We are busy planning!

The shops participating in the Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop hop in 2014 are busy planning some fun things. This is the 15th year of The Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop hop and to mark the occasion, this year shop hop will be a full week, 3/15-3/22/2014. Wow! We will all be celebrating with a party in our stores and quite a few more fabulous prizes possibilities in store for those who finish the hop and turn in a full passport.
We are very sorry to see Sweet Home Quilt Co leaving us this year! We wish Melisa Morrison the best!
We also welcome Cottontail Quilts to the group of shops for 2014.
Get ready, set, March is not far off! Get your plans in motions and start saving some funds for that week. It is a busy month of quilting events and we need you to support your local shops to help insure our longevity and the longevity of our shop hop.
Thank you all who come out every year. It would not be the fun it is without all of you!

We just received the nicest message that we thought we would share with everyone....

The ergonomic sewing chair that I won in the quilt shop hop just arrived and I am really thrilled with it.  Thank you so much to all who contributed to it.  What a wonderful prize and you all made it so easy for me to order it, I really appreciate it.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!  Jan Zumwalt, Gainesville, Ga.

Thanks for giving us all a nice smile Jan! Enjoy!

2013 Shop Hop Prize Winners

Congratulations to the top prize winners from the 2013 Shop Hop!

The Grand Prize Winner was Nancy Best of Kansas, OK! Nancy won a $100 gift certificate to each of the ten participating shops, a $1000 value.

The 2nd Prize Winner was Janet Zumwalt of Gainesville, GA!

Janet won an Ergonomic Chair, a $400 value.

The 3rd Prize Winner was Kathryn Granfield of Oxford, GA!

Kathryn won a Tutto Bag, a $200 value.

Congratulations again to these three lucky ladies! We hope you enjoy your prizes!

Gallery of Shop Hop Quilts

If you didn't have the opportunity to participate in the 2013 Shop Hop or maybe you weren't able to visit every shop, we wanted to share each shop's project with everyone. If you recall my earlier post about the new strip program we introduced this year (read it here if you missed it), each of the shop's combined the strip sets from all ten shops into their individual projects. I'm really glad I don't have to pick a favorite (although I might be a little biased!) because each one turned out beautifully! 

A Scarlet Thread

Georgia Sewing & Quilting

Tiny Stitches (1 of 2)

Intown Quilters

Little Quilts (1 of 2)

Patrick's

Little Quilts (2 of 2)

Quilts and Fixins

Red Hen Fabrics

Stitch 'n Quilt

Tiny Stitches (2 of 2)

Sweet Home Quilt Co.

Kits are available for some of the quilts, but not all. Call the specific shop if you're interested. 

Shop Hop... Last two days!

We're having a blast!  Love seeing everyone....  Saturday & Sunday are the last two days!  I hope you're a part of the fun this year

Fwd:

The "batty" ladies from Red Hen hopped by Little Quilts!

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Mary Ellen Von Holt <mev2@bellsouth.net>
Date: March 15, 2013, 4:09:35 PM EDT
To: quiltsandbears@bellsouth.net

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Sent from my iPhone

Shop Hop: Behind the scenes

Have you ever wondered what quilt shops do to prepare for shop hop? Here at Sweet Home, we’ve been busy little bees since early January and now that shop hop is a week away, we’re checking our lists and still trying to get as much done as possible. I thought I’d share a behind-the-scenes look at some of what we’ve been doing…

We started early cutting and packaging the Shop Hop Fabric Strip Sets…what you see is only about half of the 600+ kits we’ve done! We’re offering something a little different to shop hoppers this year -- if you missed it, check out the Shop Hop Blog for details on this new program. 

Emptying bolts and bolts of fabric…

Cutting kits…some on the die cut machine, which generates tons of scraps…

Labeling and packaging all of those kits!

 Finding a place to put all those kits until they’re needed!

Daily visits from Mr. Brown bringing new stock to be checked in and added to the mix.

Making new samples…which still have to be hung on the walls for display!

All of those new samples means there’s been a whole lot of binding going on!

Ripping wool to re-stock our display … there’s something really satisfying about ripping wool!

 Several trunk shows have arrived and are waiting their turn for display!

And finally, a sneak peek at our Shop Hop quilt, which is finally off to the quilter for quilting! (This picture was taken during the last stages of construction as the borders were going on.)

Remember those strip sets I mentioned that every shop will have for shop hoppers? All the shops exchanged sets and this is the free project we came up with. As is tradition for us, we always use black and white in some way in our Shop Hop project and this year is no exception…the black and white polka dot really showcases the vibrant strip colors. We hope you love it as much as we do!

~Melisa @ Sweet Home Quilt Co.