What’s a Quilt Shop Hop?
In case you’re not familiar, you can think of a quilt shop hop as kind of like a pub crawl, only with less alcohol and a lot more fabric.
Different quilt shops in a region will participate with demonstrations, prizes, and fun activities. You “hop” around to the different ones. Instead of tickets or admission, you can purchase a single passport that allows you to join in the extra festivities at each shop.
Northern Arizona Shop Hop
The Northern Arizona “Beat the Heat” Shop Hop is actually going on across northern Arizona through today (Saturday, July 29).
To join in, you just start in any of the 6 participating shops and buy a passport for $5. That gets you entry into prize drawings and a 10% discount on merchandise, as you visit the rest of the shops (or as many of them as you’d like).
The Plan
My mom wanted to go check out that Northern Arizona Shop Hop, so we hatched a plan to make a day trip while I was visiting her recently.
The plan was to time our two-hour drive from Phoenix so we’d arrive as the shops were opening. We wouldn’t get to all of them, but we might be able to go to 3 or 4 out of the 6, and then get back to her house in time for Phillip and I to drive home to Tucson (two hours in the opposite direction).
What actually happened was a different story – more on that in a minute.
While the day did not go as planned, I had looked up a bunch of stuff about the shops ahead of time. And had done some deep dives into Google Maps street views of our destinations, because even map apps can be confusing!
Let’s Go to the Hop
In case you’d like to plan your own Northern Arizona quilt store expedition (during a shop hop or not), I wanted to share the information I found about the shops I was planning on going to.
Before you drive across the state, it’s always a good idea to check AZ511 for road closures because of construction, weather, wildfires, etc.
Start here!
- Take the I-17 north out of the Phoenix area.
- When you get to Cordes Junction, peel off onto AZ-69 North (take exit 262 for Cordes Lakes) towards Prescott.
- You’ll get to Prescott Valley first, and that’s where you’ll find the first two shops on our list…
Prescott Valley
In case you’re not familiar with the area, yes, Prescott Valley is a different town than Prescott, which is almost 100 years older!
1. Quilt N Sew Connection
Open Mon-Fri 10am-5pm / Sat 10am-4pm
Contact quiltn@quiltnsewconnection.com / Facebook / (928) 775-9580
Find them at 6546 E. Second St., Suite A, Prescott Valley
- From Cordes Junction, stay on AZ-69 for about 30-40 minutes.
- Take a left onto Valley View Drive – which may look less like like a street and more like the entrance to the Mattress + Furniture Gallery parking lot.
- Quilt N Sew Connection is in one of the Santa Fe style buildings on Second Street, across from the Post Office.
2. ClothPlus Quilt Shop and Home Decorating Fabric Shop
In their words:
“A great selection of quality quilting fabrics, battings, books and supplies,” as well as “a passion for batiks!” On the home decorating side, they carry an assortment of upholstery fabrics for both DIYers and pros – and (heads up, cosplayers!) they also have an entire foam department.
Open Tue–Sat 10am-5pm
Contact: bill@clothplus.com / (928) 772-5010
Find them at 6479 E. Copper Hill Dr., Prescott Valley
- From Quilt N Sew, cross AZ-69 and turn onto Copper Hill Drive.
- ClothPlus is in a warehouse-looking building on the south side of the street.
Prescott
Prescott’s Courthouse Plaza is home to craft fairs, festivals, and lots of other outdoor events! It’s surrounded by a town square full of quirky shops and restaurants, historic hotels, and old-timey saloons. We were hoping to be there by lunchtime.
3. Prescott Quilt Works
A new full-service quilt shop with “a curated selection of both traditional and modern fabrics, patterns, and supplies.” Their goal is “to inspire and help you create your vision while having fun from start to finish.”
Open Tue, Thr-Sat 10am-4pm / Wed 10am-6pm
Contact hello@prescottquiltworks.com / Instagram / Facebook / Pinterest / (928) 515-2276
Find them at 1781 E. AZ-69, Suite 29, Prescott
- Get back on AZ-69 North until you spot Frontier Village Shopping Center on your left.
- Prescott Quilt Works is a couple doors down from Sportsman’s Warehouse.
Chino Valley
If we had time to squeeze it in, this would be our final stop of the day.
4. Sew-n-Sew Fabric, Notions + More
In their words:
“This store has been a dream of mine for over 30 years and to see it come to fruition has me beyond words. Our goal is to provide a one stop shop for all your basic sewing needs.”
Open Mon-Sat 9am-6pm
Contact yoursewnsew@yahoo.com / Facebook / (928) 636-3769
Find them at 1120 S. Hwy 89, Suite E. Chino Valley
- Get back onto AZ-69, but prepare to take a pretty quick right.
- Exit onto AZ-89 North.
- Go through like 6 traffic circles. Make sure you’re still on AZ-89 when you come out the other side of each one!
- At the stoplight intersection with Rt 2 S, make a U-turn. (Where are those traffic circles when you finally need one?!)
- Sew-n-Sew will be on the right, in a strip mall with a blue roof.
Cottonwood + Flagstaff
The other two participating shops that we knew we wouldn’t be able to fit into our day trip…
5. Quilter’s Quarters, Cottonwood
6. Odegaard’s Sewing Center, Flagstaff
How Our Day Actually Went
Usually, going to Northern Arizona in the summer means cool weather instead of Phoenix heat.
However, as the shop hop got closer, the whole state seemed to be scorching. Even in the high country, they were expecting temps of 98-100, which is not cool. But cooler than Phoenix by about 20 degrees, so that’s something.*
I checked in with Mom.
Me: If it’s hot up north, do you still want to go?
Mom: Sure!
Mom remembered she had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for the morning of our trip. It would mean heading north a bit later, but we could make it work if the appointment didn’t go too long.
Me: If we leave straight from your doctor’s office, do you still want to go?
Mom: Sure!
The appointment went too long. It was midday before Mom finally reappeared in the waiting room. We started talking about if it made any sense to try to drive up just for the afternoon. Then Mom had an idea.
Mom: Instead of making a long drive, do you want to visit a couple nearby quilt shops and then go see the Barbie movie?
Me: Sure!
That was a plan that worked out perfectly. The Barbie movie was great! And I’ll fill you in on the Phoenix-area (East Valley) stores we visited in the next few weeks.
*Temperatures were around 37 Celsius in the normally-much-cooler northern Arizona region. Hot. But slightly less hot than the Phoenix area, where it was 47 C!
