shop had closed. The owner had retired. That was the same fate for another one of my favorite shops, The Wild Rose in Orting.

     The shrinking base of Shop Hop quilt shops as well as the beautiful blue and green Puget Sound sea life themed fabrics, spurred me on.

I plotted how many shops I could visit in the next two days with minimum exertion. If I could collect 12 blocks, that would make a nice little 3 x 4 block wall hanging.

My stamped Shop Hop passport.

     














    There is a fairly new shop on South Hill in Puyallup named The Quilting Fairy. When it opened in 2015, I admired the owner’s gutsy move because she set up shop right across the street from the big girl on the block, JoAnn Fabrics.

Thursday morning I stopped to pick up their Snails Trail block on the way home from Zumba.

The Quilting Fairy has a long arm quilting machine set up in front that can be rented after taking a class in how to use it, and a classroom too.  The owner has excellent taste in the fresh, trend setting fabrics she chooses for her shop and a large selection of great clearance fabrics to choose from. Her pet miniature schnauzer searching for her ball among the shelves of fabric won my dog loving heart along with the other shop hoppers. 

     Next up after a shower and quick lunch at home, was Ben Franklin Crafts in Bonney Lake. The quilting/fabric section is in the back corner of this store which is packed with crafting and décor. I especially like to visit them in the fall because they always have a great selection of Halloween and autumn fabrics.

Once my passport was stamped and the wavy block pattern along with their jam jars row-by-row pattern stowed in my purse, I found some must-have fabrics and had a fun conversation with the gal cutting my yardage. Fellow shop hoppers joined in joking about how we always lost the battle to resist fabric.

    This was the first time I visited the next shop, Front Porch Quilts, in the small town of Buckley. 

It was a cozy shop with one of my top two favorite blocks: a Mariner’s Compass pictured in the center of the shop hop quilt.

  

     I wondered if it was a panel, but it’s actually paper pieced. I’m looking forward to working on that one. 

     In the seven years since I shop hopped I got a new vehicle. This was the initiation quilt road trip in my Mazda CX-5. It handled it with style.

The next shop on my list was in Auburn, Bigfoot Quilts, another one that I’ve never visited. I put my trust in the built-in navigation system rather than back track Highway 167.  I knew I was out in the country when the truck in front of me advertised that they were a mobile horse shoeing business. But a familiar Amazon delivery van turned in front of me, reminding me that the country has something in common with the suburbs. GPS directed me onto the Auburn-Enumclaw Road, winding through rolling corn fields, the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation, and past the White River amphitheater.

     It was a little jarring leaving the country and entering the City of Auburn where Bigfoot Quilts was. This shop was easily within my abbreviated shop hop range, and considering the ongoing Bigfoot debate between my husband and me (I believe in the possibility of Bigfoot; he's skeptical.) I absolutely had to visit this shop. It was worth “squatching.” 

The neon “Open” sign sported the silhouette of Sasquatch and the wall behind the cutting counter proudly displayed  a Bigfoot quilt. After getting my passport stamped and grabbing the pin wheel shop hop block, I couldn’t resist the Bigfoot quilt pattern as well as the pattern for the beer drinking, grinning Bigfoot on their Row-by-row.

It was getting late and I had intended to finish early to avoid rush hour traffic, but I had two more shops to get to. I barreled north on Hwy. 167 to Running Stitches Fabric in Kent and parallel parked on the street right in front of the shop.

It is a welcoming shop and the owner must have sensed that I was a bit frazzled when I whooshed in because she very calmly encouraged me to “come on in, and take your time.” I took her advice along with a deep breath. In the back of the shop I found some cute Puffin fabric that made me smile. My daughter and her fiancé love Puffins. When would I ever find Puffin fabric again? They would make an adorable set of pillow cases.

In addition to Running Stitches Fabric shop hop block, I loved their row-by-row quilt block with a vintage feeling country bee hive on it.

     My last stop of the day was on the west side of Hwy 167 in Des Moines. Carriage Country Quilts is in a charming yellow 1930s bungalow with a view of the Puget Sound from the front porch. 

It is one of my favorites and in addition to quilting, it specializes in hand dyed wool kits. Downstairs in the basement there are tables filled with bolts of top quality fabric on sale. I found some fall fabrics at bargain prices. They also offer refreshments. I nibbled on a couple of cookies then headed back upstairs to get stamped. Their very cute sailboat shop hop block was the seventh block I collected. Then it was time to get in line for the slow 20 mile trek home with all the commuters.

      That night I called and asked my daughter to pick up the whale tail block from Undercover Quilts in Seattle since it’s less than a mile from where she lives. She agreed and knows the routine well after being dragged with her brother on Shop Hops as they grew up. My son was off the hook because the closest participating shop to him is about 20 miles away. 

     My plan for Friday wasn’t quite as ambitious in numbers of shops (only 3 for the day), but in terms of modes of transportation and a late start, it was challenging. I started off with Zumba again and a haircut appointment. Then I hit the shop hop road.

     First stop Island Quilter on Vashon Island. To get there I had to drive to Pt. Defiance at the tip of Tacoma and catch the ferry.

After paying $24.45 (round trip) I got in line for the 15 minute cruise. From the dock at Tahlequah it was a 20 minute drive to my destination: Island Quilter's new shop. 

     It is another one of my favorites. They closed their brick and mortar store for three years and re-opened in a new location that I was eager to see.

     I was not disappointed! They still had their extensive selection of vibrant Kaffe Fassett fabrics lining the walls of the cheerful house they are in. It’s smaller than their previous location, but as you wander through the maze of shelves each section reveals more pleasant surprises.

    I caught up with Paul, one of the owners, while he cut fabric for me, including a stunning panel of The Tree of Life by Gustav Klimt.

While we talked, I admired a little quilt made of small flowers and buttons hanging by the door. When I asked if I could get the pattern for it, he told me that they kept it in a drawer because it was their most shop lifted pattern. We lamented, “Who could sleep under a quilt made from stolen materials?”

     Along with being my favorite shop, their shop hop block was also tied for first place of my favorites—a mini landscape of the Puget Sound with Orcas swimming in the shadow of Mt. Rainier.

     Paul’s partner Anja, wasn’t there but I asked him to tell her hello for me and told him that I was so happy they were open again (although they were never really closed. They were online and also traveled to shows with their fabric).

     When I got to the ferry landing, I watched the gate close and heard the blast from the ferry’s horn as it pulled away from the dock without me. It would be about an hour until the next one. Oh well.
    Rather than wait there being the first in line, I backed up and doubled back to a place I’d passed that had piqued my curiosity. It was named Pacific Potager.

Was it a pottery place? Nope. It was a plant nursery. There were tables full of organic plant starts and a sign explaining pricing. Nobody was there, but there were instructions. I chose some Lemon grass to cook with and bergamot to brew some Earl Grey tea and then slid some cash through the slot in the front door. While in line for the ferry once again, I read through the instructions of the most shop lifted flower quilt pattern.

After disembarking at Pt. Defiance, I drove over to Artco Crafts in Tacoma. 

They are another craft store with décor and fabric similar to Ben Franklin in Bonney Lake. I hurried to the back of the store to get stamped and pick up their block featuring an appliqued octopus. That’s a nod to the legend that Tacoma is home to the world’s biggest octopus which lives in the deep waters under the Tacoma Narrows bridge.

My late start, and missing the ferry meant I didn’t spend much time in Artco Crafts, but it’s fairly close, so it will be easy to revisit.

My last stop was at the Shibori Dragon. Originally in Lakewood, they moved to University Place years ago. They specialize in Asian fabrics and batiks, Japanese fabrics and sashiko materials. I walked through their door 15 minutes before closing time, just in time to pick up their block.  A fusible precision die cut Orca whale is the centerpiece of their shop hop block. 

Their row-by-row block Time for Tea is a perfect match for me since I collect teapots. When I got home, I’d steep myself a cup of tea and savor my shop hop goodies.

Row x Row fabric license plates.

     In the final tally, I ended up with a total of eleven shop hop blocks. (I’ll have to make up a 12th from the extra fabric I bought). I also rounded up eight rows for the Row by Row quilt. In my mind I've named this the "Panel Shop Hop" since I picked up three of those. And through suburbs, country, and cities, my Mazda now has 300 shop hop land miles under its tires, and 1.7 seaworthy miles.

Laura Keolanui Stark is finishing up the quilt she was working on before the impromptu shop hop so she can work on new projects. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Designing with Kaffe Fasset

Who is Kaffe Fassett? Kaffe Fassett (rhymes with “safe asset") “is widely acknowledged as a visionary in the use of color and was the first living textile designer to have a one-person show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He is a fabric designer for Rowan Patchwork & Quilting, the primary knitwear designer for Rowan Yarns, and the author of fifteen books. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums.” -–Dreaming in Color, An Autobiography.

Kaffe Fassett’s gorgeous, vibrant fabrics with their highly saturated glowing colors are what caught my attention. The fact that he was a painter before he started designing fabric is reflected in his large scale botanical prints that can range from lushly tropical to soft and dusty. Throw in ethnic inspired, patterns, stripes and geometric prints and you’ve got the unique palette that is Kaffe Fassett’s.

     In March while I was buying up yards of Kaffe Fassett fabric in Island Quilter’s booth at the Sewing & Stitchery Expo, the woman who was cutting my fabric mentioned that Kaffe said their quilt shop had more of his fabric than any other store he’d visited.

 

Wow! He’d visited her store? She explained that he had taught workshops at her shop on nearby Vashon Island, and they hoped he’d come back to teach more. I immediately added my email address to their list and asked her to tell me if he was coming back to teach another workshop.

In September I opened an email message from Island Quilter listing a series of Kaffe Fassett’s workshops and lectures. I told John I knew exactly what I wanted for my birthday. I jumped at the chance to learn how Kaffe Fassett creates his signature quilts that are a controlled riot of color.

The October morning of the class got off to a rocky start for me. In Tacoma I took the wrong fork in the road and that made all the difference for a stress filled, haphazard dash for the Pt. Defiance ferry. I skidded aboard the ferry James Bond style just in time to watch them raise the ramp in my rearview mirror.

Last car on board!

My stress had given way to anticipation by the time I lugged my shopping bag packed with Kaffe Fassett fabrics and quilting tools through the doors of Island Quilter. I was happy setting up because I had a table all to myself—until after class started when a late comer showed up.

My “tablemate” wasn’t the friendliest gal, and she had lots of company among the 30 women attending. When my kids were little, they observed that there are two types of quilting ladies: the warm and fuzzy ones, and the mean, grouchy ones. A high percentage of the women near me were the second type.

The quilt we were working on was Bordered Diamonds, from the book Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts. You’d be hard pressed to find a muted fabric in that book, or in any of the fabrics designed by Kaffe or Brandon Mably, his studio manager who was also teaching the workshop.

       That’s why it surprised me to hear other quilters talk about how uncomfortable they were with bold colors, that they felt safer with neutrals. One person chose to make their quilt out of black and white fabrics with just a few added colors. One used traditional Christmas fabrics. Kaffe and Brandon were more accommodating than I would have been.

Others dug their heels in when Kaffe and Brandon told them how to improve the impact of their designs. They got defensive about any criticism. I've got a thicker skin. I had an open mind, and agreed with most of their advice although I didn’t to do everything they suggested. For example, Brandon told me that one of my blocks was “too tasteful.” I heard what he was saying, but kept it in the mix. Later, Kaffe came by and focused right in on that particular block. He said that he “loved how elegant” it was.  

My "tastefully elegant" block.

I must have understood what they were saying on some level because Kaffe and Brandon didn’t spend a lot of time holding my hand or wrestling with me over my choices. I went to the workshop to learn, to try new things, to expand my horizon, and to get a feel for how they designed quilts. What’s the point of paying $175 and spending an entire day with expert teachers, if you’re only going to argue with their advice?

The owners and workers at Island Quilter were helpful and witty too. They got to know me pretty well because I kept raiding the shelves of fabric after spotting gorgeous fabrics on other peoples’ design walls, or not having the right fabric in my bag of tricks. I had quite the respectable tab running.

      They provided us with tasty cookies and cake to nibble on including some that were gluten free, and a choice of tea or coffee to sip. They also kept the music playing—mostly Beatles, which was fitting since Kaffe and Brandon live in England.      

      I was surprised when they announced that it was time for lunch, but pleased to come up for air. Lunch was catered two doors down at Express Cuisine.  Jim, the owner and chef, prepared salad, fresh fruit, homemade chicken soup, and hearty bread warm from the oven. Over the delicious meal my fellow quilters and I compared notes on our progress, and talked about the first quilts we’d ever made.

On the short walk back to the shop, soft, misty rain cleared my mind. Inside, I got back to “work” auditioning borders around the diamonds I’d cut.  Kaffe and Brandon reminded me to step far back from the design wall and use my reducing glass (the opposite of a magnifying glass) to really “see” my quilt top. They made suggestions about different fabric combinations, encouraging us to think of the borders as frames that should showcase the large scale print diamonds.

Kaffe Fassett

A half an hour before we were supposed to wrap things up, Kaffe looked at my wall of scattered diamonds, some with borders, lots without, and panicked. “You need to have all this white space covered. Why don’t you have borders on these? You’re not going to make it in time! You keep cutting! I’ll pin these up for you.”

I was touched that he jumped in to help me. I wasn’t as concerned as he was. After all, I’d made it onto the ferry in the nick of time. I regularly do some of my best work while maxing out deadlines. 

Kaffe moved on to help someone else, but he had lit a fire under me. I got serious. Any diamonds that I hadn’t found a border for, I plucked from the design wall and threw into a pile on the table. Then I stood back and arranged what was left, tightening it up so that the off white flannel underneath didn’t show. 

Back at the cutting table I picked out my favorite diamonds from the “orphan” pile and shuffled through different borders. In ten minutes I added four more bordered diamonds to the wall, for a total of 26. (The finished quilt will have 50 unless I decide to change the size.)

My "finished" design.

Kaffe came back to check on me. He was stunned. “You must have roller skates on! How did you get all this done? You’ve been hiding your light under a basket!”

I had a few minutes to tidy up before Kaffe and Brandon started critiquing the quilt designs each of us had created.

The “vibe” had changed.  Most of us were mentally exhausted, but pleased with the results we’d produced. Every quilt was unique and reflected each quilter’s vision. They were dazzling. 

Brandon critiques one of the designs.

One was dark with jewel colored fabrics framed by fabrics that made the diamonds pop. The quilt next to it was pastel and looked like a breath of spring. To my surprise, the Christmas one, and the black and white one also worked. Mine has vibrant, dark fuchsias, purples, and greens with a few light, dusty diamonds sprinkled in like dappled sunlight. In the video below, Kaffe explains what he thinks of it.

Kaffe points out what works in this design.

Python print border.

"Big flower" jumping out.

I listened intently to their critiques of 30 quilts. There is no magical Fassett formula to follow, but their critiques stretched my ideas of which fabrics play well together, and they inspired me to make the same or a similar quilt in different color schemes sometime in the future.

Afterwards, Kaffe and Brandon autographed their books for us. We unpinned the flannel from our Styrofoam™ “walls” and carefully rolled the flannel up with our diamonds and borders inside. My bag was not nearly as neat walking out of the doors of Island Quilter as it was walking in. It was a little heavier too. I settled my tab and headed toward the ferry.

Today I unfurled the flannel and pinned the rainbow of bordered diamonds on my design wall at home. I’ll add more diamonds, stand back to get the full effect of them, rearrange them, and eventually stitch them all together. Kaffe and Brandon taught me new ways to think about color and how to “paint” a quilt. I hope I can make their lessons shine through in my quilt.

Laura Keolanui Stark is cutting, arranging and re-arranging hundreds (thousands?) of pieces of beautiful fabric. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.