I haven't done a shop hop but do frequently take my husband with me on fabric shopping adventures; he has a great eye for color even if his preferences are somewhat different than mine. If I'm looking for just the right fabric, he willingly goes from shop to shop until we find it and usually along the way he finds a two or three things he likes and will ask what I would make with it. Sometimes he has ideas of his own of what he would like to see as well. On vacation we often stop in a fabric store and frankly he is dangerous to take along - he buys far more than I normally would! In fact, on our way back from Colorado last week we spent the night in Albuquerque where there is a shop I have wanted to stop at for a few years but always miss the the store hours. He willingly got a late start the next day so I could go to the store and shop to my hearts content..... Maybe it was because they specialize in Southwest Designs and that's his favorite....... I have a ton of Southwest fabrics now......