Top 5 Reasons to Head to Maine

1. Fresh lobster! 

2. You can visit West Quoddy Head, Maine the easternmost point on the U.S. mainland (source)  

And more importantly...

3. The Maine Quilt Shop Hop runs April 1 - April 30!

4. Our Black & White collection is the official fabric line of the hop.

5. At each of the 37 (!) shops, hoppers will receive a free charm square of a different color of our Focus fabrics. Hoppers will also a free pattern for this cool tote, designed by Maine's own Aunties Two, which they can make with their collected charm squares. 

In addition to the usual shop hop fun (passports, $15,000 in prizes (wow!), an excuse to visit as many quilt shops as you can in 30 days), each quilt shop created a challenge quilt using the Black & White collection and one additional color. We'll show you a few of our favorites here, but be sure to head over to the Maine Shop Hop website to see all of the entries. Hoppers can vote for their favorite challenge quilt, and quilts will be displayed this summer in a special “Shop Challenge Exhibit” in Augusta at Maine Quilts 2013.

from Calico Basket:

"Orange You Going to Do the Shop Hop?" from Quiltessentials

from Fabric Garden

"With a Twist of Lemon" from Cotton Weeds

We love seeing what each shop did with the black and white fabrics and a splash of color! 

2013 is also the 10th anniversary of the Maine Shop Hop, so to commemorate the event, each shop made a signature quilt block using their accent color and black and white.
The result:

Congratulations on 10 years! What a beautiful multicolor quilt!

For more info on the Maine Shop Hop and the participating shops, or to see all of the challenge quilts, click here.