Road Trip 2025

Since we aren't traveling to the US any more, we thought we'd enjoy a crafty trip of SW Ontario this summer instead. The focus was on fabric, knitting, and stitching shops and meeting up with my nieces for a nice visit while in the area.

Jen1 and Marilyn were able to participate with me. We booked a suite hotel in St Jacobs for our home base. The rooms were very comfortable and had great seating and lighting for stitching at the bar in the kitchenette and seating in the living room.

Rosa, Geri, and Ana

Our first stop was Dancing Stitches in Cambridge. There, I purchased an open presser foot for my Bernina Activa 220 machine. We also saw a neat zipper bag from byAnnie.com called Drop Zone but they didn't have any more patterns. I figured I'd find the pattern at one of the other shops we'd visit.. There was a Long and McQuade music store in the same block of stores so I picked up a couple of oboe reeds for my week at music camp next month. Fingers are crossed I can get them to work.

Then we headed to the Galt house of Yarn. They had an impressive assortment including lots of Icelandic and Norwegian yarns. I think that's where I bought this lovely skein of hand-painted Estelle sock yarn.

Using a coordinating sock yarn from my stash I'm going to have a second go at the Alexia pattern from the Noro Knitting and Crocheting Magazine #25, Alexia. 

It's the pattern I had so much trouble reading line by line that I graphed it. Hopefully I'll have an easier time of it this time.

Len's Mills was our next stop. It is in a HUGE building with the usual panoply of housewares, yarns, threads, notions, snack foods, etc. Their fabric section was vast, up-to-date and very tidy. Then to Mary Maxim in Paris.

We then ventured to the Staybridge Suites in St Jacobs to check in, admire our purchases, meet up with my nieces, go for dinner, and relax after dinner.

The next morning we headed out to Stratford in time for Ye Olde Quilt Shoppe to open. We all gasped when we walked in. The place was packed with every designer's lines of fabrics you could imagine. 

Jen1, Marilyn, and Geri just after gasping

The first things I saw when walking in the door (and after gasping) were some charm squares of the Morris Manor Best of Morris line. I snatched one up and found a couple of companion fabrics in the same line. We gasped a second time when we saw their wall of shelved charm squares.

I inquired about the new Tilda fabric line called 'Merry Little Christmas' 

but it is only available for pre-order as it won't be released until September. The Nordic motifs on the main fabric really appeal to me but I have no idea what I would make with it.

We stopped in Shakespeare at a little shop called 'The Quilt Place'. They were in the process of winding down for retirement and everything was on sale for 40% off. It would be an excellent place for stash enhancement at a good price. Unfortunately there had been a major accident at the main intersection which caused hydro wires to come down and completely block the intersection. We managed to find our way around it as we continued on to Heart N Home Creations in New Hamburg. It is a lovely store that sells not only quilting fabric but lots of home goods and has a huge inventory of Cobble Hill crossword puzzles. After lunch we visited Quilting By Design. Then back to the hotel to meet up with Ana and Rosa for supper at The Cactus Mexican Restaurant in Waterloo.

After supper, we all converged on our suite again and had 'show and tell', admiring each others' purchases of the day, and deciding how we would proceed the next day. Marilyn and Jen1 stitched while Rosa, Ana, and I yakked. Lots of fun!

The next morning we decided to go to our furthest point, Stitch-it Central in London, and work our way back to Durham Region via Cherished Pieces in Tillsonburg.

Stitch-it Central has expanded and has a vast array of stitching patterns, threads, fabrics, accessories, and quilting fabrics. There, we met up with Heather who came from Sarnia to see us, get a framed piece Jen1 was bringing her from Kim and Meagan's , and join us for lunch at the bakery next door.

After bidding adieu to Heather, we made our way cross country to Cherished Pieces in Tillsonburg. Then headed home with Marilyn taking the wheel. The traffic wasn't too bad on the 401 and there was no back-up to the 407, thanks to the fairly new dedicated collector lanes.

It was a lot to cover in three days but thanks to the distances between locations being fairly close, it wasn't an extraordinary amount of time in the car. We really enjoyed the comfort of the Staybridge Suites and the opportunity to visit with Ana and Rosa.

After a few shops what I bought where was a bit of a blur so I'm just doing a photo dump of my haul. I have projects in mind for most of the items.

The sunflower buttons will be cute on a nametag or on my sunflower biscornu. The silver-lined, clear glass beads are good spacers on beaded projects. I have a 'thing' for variegated Sulky Petites thread. it's a great substitute for two strands of cotton floss and great for any projects using satin stitch. Barb and I want to make sewn bowls using cotton clothesline and fabric strips so the open presser foot makes seeing the zigzag stitches much easier to see.

The Honeybee fabrics really appealed to me. It was the sunflowers that initially caught my eye so, of course, I had to buy a couple of companion fabrics.

I also picked up a little bundle of black batiks. Some look like the midnight blue of indigo dyed fabrics so could be used as linings or backing for sashiko projects.

Heart N Home had a selection of charm squares. This one would also be great to line or back sashiko projects. They also had the companion fabric cut into fat quarters.

These are what I saw when I first walked into Ye Olde Fabric Shoppe in Stratford. I have a gradient project bag and possibly a Drop Zone bag in mind for this.

Stitch-it Central had an impressive collection of sashiko threads. I also thought this indigo paisley fabric and blue, variegated perle cotton were great accompaniments.

I watched a couple of videos on making the Drop Zone bag.

I'll make one for myself and then have the girls over for a session. We loved how they look like just a normal zipper bag when zipped up,

but open right up when unzipped and have little walls on each side to keep everything in. There are instructions for three sizes in the pattern and a free instructional video with its purchase. Otherwise it's $5US for the instructions. However, I found this video tutorial by Mx Domestic, which explained all the steps. 

I've been taking it pretty easy today but might begin collecting materials for my first Drop Zone bag.

These little, craft-based trips are so much fun. I get a chance to get away from my everyday existence, stay in hotels, hang with friends and loved ones, eat good food, look at lovely craft items, do some shopping, etc.  It's so nice to have events like this to look forward to and even nicer to experience them.

Thanks Jen1 and Marilyn for joining me and thanks also to Rosa, Ana, and Heather for making the effort to meet up with us. I'm already starting to plan the next road crafty road trip of Lambton, Kent, and Essex counties for next year.