Road Trip

 

 

The Row by Row Experience shop hop was a good excuse to take a road trip on Saturdays in August.  I really enjoyed it, but now it is time to wind down.  I didn’t get to do all the Georgia shops that I would have liked to, but we did get to visit many new to us shops in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.  The first trip took us to five shops in NE GA.  The first stop was Intown Quilters in Decatur, and then on to Georgia Sewing & Quilting in Buford, Betty Sue’s Quilt Shop in Flowery Branch were the people were so friendly.   We also found the people very friendly at Annie’s Pretty Pieces in Hartwell and lastly, we just did make it to Thread Bear Fabrics in Cumming before closing time.

The 2nd Saturday found us heading to Tennessee where we again visited five quilt shops. Our first stop was Ready Set Sew which carried Janome sewing machines and was a nice shop.  Our second stop was Spools, the home of the Bad Ass Quilter’s Society.  I like the atmosphere and will stop there again when I’m up that way.  Next, we headed to Pins & Needles and was very disappointed to find them closed and no sign telling us why, although there posted hours said they were open on Saturdays from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.  I hope that whatever reason that kept them away wasn’t too serious.  It looked like a nice shop from what we could see through the windows.  We moved on to Bernina Sew N Quilt Studio where they had there demo machines on sale.  It was so tempting to buy a new Bernina. At least I know to head to Chattanooga when I do get ready to buy a new machine. Our next stop was Chattanooga Quilts in Ooltewah with lots of old time charm. 

 

Here are Jean and me in front of Hyderhangout: Quilt Fabric & More in Cleveland, our last shop of the day.

We stopped for some good Barbeque before heading home. 

The third Saturday, Jean, Nancy and me headed to North Carolina.  We stopped at the Fabric Center & Quilt Shop in Blairsville, GA on the way north. 

 

We stopped to enjoy the scenery along the way.  We finally arrived in Franklin and A Stitch in Time.  Our next stop in Franklin was Deb’s Cats N Quilts where we found lots of stuffed cats, but no real ones.  It was a nice shop and well worth a return visit.

Next we visited Bless My Stitches Quilt Shop in Murphy, NC.  We ate at a retro diner that had real malted milk shakes.  It sure did bring back memories of my younger days.

The fourth Saturday started with Jean and Mine’s first stop being the Comcast Cable office.  From there we went to The Stitchery in Rome, GA.  She has some really nice fabrics.  I couldn’t resist getting a FQ bundles on clearance.  We then moved on to Douglasvill,e to a wonderful shop, Pickleweeds Quilt Shop.  We kept wondering why we hadn’t heard of it before now,  It is worth the drive.  On the way home we stopped at a little fruit stand advertising “the world’s best peanuts”.  I have to admit they are pretty good.

There is one more Saturday this month, but I’m pretty well shopped out.  Unless Jean and Nancy really want to go, I’m through,.  It will take me awhile to get all the rows made that I’ve already collected.  I don’t know if I will have one large quilt or two smaller ones.  It has been fun and maybe next year I can get to some of the ones I wasn’t able to this time.