Row by Row Road Trip...where am I headed?

Thursday morning last week I departed on a Row by Row Road trip.   The slowest part of my commute was going up Stewartson Way hill about a kilometer to the Queensborough Bridge.  That km. took almost 15 minutes.  Why, because the Pattulo Bridge is being resurfaced and is only one lane each way during the day and closed for the night until about 5 a.m.!  Crossing over the border only took about 5 minutes in comparison.

After a quick coffee pick up in Bellingham and fueling up in Smokey Point I drove straight through to Chehalis and Sister's fabrics for my first stop and found this cute bunny row.  Then back on the road to Vancouver Washington.

Then I stopped at Fiddlesticks Quilt shop where they have designed their row to be either vertical...

 Or horizontal, nice option.  They have several license plate and I got one along with a pin.

 They kindly let me take some pictures in this gorgeous shop.  Wish it was in Vancouver B.C.

 The shop is divided into room with lovely displays through out.

 Is this not a lovely piece, I love the pointed scallop corners that are appliqued onto the background.  The quilt is actually squared off.

 The puffin, sunflower and rooster are all by a local designer.  Ann Shaw is her name, they have a link to her patterns on their webpage.

A view from their cash desk towards the front door.  They have a long arm adjacent to this area.

 That was loaded with this quilt they have kitted.

 Lovely displays of fabrics and quilts.

 Another of the Sally quilts was the heron.  The Gypsy Wife quilt hanging beside in their classroom.

 Next I went to Just for Fun Quilt Shop and they had this cute sign post row showing where your home might be.

Here is a closer look at that cute hangar.

 It's a fairly small shop but has some lovely things in it.

 After a brief stop at Fabric Depot in Portland I forgot the row and no pictures I headed down to Pioneer Quilts and they also have a vertical row.  This evergreen is lovely and all done in wool.  I was tempted to get the kit but said no.

 They have lovely displays through out the heritage building and have a separate sale room and classroom where I didn't take pictures.

I have this Santa Sampler from Bonnie Sullivan are these guys not dapper?

 Beside them were these Snowmen all ready to greet the day.

 Her sister Kathy Schmitz Bertie's Spring display.  They have some lovely wool fabrics for sale.

 Some of the batiks they offer along with reproduction fabrics and other popular lines.

 It was starting to rain but such an inviting place to rest before heading to the next shop.

 In the breezeway between the shop and classroom sale area.

Love this table topper.

 Next stop was Greenbaum's Quilted Forest.  This business has been owned by the same family for 116 years in various themes.

 It was the first Portland Quilt shop I ever went to on my first bus trip to a quilt shop.  Are these teacups too cute!

 My favourite colour is turquoise and this sets the quilts off so nicely.

 Great colours abound in the shop.  Classroom through that door on the right.

 This is the back of the quilt with a label for sale!

 Here is the front.  All those vintage teardrop trailers.

 Green and whites in a different layout.

 Some modern quilts and the friendship star.

 This was a challenge quilt for where is your neighbourhood.  It represents the front facade of the shop.  I'll share a picture of the actual building shortly.  Is it not great!

 Love this flower quilt done with raw edges and some fun machine quilting.

 Quilt Improv.

 Another whimsical traile.

 Love this one I think it is Old Blue.

 Lime green and turquoise from another angle.

 Meet Sylvia after a very long day and several bus tours of quilters.  Wish her well and drop in soon to say good bye.  After 116 years of being in the family business she is closing the doors of this historic store.  It was so nice to meet you Sylvia and find out you were the owner of this favourite shop of mine.  You and it will be missed by many of us.  Enjoy your retirement and find some new adventures.

 Here is the outside of the building, it was raining and traffic coming so I couldn't get the whole building in the picture.

 Now for a stash report.  I forgot to take a picture of Greenbaum's Quilted Forest's row but it is a building set in the trees.  The jelly roll is grunge fabrics for an upcoming swap.  Put A Quilt On It is their license plate.

 From Pioneer Quilts I got this lovely orange wool and the crow fabric along with their tree pattern.

 From Fiddlesticks I got a turquoise polkadot fabric, Green Tea and Sweet Beans pattern booklet, the row pattern, their license and a small pin.

 Just for Fun Quilting their signpost.

 From Sister's Fabrics some lovely grey wool, a piece of Kaffe Fasset folded fans and a fun black and white fabric plus their row pattern.

 At Fabric Depot I found this great black and white linear with circle print, some stones, music fabric the pink mess and that lovely orange Art Gallery print.

 I also got these orange peels to wrap around your thread spools to keep them tidy.  I was gifted with two and decided to get a packet for my take along projects.

 Hope you enjoyed day one of the road trip.  More to come in the next few days.

Row by Row Experience 2016 the start of something new.

Row by Row Experience this year is called Home Sweet Home and what better place to get my first row this year than the quilt shop that started it all for me.  The Cloth Shop in Vancouver on Granville Island.  Check out the left side of this picture and you can see their interpretation of the Lion's Gate Bridge stretching from Stanley Park to West Vancouver.

 Of course I got their licence plate and their row kit.

 My local shop The Needle and I is just up the hill from me in Burnaby and here is their license plate.

 Here is their row, I forgot to take a picture of it in the shop.

This past weekend I went to a couple of local shops and picked up a few more patterns from The Quilted Bear in Ladner.

 Both locations of Fabricana have a pattern featuring the Dogwood our provincial flower. Richmond has the bees up front.

 Coquitlam has the flowers.

 I also drove out Laura's Fashion Fabrics in White Rock and they have a night and day version of their Sandcastle vertical row.

 Love this license plate.

They also had a completed quilt on display.

Along with the list of shops and placements of the rows on the quilt.  I love how they added a bit to the two vertical rows and the top row to make it a bit less blocky.

 Coming home from the retreat in early June I snagged this licence from Aunt Mary's Quilt Shop in Smokey Point/Arlington.  I hope to get down and pick up their row now that it is available.

 At Bear Paw Quilting in Coeur d'Alene I got their two license plates, last year and this year but too early for their row.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to collect some more, stay tuned!

Updates on two projects. Happy Canada Day!

Today is the day for updates on two QALs.  First up is the Gwennie QAL.  I decided to add a childhood memory of ice cream cones as my border.  Often in the summer we would pack into the car and drive out to Peter Ice Cream on Spanish Banks in Vancouver.  My pick would be black licorice.  I free cut my triangle cones and used a cream on cream with a script similar but not the same as my charcoal grey background that was used for my tulip basket medallion.

 Next up was my first more Gwen inspired baskets with a checkerboard border.  I used to love playing checkers with a childhood friend often outside under the fruit trees in her back yard.

Then for my second Gwen basket I did another set of ice cream borders in a different colour way.  Again both the checkerboard border and the ice cream triangles were freehand cut. I have not trimmed these down to size but cropped them to give the illusion of having done so.

My friend Ethel's medallion that I shared last month has gone in another direction so I won't be sharing it with you this month.  I am linking up with Cynthia of Wab-sabi Quilts who chose the childhood theme for this month/   Then I'm off to Cathy at Big Lake Quilter to see what the next inspiration will be!

Addendum, Ethel just e-mailed me and said to add hers into the mix.  She is calling it Sandcastles now and thought it had departed a bit from the theme; but after seeing some of the other blocks she decided to let me share it.

 A cropped version so you can see it a bit better.

 My second update is on the 366 project.  I'm caught up on this project this month despite having not stitched any circles while away at my Mary Lou Weidman retreat earlier in the month.

 A closer look at a couple of the squares. One of the swaps we've done in the past with Mary Lou was a sand pail swap so I fussy cut one for this month along with some other Mary Lou inspired images.

 We also did a watering can swap.  Mary Lou and I both love polka dots as do many of her students.

 Cherries are a favourite of hers and riding in the car on family vacations was a common summer family activity for us and that print is one of her designs.

 Peacocks, flamingos and bicycles are favourites of mine.  Although I've not ridden a bike for some time.

 Tangled threads are part of sewing with all the trimmings and hand sewing.  The pink and green abstract print was used in a border of a round robin I did and is similar to my Ruth B. McDowell inspired hollyhock centre I designed.

Here are all my blocks for the past three months.

And here are all the blocks for my first three months.  I've been packing them away quarterly.  That means I'm half way through the year.

Im linking up to Quilty Folk July 365 Linkup Party today.

Happy Canada Day to you all.