Homemother

Hi Quilt Fan,

Because there are prizes involved, the stores cannot mail you the patterns. The first person to go to a participating store with a finished quilt wins 25 fat quarters + another prize if that shop's row is in their quilt. I understand your desire to get the rows. I believe the quilt shops will be offering their rows after the Row by Row Experience ends in October. The purpose of the experience was to encourage travelers to stop at shops and purchase the patterns and/or fabric. This is the heart and soul of it all. They really want people in the stores so they will buy more fabric, thus, helping the quilt stores stay in business. We happened to be traveling and my DH was so sweet to stop at as many shops as we could fit in. As we traveled, I asked the owners how the Row by Row has affected them. The overwhelming response was that their businesses were given a nice boost. I hope the shops you are interested in are willing to sell you the patterns.

I would sincerely hope that you don't feel left out because lots of people cannot participate either. If we didn't travel to my parents' home, they I would not have done the Row by Row. I even wanted to go to more shops to get patterns in New Jersey and Delaware, but it never happened. And, you need to think about whether the rows are appealing to you to make it worth the trip there. Had a realized what some of the rows were before I stopped in some of the shops, I wouldn't have bothered. For example, one shop's row was make of 2 log cabin blocks and 2 shoo-fly blocks. There were a couple others I would have skipped, too.

If you ever get a chance, this was a wonderful experience. You get to meet quilters and make new friends!