Quilts and Casinos

  
Or "David's Best Day".
Either title will work.

On Saturday, Lydia went on a Pub Quilt Crawl Hop all around Skagit and Whatcom County while David was left home to watch soccer and baseball and have Skype conversations with his daughter and grandchildren.
(Or, as Jasper put it, "she's having a 'venture").

There was no way she was getting away with that two days in a row.  I needed some fun, too!
So when it was determined that there was more crawling hopping to do on Sunday, I signed up.

My first question was "Is this going to be a bunch of little old ladies?"
Lydia: "Oh, no that's a very outdated view of people who quilt.  Quilting has EXPLODED - it's huge!"
Me: "Good, so I'll get to see some young chicks?"
Lydia: (glaring)

Well, she was right about the little old ladies.

They weren't all little.

The Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop is an annual event sponsored by locally owned quilt shops in Western Washington, in conjunction with the Western Washington Quilt Shop Association.  

Each shop designs a special quilt block to give away with one piece of Shop Hop theme fabric, one coordinating fabric, and a fabric of the shop's choosing. 

There are 54 shops that participate in the Hop.
Yes!  There are 54 quilt shops in Western WA.  Actually more, since not all participate.
Who knew?

The "Hop" goes for five days (I know!!).
You get a "passport" with all of the participating shops listed.  As you visit each store, they stamp your passport.
If you visit at least 16 shops you are eligible for prizes.  Since Lydia had visited eight on Saturday, we only needed to hit eight more..............

Top Prizes
I'm a little breathless just thinking about this so I will simply quote from the official brochure.

Quilt Retreat
One lucky Hopper will win a two night, three day quilt retreat for themselves and up to nine friends at the beautiful Wild Rose Quilt Shop & Retreat Center in Orting.  Available on a mutually agreeable basis during 2010.  The retreat space includes 10 beds (5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms) and a kitchen connected to the quilting studio.  All above a gorgeous 3200+ bolt quilt shop.
So we could only bring nine others, but still.........

The second thing I learned (after learning how many freakin' quilt shops there are) is the explosion in prices of sewing machines.  I remember buying one for Lydia for $50 for her birthday back in PA.
I don't think that covers the thread these days.  These machines are computers and they do embroidery, quilting and anything else you can think of and they sell for up to TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!!
Of course, that doesn't include the software you will need.  The ones we looked at were in the $6000-$8000 range but we saw some "cheap" ones for $3500.

"Aunt Mary's" and "Granny's House".
Nope.  No old ladies here.

There is only so much quilting fun one can have before one needs a break.
The only logical place for EVEN MORE FUN would be a casino.

Right?

Right.
The food is pretty good and the price is right so we settled in for some salmon and chips with strawberry shortcake for desert.  Total for the two of us - $5.50.....their prices have gone up. I used to get change from a fiver.

No little old ladies here either......

Lydia won enough to pay for lunch so back on the road we went to finish our quest.  The 16 shop visits needed to be completed by 5 PM Sunday and we made it to the last one in Anacortes at 4:55 PM.

We (OK, Lydia) scored some great fabrics and patterns for future gifts for three little people that we know.

When we arrived back home, David was none the worse for wear.

Well maybe a little shell-shocked.