Ok Here is the story of our very first Western Washington Shop hop in 2008! Merav flew from Israel to spend 3 weeks here , her first trip ever to the USA and we decided that doing the shop hop would be a fun and memorable way to visit the country and see the scenery of different places.
Im going to do this in several stages. Lots of pics so it might take a bit to load up for you who have dialup. The following pics are Day 1 of our trip! And of course theres TONS more pics that I did not include, because we had over 900 pics total of our whole trip!
DAY ONE getting ready!
DAY ONE getting ready!
This is the RV we rented for 7 days, I am wearing pink and merav is wearing black. We are tired already because we had to drive an hour back to my house with the RV and it was a bit stressful learning to drive that big thing! but VERY Comfortable!
Here is the driving part of it. the seats were velour and very soft and comfy. AWESOME stereo set up with cd player and great volume. We played ENYA for most of the trip!
our mini kitchen, complete with microwave and fridgerator, cook top that we never did use.
Here is the table we ate at, used the laptop every night and just sat to read books to relax. Both of us are avid readers so we got alot of reading done at night when we weren't shopping all day
on our way! This is just past medical lake/spokane in the rolling hills of corn
vantage bridge as we are coming down the canyon
This is nearing Brewster
Day one of our trip. We crossed Idaho into washington and went northwest to grand coulee dam. This is Merav and that is the dam behind her. She was impressed with how large and powerful it was even though we were a few miles above it.
heading up the canyon towards the mountains
some pretty scenery as we get closer to the mountains
Gorgious waterfallheading up the canyon towards the mountainssome pretty scenery as we get closer to the mountains
top of the mountain pass. Middle of june and theres still several feet of snow on the ground. It was chilly outside when we stopped for a break
the Peaks. We are at about 4000 feet before heading back down the wet side
We are crossing over Marble Mount and this is that lovely unique green lake that I love. I havent been to this area in 20 years but it still looked as lovely as I remembered it. and Merav totally enjoyed driving through all the lush greenery and seeing the lake and little towns.
another shot of that lovely green water
Here we are entering into Sedro-wooley, a lovely fish sculpture and flowers!
All of main street in Sedro-woollley is lined with wood carvings. They have a loggers chainsaw carving competition every year
Im sleepy, gonna snuggle up to old cowpoke here
Me in green, Merav in black standing next to the bear sculpture
Merav on left, me in the middle, Diane on right , we stayed in her driveway for our first night on the road.
DAY THREE START THE SHOP HOP! Heres the first shop , in Lynden washington!
Our first quilt shop! and we went to 25 of them in 3 days! it was exhausting, but alot of fun and we met up with many friends along the way.
I just HAD to have a pic of this little baby!
driving through Lynden to the next quilt shop 
Here we are in Anacortes, and it was late in the day but we did manage to get both stamps right before closing. then we took a leisurely walk around town and enjoyed the scene and sunset on the bluff. 
Kinda blurry but this is the Madrona tree on the anacortes bluff overlooking town.
this is Anacortes at sunset, on the top of the bluff looking back down. It was gorgious and a nice warm breeze blowing.
sunset on the bluff, thats me sitting on the rock in case you didnt know :)
Should I make a quilt with this picture? Its stunning! We spent the night in Anacortes at the safeway parking lot. Shoulda just stayed up at the bluff overlooking town it would have been Alot quieter when we tried to sleep!
the one quilt shop in anacortes, and forgot to take a pic of the other quilt shop just 2 blocks away!
DAY FOUR HITTING THE SHOPS EARLY! driving from anacortes south to another quilt shop
Merav drives the entire trip. Which I was VERY greatful for! But I was the navigator with the tom tom in hand, programming all the stops. We only got lost 3 times in all our trip!
another lovely scenic view as we were driving towards Everett washington
This little shop was wayyyyyyyyyyy out in the boonies, but a GREAT Shop! I wouldnt mind going back there again!
the little watermill that the shop had trickling , next to the front door. Adorable!
Crossing a bridge over a river, not sure which one but up there north of Everett somewhere
I love treadles and of course had to snap pics of them every time I saw one!
Four corners quilt shop. A very nice one!
another shop. All of these were visited on our first day of shop hop!
Lovely little machine, I would love to have brought this one home with me!
Mount Rainier, and it was a sunny warm day when I took this. We are still about 100 miles away from it so that explains a bit of the fuzziness in the pic.
a GORGIOUS quilt I just had to have this picture! I woulid love to make one like this!
Flowers growing in the field, I do believe this is actually a flower farm, north of Everett
Im on the left in white tank, Molly in back center, Dawn in pink and Merav in the front. Finally the day is over and we are camping out at Dawns place for the night. I think we hit 8 shops on that first day! Whew!On my next blog session I will show you the Laconner Quilt Museum at the Gaches Mansion in Laconner Washington. We spent THREE HOURS in that place and took lots of pics so be ready to ooooh and ahhh over wonderful quilty arts!
The shingle for our retreat and quilt shop all in one spot!
hand crafted bear and cute pillow next to it
wonderful collection of antique tea cups and saucers
antique crazy quilt hung in the sewing room
A block with names of books
this is my contribution, its a silkie photo in a frame with crazy quilt stitches
several other blocks with books and other knick knacks you would find on a librarians bookshelf
more pictures. They are all so cute!
Merav is cutting out her jacket pieces
Sewing the pieces to create a jacket.
Merav's very first attempt to make a quilted jacket and it turned out very well!
The Jacket was made with several shades of blues, greens and purple batiks
Rhonda with her little applique block
Sheila's starry quilt
Joys Projects, She is a librarian so she does alot of quilting by hand that are book related
Joy also does alot of baltimore album type quilts in smaller sizes
These couple quilts belong to Jean, the first one is blocks swapped at WASIQ group
Hungry Hungry Catapillar!
Jeans Grandmothers Flower garden, all done by hand and took several years!
Donna with her machine applique with batik Salmon wallhanging. She did several of these projects while at retreat but I think I only got one or two in the camera
Heres the orca one that I really wanted to show you, I found it after I was done posting
Donna with her totem wallhanging
I think this ones Donna Kays too
This one Must be Melody's or Cindys. They both Love purple and yellow combinations so it coulld be either one.
Sue did this cinderella quilt and then hand quilted, and put hot fix jewels around it to make it glittery.
Heres another of Donna Kays fish applique!
Melissas Dear jane project and shes very happy its almost finished. Yes she does plan to put the triangle border around it
Melodys autumn sampler. Very pretty!
Melody or Cindy made this little cutie
Also Melodies, the hand embroidery work she has worked on for several years
A little project that Melody made for her fridgerator
Julies quilts got lots of reactions and you will see why!
That looks like a Judy Neimeyer pattern! All done in batiks!
Julie with another impressive paper pieced quilt
