Retreat Shop Hop

Grandchildren have taken over my house, so the Shop Hop photos have not been published. I'll remedy that now.

We had a great Shop Hop and the 6 Adelaide quilt shops benefitted to the tune of almost $30000. Not a bad effort in this economic downturn - now to be called a recession.

I only took photos of my bus, but I am sure there are others around.

Our first stop was some distance away up Cross Roads to "Riverlea Cottage Quilts" on Unley Road. What a spending frenzy then occurred. I had to use my sternest schoolteacher voice to get them moving!!!

Next stop was 'A Stitch in Time' on Fullarton Road. Here we were treated to a most magnificent morning tea.

Then all the way back down to 'Patchwork by Sea' at Brighton (Jetty Road) where Michele Hill happily autographed copies of her brilliant book and Lessa Siegele showed us a new quilting gadget.

We drove back up to the top of Cross Roads to have a lovely light lunch at the Waite Research Institute.

I know when I made the lunch announcement a number of my passengers were rather concerned that their bodies were going to be the subject of 'weight' research at lunch time. After all the food we had been 'forced' to eat over the weekend, we would probably have made very interesting research subjects!

After lunch we travelled to "Quiltaholics" on the Norwood Parade for a bit more spending .

And then back down Cross Roads again to visit 'Tricia's Discount Fabrics' at Edwardstown.

Suddenly ladies who thought they might have spent enough, discovered that they just had to buy in quantity and take advantage of the great prices!

Our final shop stop was way over on the Port Road at Hindmarsh - through peak hour traffic . This was 'Hetty's Patch" and I had never been there, so was really pleased to be able to pay a visit. Pretty little shop.



Spending over for the day, we made our way back to Glenelg. As we were running a little late, our lovely bus driver Roger made an extra stop at the airport to drop off four vewry happy Retreatees and then we finally did make it back to Glenelg.

It was a great day and every one had a ball. We must thank the shop owners for their great hospitality, their help and their cheerfulness in dealing with nearly 100 eager quilters. Hopefully the $30000 that was spent made it all worthwhile for them.

The end of a successful Retreat. Sadly we farewelled old and new friends, but with the expectation of doing it all over again in May 2010 at Bathurst.

Liz Needle