Rowing Through New England

Continuing her journey north on day 2, Elizabeth stopped at the Connecticut Welcome Center early in the morning. A very patient and creative person has decorated much of the garden spaces at the rest stop with cairns as you would see if you were hiking a mountain in New England.

It was too early for most quilt stops in New York to be open so upon arriving in CT she decided to give The Quilt Shop by Lois in Newtown a chance for 10 AM to roll around.  

Luckily there is a Trader Joes at the first exit in CT so she did her grocery shopping for the staples needed at the lake house while she waited.  No crowds shopping at 9 AM!

Well worth the wait for the doors to open at 10, The Quilt Shop by Lois is small yet bright and pleasant.  The fabric selection at this store was gorgeous, she certainly knows what appeals to quilters, especially those with a bend towards modern quilt designs and clean, clear large prints.  

Lois lives by the seashore in CT and commutes inland to her shop; her row depicts her daily drive from the seashore landscape of home to the wooded landscape of middle Connecticut.

After driving through the rest of Connecticut and switching to Interstate 91, Elizabeth stopped at A Notion to Quilt in Shelburne, MA. 

This was another store she stopped at last year and was so impressed with the amount of notions there, it is an aptly named shop.  However, this year she now knew the owner, Becki Stratton.  Becki had attended CABS in Virginia this past March.

It was nice to see a quilting friend and to have an inside tour of her store complete with her huge garage style workroom, where a king sized quilt hanging on the wall looks like a wall hanging!

A Notion to Quilt has two rows this year, one horizontal and one vertical.  The horizontal row is part of a local Massachusetts shop hop where all the rows go well together for an overall quilt design. 

In the next installment of Elizabeth's travels, learn about The Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, MA.