My experience with the All Ohio Shop Hop

First of all, what is the Ohio Shop Hop? The Shop Hop event features a magazine, exclusive fabrics, giveaways, patterns and prizes. The Shop Hop starts with getting the magazine. The All Ohio Shop Hop Magazine is your guide to all things about the event. In addition, you will find patterns, articles and resources for sewing and quilting. Your magazine will include an official Passport. Regional and state maps are included in the magazine to help you plan your routes. Each year we have custom fabric designed exclusively for the All Ohio Shop Hop. The fabric is sold only at Shop Hop stores during the event.

In addition to having your Passport stamped, you get a free quilt block from each store you visit.

• Each store has created a unique, 4-inch quilt block that captures the creative fun of sewing and quilting.
• Regional Quilt Blocks – When you collect Passport stamps from all stores in a Region, you receive a free 6-inch, on-point quilt block to commemorate your accomplishment. You have to turn in your Passport to receive Regional quilt blocks. Then you’ll receive one block for each region completed.
• State Quilt Blocks – When you collect Passport stamps from ALL stores in the All Ohio Shop Hop and turn in your Passport you will receive a free “I Finished Ohio” state block.

In addition to all of this, there is the opportunity to win prizes. I am not usually lucky in this way, but we'll see. When I decided to participate in the Ohio Shop Hop, I mainly did it because I was curious to see the 84 shops that were participating. Because I run my own sewing business (teaching classes), I figured it was a great way to see what fabrics were out there beyond the big box stores. I was determined I was going to see all the shops.

However, after the first few days of driving and going to several shops a day, I was exhausted and felt like it was an unreasonable goal. However, the more I saw, the more I wanted to see. Long story short, I have visited all 84 stores, and sent in my passport. I am excited to get my regional and state blocks so I can start an Ohio quilt. My goal is to take some, if not all the squares I received and put them into a quilt, and hang the quilt in my stairway leading up to our sewing classroom. 

I loved visiting and shopping at all the stores, but it was also a great way to see Ohio. It is much more hilly and curvy that I realized 😂😂. I truly thought Ohio was pretty flat until I started driving around beyond the Cleveland area. I also had a Cars moment. If you have ever seen the original movie, it's the scene where the two vans are in the middle of nowhere, saying they never need a map, they have GPS...I was literally in the middle of nowhere and my internet went out on my phone, so I switched to my car GPS. It told me to take a right onto a road that literally only fit one car, and it looked more like a driveway than a road. I was supposed to be on the road for five miles. I am driving on gravel, and occasional pavement, trying to follow the GPS, until I literally get to a gate that tells me I can't go any further, and I am still supposed to be on this road for 4 more miles!! I am like, "Please don't let a person with a gun come out right now!!!" So, I had to turn around in this tall grass and go back down this sketchy road, back where I had turned, and the GPS tells me to turn left, which if I hadn't turned, would have been the way I would have kept going 😡😡 It is funny now, but I was so stressed out. The stores are only opened limited days/times, so it was a process mapping it all out and trying to keep a decent time so I could linger in each store.

For the most part, all but one store was super friendly to me. Even though I bought from the store, one cashier was super rude to me. I guess I hadn't bought enough for her to be friendly to me 🤷. Other than that, I have nothing but positive things to say about my experience. I did most of the stores by myself, listening to audio books to pass the time (I listened to 8 in August which gives you an idea of how long I was in the car). Matt (my husband) did two days with me and he enjoyed it as well. We would hit local coffee shops, and he enjoyed talking with the store workers about their classroom spaces. Kayla did one store with me and bought material to make herself a purse.

I bought quite a few patterns, Halloween materials to do a Halloween Workshop, a tote bag pattern that had all the materials you needed, bowl cozy pattern, and several different materials to make them with, purse patterns (I have a weakness for bags!), several different tools to clean sewing machines and irons that I didn't know existed, but we are pretty excited about, fat quarters and several other things I can't think of right now. I have a few regrets of things I wish I had bought when I saw them because I didn't see them again.

I am super surprised at how big a deal the Shop Hop is. People came to Ohio just to do, and quite a few people do it every year. I am happy I saw the shops this year, but if I participate next year, I will probably only do the regions closest to me. Other states do Shop Hops as well, and five new states are doing it next year. If you are interested to see if this is something your state does, you can click here to figure it out 😀.

One other thing that I thought was super cool is that some stores had water and snacks out for you when you visited their stores. Others gave out little free gifts, things like a fat quarter, free patterns, key chains, things to clean your machine with, one gave out a tape measure, so it was fun collecting that stuff too!

Here are pictures of all the blocks I collected, a few pictures of things already created from purchases, and a picture of me with my completed passport.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the way, I did not take pictures of any of the BEAUTIFUL quilts and projects that I saw in all these stores. Some stores did not want you to take pictures of anything, so I erred on the side of caution, and didn't take any pictures inside the stores. However, if you are ever lacking in creativity, I highly recommend going into a quilting store and looking at all the things they have made! I came home wanting to sew everything 😂. Creativity inspires creativity and all that.