Thursday, June 22, 2017

Row by Row Road Trip

I had an excellent adventure with several quilters from our Breakfast Club group. We did a road trip to the Kenai Peninsula. We absolutely have the most wonderful quilt shops in Alaska. We started early in the morning on Tuesday, shopped at four stores on our way to Homer, where we spent the night at a B & B. 



Wednesday morning was the first day of the Row by Row season. We were on the road by 8 a.m. since Homer has one quilt shop inside a hardware store that opens at 8 a.m.


After stopping for coffee and driving for an hour and half we were in Soldotna for our second pattern. I purchased kits of all the patterns since they were soooo cute and many had laser cut pieces.


Here is a look at the actual kit with the laser cut pieces. Fantastic detail. Not all the cut sections have been removed on the little pieces when you open the kit, such as the middle water piece.


Kenai Fabric Center is like a fabric hoarder's paradise. And I think half the store is batiks. The store does not have sales or discounts to clear out old fabric for new so I saw several batiks that had been released over ten years ago. But the new stuff is there too!!! It is definitely a "destination store."


Here's a peek at the Kenai Fabric Center kit. The birds are already on the fabric. It looks like someone drew them in place! I don't know...wish I had thought to ask at the shop if the birds were on the fabric or the shop added them. Some of these shops go to extreme lengths to make the perfect kit.


The Bearly Threaded kits came in different colorways with the black laser cut silhouette. 


Below is the colorway I bought.  The waters of the Kenai River in the Cooper Landing area are turquoise so I love this version.


And we ended our trip with a swing over to Seward which has one quilt shop. I had never been to this shop before and thought it was great. Lots of wildlife themed quilt kits at fantastic prices. Their block needs a little explanation if you aren't familiar with Seward.  At the bottom is the Sealife Center that is an educational facility. It is also our state's only permanent marine animal rescue and rehabilitation facility. At the top of the block is homage to a race up and down a mountain on the 4th of July every year called, Mount Marathon. It is a challenging race and just making it across the finish line is a real accomplishment.


And this morning I was just anxious to run out to Wasilla and pick up Sylvia's pattern.


She has a mushing theme going for her Row by Rows with two or three more years already designed. This pattern also might need a little explaining if you aren't familiar with dog mushing. When we lack snow on the ground, mushing dogs still need to train so mushers hook them up to four wheelers or atvs. Pretty ingenious.

And I know one of my blog readers will be happy to know, Sylvia had the "Idita Quilt," pins this year and I picked up two for her!

All of the above Row by Row kits came with laser cut pieces except the kit from Homer. In an ideal world I would stitch around every laser cut after adhering it in place...that's my plan anyway.

We did our non Row by Row shopping in the quilt shops the day we drove down to Homer and then just grabbed the Row by Row kits and patterns on Wednesday so we would have time to drive to Seward before heading back to Anchorage. We made it back to Anchorage by 6 p.m.

One of our Kenai Row by Row trekkers is a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines so she will help us collect kits from Fairbanks, Sitka, Ketchikan and Juneau. The patterns from my two local quilt shops in Eagle River just didn't interest me...nor did they last year. I certainly have enough wonderful patterns to collect in Alaska.

And...I still have four Anchorage shops to visit...maybe tomorrow.

7 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I bought a pattern a long time ago at a quilt shop in Sitka when we went on a cruise it was one of the ports of call - fun place - you have so many shops and here in this state they are all clustered in the NW part of the state and very few in the central part - one day I need to put a map together and go look at them

carol fun said...

What a fun trip...you do have some wonderful quilt shops! Those Row by Rows are fabulous... so pretty and so Alaska!

Ramona said...

Wow! There are some beautiful row by rows in your collection. How fun to go on the road trip with you Breakfast Club. I've never participated in the row by row experience , but will have to look at my local quilt shops offerings.

Sally said...

It sounds as though you had a wonderful trek with your friends...I am really liking the 'silhouette' rows that seem to be popping up...that being said, I am limiting myself to only a few rows this year because I haven't even completed the rows from 2014,2015, or 2016 yet...I love that some of the shops are doing pins again this year...it seems as though not all of them are.

Calicojoan said...

OH, I love them all. Last year I had to fly up there just for the row by row. I took that same road trip! LOL!! I'm going to have to bug my friend in Soldotna to get me a couple of rows this year it looks like.

Donna quilts said...

It would be a wonderful trip with your quilting friends! Only quilters can appreciate two days of intensive "quilt shop" shopping.

Audrey said...

Your trip brings back fabulous memories of our trip to Alaska in 2012. If you were to ask my husband he would probably comment that our three month trek from Manitoba to Alaska was really one very long shop hop! As you named the shops it brought fabrics, projects and shopkeepers to mind. We discovered the Homer shop in the hardware store early one morning when we were on a mission to find a replacement piece for the camper. The piece was obtained in minutes but the trip took an hour and was the first of several during our stay on Homer Spit.