Timeless Stitches
Published in The Baldwin City Community News
October 27, 2021
--Liz Granberg-Jerome
Life during a pandemic has been challenging to say the least. For many small businesses it has meant finding new and different ways to stay viable. For quilt shops it meant creating new ways to stay in touch with their clientele through e-mail newsletters, sharing posts on Facebook or Instagram, and some tech-savvy shops hosting Facebook Live spots to help advertise their new fabrics, patterns, and notions. Orders placed during the FB Live spots were available for scheduled curbside pick-up or shipping to keep everyone safe. A growing number of shops have their inventory on websites where quilters may shop online and have their fabric shipped to them. These and other adjustments allowed many shops to remain open despite the pandemic. Thankfully things are slowly shifting again.
Now that shops have mostly reopened, an upcoming event is bringing back a semblance of normalcy—a quilt shop hop! In this case, ten shops around the region have teamed up for the biannual Ad Astra Quilt Shop Hop that was suspended during 2020. The Jingle All the Way Quilt Shop Hop will be held on Thursday & Friday, November 4 and 5 from 9am to 6pm and Saturday, November 6 from 9am to 4pm. This shop hop includes our own Quilters’ Paradise (Baldwin City), as well as Harper’s Fabric & Quilt Co. (Overland Park), Li’l Red Hen Quilt Shop (Paola), Overbrook Quilt Connection (Overbrook), Prairie Point Quilt & Fabric Shop (Lenexa), Quilters HQ (Overland Park), Quilting Bits & Pieces (Eudora), Sarah’s Fabrics (Lawrence), The Quilted Sunflower (Spring Hill), and Yellow Dog Quilt Company (Pomona).
Each of these ten shops is so unique that you will find something different in each one. The shops reflect the personality and preferences of the shop owners who choose the fabrics that grace their shelves. While one shop may have a larger selection of 1930s or Civil War reproduction fabrics, another may feature more florals and prints, and yet another more batiks. There is always some overlap in basics and blenders but always enough differences to make visiting each shop a joy.
Start your hop by picking up your passport to get stamped in each shop you visit. Each shop is creating a project made with a “layer cake”—a collection of 40 different 10” fabric squares—to be displayed during the hop. Shoppers may purchase a different 4-pack of 10” squares in each shop, thus collecting all 40 pieces, and make their favorite displayed project or one of their own. Enter drawings at each shop, plus turn in your completed passport with ten stamps to qualify for a grand prize worth $500 including a $50 gift certificate from all ten shops! Plan your trip, pick up your passport at the first shop you visit, and hop along collecting stamps on the way. Be sure to turn in your passport at the last shop to qualify for the drawings!
