Well, Debbie, Diane and I spent the last two days on the road doing the Mountain Quest Quilt Shophop. We drove over 700 miles. I don't know about Debbie or Diane, but I am exhausted. We started out at 7am yesterday (Tuesday) and got home about 7pm this evening. We visited 12 quilt shops scattered all over West Virginia.
After visiting about 8 shops yesterday, we were having dinner in Buckhannon when I got a phone call that I had won the daily prize from Sew Chic, the quilt shop in Fairmont. We decided to stay in the area and go back to Fairmont to get my prize this morning. Trouble is, there were no rooms to be had. We tried all the motels along I-79 from Morgantown to Bridgeport. We stopped at a convenience store and the clerk there told Diane she would find us a room. She called a Travelodge in Fairmont and what joy! They had a room! Only - and this is a big only - they only had a smoking jacuzzi room. We said we would take it because we had no where else to go. The room was $99 plus tax for the night. It had one (one!) king sized bed and a large jacuzzi tub in the room. There were four very fluffy pillows on the bed and Debbie and I had brought our own pillows. Debbie decided to sleep in the jacuzzi on top of all the pillows! Diane and I left room for her in the bed but Deb stayed in the tub. There was a strong cigarette odor and I fanned the door but couldn't get rid of it. It bothered all of us. I think I will travel with a can of Lysol from now on. We got up early this morning and drove to Sew Chic and I was given my prize. The owner there told us we should have called her when we couldn't find and room and she would have let us stay in the shop. Wouldn't have been very comfortable, but it sure was nice of her. The two pictures I included today are of the great big bag I won and all the contents. There were a bunch of patterns, some quilt books, a plastic storage container, a pair of thread snips I could wear around my neck, and lots of beautiful fabrics. I don't win things often and I was overwhelmed to receive this!
We spent the rest of today driving and visiting the shops. There was fabric made specifically for this shophop that showed 12 scenes of West Virginia, including the State Capital, the New River Bridge, the covered bridge at Phillippi, and more. Each shop had designed a block to include one of the scenes. Each shop had then designed a quilt using all the blocks. I will post more about all this. I bought a panel of all the scenes and the fabrics for making the blocks from each shop. I think I will make my quilt using blue and gold, WV's state colors. The scenes are all black printed on white fabric. Some of the shops tea-dyed the scenes. Diane and Debbie bought all this too. We also bought some other things at the shops. I tried not to spend too much money. I think the prize I won was worth more than I spent.
