Welcome to our new blog!

This is a first for us, the 14 quilt shops comprising the Wasatch Front Shop Hop. We'll be taking turns posting here, letting you get acquainted with each store. And, we'll keep you informed about this year's event. Our theme for 2010 is "Let's Celebrate" and will take place June 16 - 19.

This is our tenth year anniversary! Have you ever wondered what goes into a Shop Hop? I remember our first meeting, sitting around a table with our fellow shop owners, wondering how to begin, where to meet, what to expect, how to manage everything and most of all, would it be worth the effort? Would quilters come? Ten years later, we still have hurdles every year, but so many things are in place that help streamline the job.

Our first meeting is in October with another in January and March or April - we used to meet every month from October until May! We generally meet at the store of that year's president - some meetings are grim and some have much laughter. We each take on an assignment; there are the ones you'd expect like President, Treasurer, Secretary but there are also Maps, Advertising, Finishing Prizes, Logo and posters, Newspapers, Donations, Surveys and passports, the Website, Blocks and Book and, finally, Prizes. It's a lot of work...plus we each make a quilt out of the same 14 blocks and we hand out free patterns for those blocks during the Hop. For me, the best meeting is the one held right after each year's event when we get to see each other's quilts and we divvy up (is that a word?) all the prizes we've collected - drawing names and filling bags. It's like our reward for a year's work - it's like Christmas except we're giving gifts away.

I was given these first two weeks to blog - I'm Nancy from Whimsy Cottage. In subsequent posts, I'll chat about other stuff - me, my store, my quilt for the shop hop - it'll be me, me, me!

June 16, 17, 18, & 19, 2010

"Let's Celebrate"

American Quilting Orem, UT

Broadbents Quilt Shop Lehi, UT

Corn Wagon Quilt Co. Springville, UT

Elaine's Quilt Block Cottonwood Heights, UT

Mormon Handicraft Midvale, UT

Pine Needles West Jordan, UT

Piper's Quilts SLC, UT

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts Sandy, UT

Quilter's Haven Bountiful, UT

Sew Sweet Toole, UT

The Material Girls Quilts
The Stitching Corner Orem, UT

Thimbles and Threads Draper, UT

Village Dry Goods Brigham City, UT

Whimsy Cottage Holladay, UT