Jun 10, 2010

Traveling quilters move the needleBy Tom TobinROCNow.com

They came, they saw, they sewed.

Well, OK, the sewing probably came later, after the shoppers returned home Wednesday from the first day of the 7th annual Western New York Shop Hop, a combination quilting odyssey and midweek getaway.

Rising with the sun, bunched together in cars and vans, local quilters — the venerable and popular type of decorative sewing that involves multiple layers of material — are traveling for bargains, prizes and the sheer pleasure of being with their sewing compatriots.

The idea of the event is to visit each of 12 quilting and sewing shops stretched across western New York between 9 a.m. Wednesday and 4 p.m. Sunday. Each quilter gets a passport-like card that is stamped at each stop.

Those with a fully stamped card are eligible to win a new sewing machine. Gift baskets are being handed out at each participating store, and at every stop shoppers get four strips of fabric that, when put together, will make an entire quilt.

The Shop Hop is just the latest in a busy, yearlong schedule of quilting-related events that includes retreats, classes and demonstrations, meetings of local quilting guilds or societies and informal get-togethers.

Quilting is a formidable subculture in American life, with an estimated 19 million adherents, most of them female, who spend, according to one survey, an average of $2,304 a year on their hobby. Read complete article.