Christmas in July?

Well, not exactly, but nine quilt shops in this area went together to do a "Christmas in July" shop hop. Our gang of quilting buddies here in the Grasshopper sure do have a lot of fun doing shop hops, so we decided to do an overnight trip and visit all nine shops. Our regular buddy, Ellen, couldn't make it, so Drin's mom, Dorothy, intrepid and fearless quilter that she is, decided to risk her life with me behind the wheel and take Ellen's place in the car. And she did pretty darn well! She didn't complain too much, and she didn't have to buy chocolate. Guess we know who had to buy chocolate! And what was that about a cell phone??? AGAIN?????? We started out in Ennis, then Belgrade, Townsend, Helena, Avon, Deer Lodge, Whitehall, Twin Bridges, and finished in Dillon. Finding a hotel turned out to be a bit of a challenge, but then that drive over Homestake Pass between Butte and Whitehall is certainly worth several passages. . . .
One of our favorite places is this little shop in an old cabin just outside Twin Bridges called Timeless Treasures. We decided this would be the place for our traditional "shop hop photo." Above is Dorothy, Linda (me), Drin and Joan. (Remember, you can click on the images to see them full size if you want to see our happy, smiling faces!)
Donna is the shop owner and absolutely one of the world's nicest people (not surprising - she is a quiltmaker, after all!!!), so we asked her to be in our photo also. (second from left) What a great time we had. Always so much fun. And we have a stack of new projects waiting for autumn. We're talking about doing our own thing in October and head up toward Glacier and do some of the really neat quilt shops up in that area - Big Fork, Kalispell, Whitefish. So beautiful up there - will be a really special treat - something to look forward to.

Happy Quilting!!!