A random, just for fun adventure! Quilt Run 101 is a Spring event held by 15 coastal quilt stores. There were several ways to participate:
1) The passport. No purchase necessary, just be sure to get your passport stamped at each store you visit. Get at least 6 stamps to qualify for a $25 gift certificate drawing. More stamps qualifies you for more prizes. The Grand Prize is a Janome 6600 sewing machine! You need all 15 stamps to qualify and that was my goal.
2) 2013 Quilt Run 101 quilt. Each store picks a unique quilt block for you to put together as a commemorative souvenir. I decided just to get the pattern for each block (free), but you could have gotten a kit of pre-cut pieces ($3. Pretty reasonable, really!) I might do the actual quilt if I was making the event a big one – rent a beach house for the week with girlfriends, hit a couple shops a day, but play at the beach, too. And, of course, be sewing each day! Basically, building memories, rather than driving the whole time. 🙂
3) The Challenge Quilt. Each store picks a fabric and you have a couple months to make a quilt that has all 15 fabrics in it. The fabrics are SO different, getting them to play nice would definitely be a challenge. I wish I had gotten a picture of the sample board. Each entrant gets a yard of fabric and qualifies for more prizes. You have to buy a fat quarter of each fabric, so at $3/each would cost you at least $45.
I went as cheap as I could (since I spent so much on gas) and got 1/8th of a yard at most all of the stores. There were two who wouldn’t cut 8ths, so I skipped them. It took me three whole days to get to all the stores.
Day one: Florence to Billings by myself. A great time to reconnect with me and joyful singing. 11am – 11pm
Day two: Astoria to Cloverdale with my husband and our baby. Another great opportunity – time to reconnect with the hubby. Robin slept most of the trip and was such a good boy most of the time he was awake! 🙂 9am – 8pm
Day 3: Waldport to Toledo with my Mom and Robin. More connecting! And Robin was more awake and interested in the stores and shopkeepers. I turned in my passport, but didn’t win anything! 🙁 11am – 5pm
