Road Trip Haul

Last Wednesday, 8 of us piled into two cars for a 3-night, 4-day road trip to the Syracuse NY area for the purpose of crafty shopping. We hit most stitching and quilt shops and craft stores in the area, venturing as far south as Marcellus NY.

Poppy gave each of us a beautiful zippered pouch with a pen and notebook inside when we picked her up. What a nice treat!

Our first stop in the US was at Gunn's Country Store & Quilt Shop where the fabric purchasing began for some of us.

At Quilt with Passion in Oswego NY, I found a pair of micro serrated scissors I'd been wanting for a while.

I first learned about this type of scissors when we did our wool felt appliqué class last fall. The micro serrations hold the thread so it doesn't scoot away from you whilst snipping. I already had the medium size but really wanted the small size for embroidery.

At The Robin's Next Quilt Shop in Fulton NY, I purchased this funky batik fabric that had colourful chain stitches around the pattern designs.

At a JoAnn's I found a book I'd admired before. Since our Latvian mitten exposition a couple of weeks ago, I was really glad to get this one.

There, I also found a good array of Peanuts fabrics.

Each night we had Show and Share in the living room of the suite. Marilyn gave everyone a 'room present'. There was a cute fat quarter and other treats in each one. Mine was a butterfly theme.

At A Stitcher's Garden in Fayetteville NY, just east of East Syracuse, I found the missing hand dyed thread for my bee stitching, and this alpaca-themed pattern.

At AC Moore, I found 4 fat quarters that would go together colour-wise.

 We then visited Pick Your Stitch - a Pfaff dealer and quilt store in East Syracuse. I didn't see anything I needed to buy there. At our next stop, Calico Gals Quilt Shop and Sewing Center,

 was where we spent a couple of hours. This is the shop the originated the 'Row by Row Experience'.

I couldn't resist this beautiful bird fabric, Awakening by Robin Mead of P&B Textiles.

I was also intrigued by this small, mosaic piece in a series by Cheryl Lynch. The yellow ruler  comes with the additional instructional package. The pattern comes with the stabilizer and the tulle.
I also purchased 1/8yd of the fabrics that I'll use with the mosaic piece. I don't have a big stash of batiks  whose scraps I could use, so purchased the smallest quantity I could of the necessary colours.

We then ventured to The 12th Stitch which recently relocated into the proprietor's home. Everything was discounted. All I got there was a little scant quarter inch ruler.

Our last shopping stop of the day was at Patchwork Plus in Marcellus, a spacious store with many lines of fabric. I picked up a couple of fat quarters of some turtle fabric.

Yesterday, we started for home with a plan to shop at The Old Tattered Flag in Evans Mills NY, just a few miles NE of Watertown. Lucky for us, there was a sale on felted wool fabric, as several of us were looking for wool for planned appliqué projects.

All I got was a #14 (fine) Oxford punch needle. I have a vast stash of yarn that I could consume by making rugs out of it.

After dropping Poppy off at home, Barb checked her email and noted there was a tent sale at the Ultimate Sewing Centre in Oshawa, which happily was on our route home. Again, I couldn't resist these two fabrics @ $6 per metre.

We sure had a lot of fun on our trip. The suite hotel satisfied our needs - we could get 8 people in two rooms with no sharing of beds as long as 2 were OK with pull out sofas. There are free snacks and drinks from 5:30 - 7pm from Monday to Thursday. The outdoor pool was great for cooling off during the heat wave. Going mid-week made our accommodation quite a bit cheaper than if it had been on a weekend. We also lucked out and got a free upgrade on our second room due to my brain cramp when I booked the place.

We saw many things we never get to see on sale in Canada. Every shop had a different personality and different focus. I would definitely recommend Quilt With Passion in Oswego, Calico Gals in Syracuse, and Patchwork Plus in Marcellus if you only had to limit yourself to three. And for stitching, you shouldn't miss A Stitcher's Garden in Fayetteville.

It sure was good to get home to Skip. Scooter had been there most of the time to help him out, keep the household running, and mind my monarch butterfly operation. Today, I'm basically loafing, stitching, and starting to organize all my purchases.

We are so lucky to be able to get away like this and be giddy girls for a few days. Hopefully we can do it again sometime.