Hopping from quilting shop to quilting shop will have you in stitches

“I have discovered that quilting is a social industry,” said Brandi Perea, an East Mountain resident, owner of a quilt shop and organizer of ABQ Shop Hop— an event featuring quilt shops from Edgewood to Rio Rancho.

“I took it on because the extreme part of Covid has gone down and it is time to be social,” Perea said, adding, “It was really important to me [as an organizer] to be inclusive. I had never been included in prior years as a smaller shop.”

“In the past, several long-time shops in Albuquerque organized the Metro Quilt Stroll and they were on on 10 years doing it. 2019 was the last one,” said Casey Smolenski, owner of Busy Bee Quilts in Edgewood. She said she is part of a group of locally owned quilt shops which has collaborated to revive a shop hop for the Albuquerque Metro area.

The idea is that once a year, quilters can get together, with a “passport” and visit each participating shop. She said each quilt shop comes up with a unique 12-inch quilt block and a project to go with the block kits.

Quilters get a free pattern, can purchase the block kit at each shop and get the passport stamped. Each shop has agreed to keep the same business hours of 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., regardless of their regular business hours, and to sell the block kits at the same rate: $6.50.

This year there are nine participating shops including Busy Bee Quilts in Edgewood and Perea's shop in Albuquerque: Tea Cup Quilt Shop.

There is also a quilt top pattern available that will fit all the blocks together as a keepsake at the end of the event. In addition, quilters who get a stamp from every shop will be entered into a raffle for some big prizes, while those who can't make it to all the shops will get entered for some smaller prizes.

“We're expecting several hundred women [to be at this event],” Perea said, adding, “We are really excited, it's going to be great!” She said in years past only four or five shops participated, making this year's event the biggest ever.

“We were one of the first places people visited after Covid,” said Smolenski.

She said her shop is an informal mental health outlet, a place where people from the community gather to visit and chat about life. She said her space has always had that social aspect to it and she wouldn't have it any other way.

In addition to selling fabric and quilting supplies, Busy Bee Quilts also offers a selection of classes including beginner sewing and beginner quilting classes. She said they have most of their classes listed online and that includes a description and sign up. To learn more visit busybeequilts.com.

Tea Cup Quilt Shop is located by the river in Albuquerque; Perea has owned it for the past five and half years. She has lived in the East Mountains for the last two years.

She said she recently doubled the size of her shop and she is excited to showcase the new space during the shop hop. Tea Cup Quilt Shop offers a variety of fabrics, quilting kits, patterns and they offer long-arm quilting: a machine that does the quilting, including the fancy stitch designs.

Participating shops are Busy Bee Quilts in Edgewood; Enchanted Creations Fabric and More in Rio Rancho; Gathering Stitches in Bosque Farms; Quilts Ole in Corrales; and Hip Stitch, The Quilt Works, Inc., Southwest Decoratives & Kokopelli Quilting Company, Stitchology and Tea Cup Quilt Shop, all in Albuquerque.

The ABQ Shop Hop will be on August 26 and 27 with all shops open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit abqshophop.com.