Bus Trip Day 1

This was the 4th year mom and I ran our bus trip to various quilt shops.  This year we headed east to north east Missouri and central Illinois.  We had a pretty full bus with 47 of our nearest and dearest quilting buddies.  Everyone showed up on time and we left the Walmart parking lot 5 minutes ahead of schedule.  That was a first.  Of course it helped that we had everyone show up half an hour ahead of our departure schedule. 

This was the second year that Trevor drove for us and he made everything so easy.  I didn't have to worry about anything associated with that part of the trip and he did a great job getting us as close to the entrances as possible.  Yay Trevor!!!!!!!!

Our first stop was Satin Stitches in Columbia Missouri.  They had expanded the shop since we were there on the first bus trip in 2014.  They have a ton of machine embroidery patterns and a large selection of beautiful fabric.  I bought a couple of hand towels to embroider and a fat quarter. The store provided lunch in their large large classroom so everyone had plenty of room to eat and shop.  Being vegetarian, I didn't partake in the chicken salad croissant but I heard it was delicious even though it was a bit messy.

The store provided lunch in their large large classroom so everyone had plenty of room to eat and shop.  Being vegetarian, I didn't partake in the chicken salad croissant but I heard it was delicious even though it was a bit messy.

Next we were headed to Homestead Hearth in Mexico MO which is in this historic old building with a lot of brick, part of a plane hanging over the check out area, an old delicatessen in the back, and a historic jeep hanging over the entrance.  Such a fun place.  They welcomed us with a sheet of special prices just for the bus folks..It included 25% off 1 yard cuts of fabric, 10% off sale room prices, and 50% off patterns.  I thought it was extraordinarily generous of them so I did my fair share of damage on the credit card.  I bought about 10 yards of fabric for the Charley Harper Giraffe pattern I'd brought along.  The cutting and checkout lines was pretty long so I'm assuming most of the others were taking advantage of the deep sale prices.

Have to say, I've been to this store a few other times and found it mostly full of muted colors and civil war fabric which isn't my cup of tea but this time I found more brights and modern fabric choices so I was very pleasantly surprised.   The building is beautiful and the store is well worth the trip.

Again we left the store on time.  The fact that I scheduled each store for 1.5 hours seemed to be working!!!!!!!!!  We then drove about an hour to Hannibal MO to one of my favorite shops, Hickory Stick.  The store is full of brights and lovely unique patterns.  The owner gave mom and I a gift certificate for bringing the bus which I thought was terrific.  No other store had done that in the 4 years we ran the trip so we really appreciated it. 

I bought this really cute little panel fabric which the store had appliqued on a towel and surrounded with rick rack.  I had to have it.

 The store did a marvelous job of getting everyone in and out quickly.  Down the street is another small quilt shop which folks visited, Bits and Pieces.

It is a cute shop with a very modern aesthetic. I loved the toy sewing machines they had in one of their display cases.

As usual some of the ladies finish shopping before our 1.5 hour shopping window and so they enjoyed the lovely weather we had for all three days of the trip.

We left Hannibal about 5:30 exhausted but happy from what I thought was a successful day of shopping and now it was time to eat.  We drove about a half hour to Quincy IL to have dinner at Chicks on the River.  I was a little nervous when I called and there was no answer but I'd double checked everything before I left so hopefully it was all good.  We drove up to this beautiful site.

The cafe was a bit busier than they had anticipated but they did a pretty good job of getting us in and out.  One table brought up the rear but we really weren't in a hurry since the hotel was only two blocks away.  I had an excellent hummus wrap which had a nice spicy taste.  Trevor had some wonderful looking chicken lips and most everyone seemed to like the meal.  This was the site after we finished dinner.  So pretty.  

The Quality Inn was a very nice hotel and after a minute or two of nail biting everyone got a room.  The next morning a bunch of the women told me how comfortable the bed was even thought some of them had to make a running leap to get on it.