Have you heard of the Row by Row Experience yet? It is the fun reason that quilters are taking to the road this summer. It is the easiest Shop Hop yet. It is addictive and I confess, I am hooked!
Quilt shops across the United States of America and Canada too (and possibly other countries too?) have designed their own unique 9" x 36" pattern for a row in a quilt with a theme of "
water" -- this is
Row by Row in a nutshell. Shoppers are invited to step foot into the participating quilt shops (over 2,000 this summer) to pick up their free pattern directions. Many of the quilt shops are also selling fabric kits as well as pins and fabric labels featuring a unique license plate.
When I first heard of this, I thought
oh how cute but was not really interested in joining this craze. Although I did pick up my first pattern and kit when I popped into CJ's Quilt Shop on my first visit to this shop. On the family road trip, I convinced my crew to stop at two shops in Greensboro, North Carolina and I picked up two more rows (and one more kit).
Here is my progress on these first three rows. Top down they are from "
Calla Lily Quilts" in Greensboro, NC,
CJ's Quilt Shop in Richmond, TX and my favorite (and the only one totally complete as I post this) is from
Studio Stitch also in Greensboro, NC and also a Bernina store.
The frog row was their kit with the pieces all precision cut with iron-on adhesive already on each piece. The three little ducks are fussy cut and framed by a blue check then appliqued on the waterdrops background (two umbrellas are being stitched on). I did alter this a bit. Then the bottom rows of batik fish was made from all my fabrics and was the most fun to stitch.
It's official. I am hooked! Since returning home from our road trip, I have since collected more patterns by visiting a few of the local shops .... and I'm recruiting family and friends to visit quilt shops near them to collect the patterns for me. And I browse the Facebook pages for the various states (here's the
Texas FB page) and the Row by Row Experience
website,
http://www.rowbyrowexperience.com/, and images shared on InstaGram. I am having fun!
Here are a few more favorite rows and finished quilts ... just to share the fun!
These bottles are an original design by Johanna Masko for a quilt shop, "
The Workroom" in Toronto, Canada (on InstaGram as "
_theworkroom"). Follow Johanna on her blog:
johannamaskoquilts.blogspot.ca or in IG as "
jmaskoquilts."
The above quilt is made with the rows by the five
Pacific Fabric stores, each store has one of the rows available to their shoppers who visit each location in person. I love it - don't you? The stores from the top-down are: SODO, Bellevue, Everett, Bremerton and Northgate.
This photo from Instagram shows the two choices for rows that the Quilt Company in Aalison Park, PA designed for the 2015 Row by Row Experience. I think the watercolors are my favorite, though the watermelon slices are also appealing.
These four Sunbonnet Sues make up the row offered by
A Great Notion Sewing Supply Ltd. in Canada. Their kit includes 44 different fabrics - oh my!
This is one of my favorite completed quilts. It is by Loide Wasmund (IG: lwasmund), a Texas quilter. My favorite row is the four quilty-friends -- something different is reflected back from their sunglasses! I also am tickled by the five bowl of fish! I'm busy figuring out where each of these rows originated and whether I can get there during the Row-by-Row times .... or if I should just try drafting my own version of the rows I like. Once I started thinking about drafting my own patterns, I then started thinking "
why keep the stores in a long-skinny format, 9"x39"? why not alter that size too?" Stay tuned as I try to figure out what I am going to do and watch as I do it!
I love that the theme of "
Water" has inspired so many in such different ways. I want to collect and make more of these rows (or draft my version of the row). Clearly this is my newest addiction! What's yours?
Posts
