Western Washington Shop Hop 2015 and a Row By Row Experience all at once.

Saturday morning my friend Rita came and picked me up so we could do a bit of the Western Washington Shop Hop.  It started on Wednesday and went through until Sunday.  We crossed over the border at Aldergrove B.C. and went to Lynden Washington.  First stop was a bite of breakfast and then we walked a few doors down to Calico Country.  On display on the wall is last year's row by row of flip flops or thongs as I grew up calling them and below is the H2O theme depicting boats and a lighthouse along with a few seagulls.  Interesting design choice for a farming community.

 Here is the block they offered for the WWSH, a chrysanthemum.

 Next stop was Tangled Threads also in Lynden and they had designed these cute bobbin boats racing along the sea.

 Here was their WWSH block, how appropriate to their shop name.

 My friend Rita recalled seeing a pattern for a Featherweight Sewing machine, unfortunately they no longer carried the pattern but one of the gals had hers to share with us.  It covers your case to help protect it.

 Here is the other side of the case protector.

They have some wonderful old sewing machines in their shop.  This is a Kenmore.

 Next stop also in Lynden was Folktales.  They designed a vertical row for the row by row experience.

 Their block for the shop hop was in four pieces.  Very sweet autumn theme for the height of a heat wave.  They made it into a tote bag.

 Love this farm themed quilt that they had on display.

 Love this Herbs shelf.

 This hour glass grey and white quilt caught Rita's eye.

 Next we drove down to Aunt Mary's Quilt Shop in Smokey Point/Arlington.  She has started to stock wool again.  Those three little rolls on the second shelf are called Curlers!

 Carol designed this whimsical under the sea stitched and crayon coloured piece.  It is hard to tell but the deep sea diver is Aunt Mary!  You can see the hull and propeller of the boat with a long line and a hook on the end of it.  Last year she drew up a whimsical camper on the road with Western Washington landmarks.  Love that lady!

 Carol showed off several ways to sew the shop hop block.

 Then we drove over to the historic downtown area of Arlington about 3 miles off I-5, we checked out an antique shop and these napkins caught my eye.  Definitely the mantra for the day.

 The Quiltmaker's Shoppe had their row depicting a rainbow and carts of flowers being hauled by a tractor. Again I forgot to photograph the WWSH block.

 We headed back north to Mount Vernon known for it's tulip festival in the Spring.  They recently added these Irises to an entry to the freeway.  They would be fun to replicate as paper pieced blocks.

 Calico Creations is the Shop in Mount Vernon, sorry I forgot to take a picture of their shop hop block but here is their row by row.  Colourful fish!

 Back up to Bellingham and a stop at Fabrics-Etc.  Their whimsical fish along with seaweed and their licence plate. Their WWSH block depicts a young girl in silhouette throw up leaves from a leaf pile.

They were also showing this porthole quilt they designed to honour the ferry builders and all the ferries that are seen along the coast.

  A peek at the bottom half...

 ...and the top half.  They said they would not be making a pattern for this.  Too bad.

 Finally after much searching I found the Spring 2015 Quiltmania special edition!

 Here is a peek at the back cover, they had some spectacular projects in this one.

I'm hoping to get a few more row by row experience patterns.  I have one from one of my local quilt shops and plan to get some more from south of the border.  Stay tuned to see what else is available. Seven quilt shops in 80+F weather was more than enough for one day!