"Rowed" Trip!

This summer will be a little different for PGFiber2Art.  For the last 7 years, Sue has joined Elizabeth in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesaukee for several weeks of "quilt camp", where we play with surface design, work on our business, shop hop, and just have fun experimenting with techniques we've been wanting to try all year.  This morning Elizabeth left on her 2 day trip north. However this year will be different for several reasons.  First, Elizabeth's mom Barbara passed away in April; Barbara was as much a part of quilt camp as the two of us.  She let us take over the garage for our studio and supported our endeavors, as much as we offered advice on design decisions for her quilting projects.  We will miss her dearly, more than words can adequately express.  Then in May, Sue's husband had a motorcycle accident with serious leg injuries, and after a month of hospital and rehab, he is recovering at home.  However, with no weight bearing on the injured leg he is still home bound with Sue as the primary care giver, so a trip to NH this summer is not likely.  The good news is that he IS recovering, and for Elizabeth, the sorrow of Barbara's loss is followed by the joy of her son's wedding coming up in August.  So it looks like Quilt Camp 8 will be long distance and individual, with perhaps some online collaboration. 

Sue was able to get a day off from care-giving Saturday and decided to use it for some Row By Row shop hopping locally.  She visited 6 shops in Northern Virginia to pick up row patterns and license plates, and whatever else struck her fancy.  She'll share the first 2 shops today and the others in subsequent posts.

Artistic Artifacts is the shop we teach thermofax printing at, and this was the first stop.  It was great to just spend an hour here and soak up the atmosphere!  This year's row for the "Home Sweet Home" theme was designed by Cyndi Souder of Moonlighting Quilts, you can see the row in the background above and the photo below.

The houses and trees are paper pieced with Tim Holtz and Australian Aboriginal fabrics.  The doors (or windows) can be embellished with stencils, stamps, or screen prints.  That's one of our thermofax screens in the package under the row.  We have several screens that could work here and will be putting on our creative thinking caps for more ideas.

Artistic Artifacts is a great source for Design Inspiration, as seen in the photo above.

In addition to the row pattern, kit and license plate, Sue also picked up some paints, more Tim Holtz and Australian fabrics, and Jane Dunnewold's new book Creative Strength Training.  Another great source of inspiration.

Second stop on the "rowed" trip was at the Hollin Hall Variety Store south of Alexandria, a few miles from Mt. Vernon. (no website, but there is a Facebook page) They are a new shop participating in Row By Row this year, so designed a row but not a license plate.  We could devote a post to the Variety Store in itself, and perhaps we will!  This is exactly as it's name says, a variety store.  Think of the modern day dollar store, but better!  The Variety Store has been around for more than 50 years!  Both Sue's husband and Elizabeth grew up in the area, and remember it from childhood.  They have an entire aisle of floor to ceiling shelves devoted to fabric and notions, and the remainder of the store has everything from household items to toys and educational kits, hardware and floral supplies, to penny candy.  You name it, its probably there!

If you didn't know what to look for, you'd probably miss it!

The fabric and notions aisle.

The row - a depiction of Mt. Vernon, George's "home sweet home."

Extensive row of ribbons.

The same aisle from the other end.  The only thing I got here was the free pattern.  They did have kits available too, but I decided I had plenty of fabrics in my stash for this row. 

That's all today - come back for more of the "rowed" trip!