New England Shop Hop
Shop Hop: Learn, Enjoy and Give Back
Shop Hop is a familiar term to many quilters. These unique events serve many purposes, benefiting quilting and sewing businesses, hoppers, and local communities.
Shop Hops can vary in size from just a few shops in an area or region all the way up to a statewide event. Shop Hops are events meant to bring new customers to stores, and to expose customers to new stores.
Many of us have our “own” store. A place that’s convenient, familiar, and that carries the stuff we like. But there is a whole world of new and different fabrics, notions, equipment, and personalities you’re missing out if you don’t occasionally branch out. A shop hop provides quilters with a specific plan to do just that.
In a day when brick & mortar retail locations are dwindling across the nation, a Shop Hop works to promote and support quilting and sewing stores, so we can touch and feel the fabric in person for a long time to come. Most quilters “get this” and understand how important it is to support these places if we want them available in our communities.
For Shop Hoppers, it is also about making memories. Many quilters hop together with friends, family, or their favorite “quiltsie”. They’re not just shopping; they’re making memories as they travel around an area together. They not only get to see and enjoy sewing stores, they also enjoy traveling through large and small towns, discovering parts of their home (or a new place) they’ve never visited before.
The towns and cities that hoppers travel through also offer many treasures along the way. Small town main streets still exist and can evoke many fond memories of years ago. Shop hopping can also support these towns as hoppers take a break to enjoy lunch or dinner at a quaint restaurant, or someone along for the ride visits a local antique store, or boutique while hoppers are visiting a sewing store.
Hops are also about other kinds of fun. Most offer some sort of reward for visiting the participating shops like prizes or discounts. And of course you get to express your creative side when you return home to create something beautiful with the items you picked up along the route.
The All New England Shop Hop is coming to New England for the first annual shop hop during the months of September & October 2023. This unique hop offers the opportunity to explore 56 participating stores across the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Start your adventure by picking up the All New England Shop Hop Magazine in stores mid-July. This is a great resource to help you navigate the hop and something you can use all year long as you travel through New England.
Whether you hop to learn, enjoy, or give back, we hope that you’ll mark a few days on your calendar to explore New England and all that its sewing industry has to offer. Click the link to see other shops that are involved as well as a list of prizes and more! The-Sew-Op - North Kingstown, RI - All New England Shop Hop
