The Pocomoke Public Eye welcomes our newest reporter

The Pocomoke Public Eye would like to welcome Donna Clarke as one of our new reporters!  Donna, we thank you for stepping up to the plate, and your willingness to help us out! - Travis

Here is the first of hopefully many articles she has written for The Pocomoke Public Eye.

International Quilting Promotion Draws visitors to Delmarva!

Jeanne Hill, from Wall Township NJ shopping for her Row to Row in the Pincushion, Pocomoke City

Patti Woodhurst on the left with customer,   Myrna Sunderland shopping from Joppa MD.  Behind them is the Row by Row display at Quilts by the Sea

Days are busy at 4 Delmarva Quilt shops this summer!  The “International Row by Row Experience” is drawing shoppers from places like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in fact, from all over the eastern states!  What is this “International” promotion called “Row by Row Experience”?    Founded by Janet Lutz of Syracuse NY, it involves over 1250 Independent quilt shops from 35 areas of the US and Ontario.  Quilt Shop owners have joined creative minds to “Sew a Season”, the theme of the 2 month summer shop hop.  Each participating store owner chose a season and designed a unique quilt pattern.    Starting on July 1, the patterns were posted on-line.  An interactive map allows shoppers to choose a route and drive to as many quilt shops as they like, collecting the free patterns.  Most shops have also chosen to have a very collectible 6” fabric “license Plate” produced.   These all have clever and catchy phrases on a background of the state’s license tag. 

As I visited the shops, I saw lots of enthusiastic quilters and shop owners.  The cute fabric license plates are selling out and being reordered at every store.  When I was in Dagsboro, DE at Serendipity Quilt Shop, there was a customer from Michigan.  In Trappe, at Quilt Vine, I saw other Maryland quilters shopping.   The Pincushion in Pocomoke City has had quilter-shoppers from North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ontario and Australia!   The shopper from “down under”, a microbiologist on assignment in Annapolis MD, is also a quilter.  Her husband programmed his iPad for all the shops they planned to visit!    The Australian quilter stopped in Chincoteague at Quilts by the Sea, as well! 

As they drive through our Delmarva back roads and small towns, these out-of-town shoppers are finding local restaurants, visiting other merchants and having fun on the peninsula, many for the first time!

What are they doing with the patterns?   Part of the promotion involves a contest.  A quilter may collect 8 or more patterns and make a quilt.  Prizes are awarded for the first quilts done and turned in to a local shop.  A photo of the quilt’s maker and the quilt are posted on the Row by Row Experience Facebook pages.  Posting the pictures generates more excitement and more quilt enthusiasts are getting involved. Many are planning road trips to collect patterns and license plates.  Ellen B. a resident of Michigan is exploring new parts of her state, checking out book stores and local ice cream parlors, while on a quest to collect patterns.    Jane, also from Michigan, plans a road trip each weekend also, shopping and having lunch out.

Stopping for a pattern  and license plate at Candy Stiffler’s “Quilt Vine” in Trappe yields a Delmarva summer beach scene  and a license tag that reads, “Sew Pieceful” .   Driving east to Dagsboro, you can visit “Serendipity” to get their pattern, “Our Summer Friends are Stars”, designed by Barbara Hudson of Snow Hill.   Sharon Beyma, owner of Pocomoke’s “Pincushion”, designed her own row with fall leaves.  Finally, Patty Woodhurst of “Quilts by the Sea” created a pattern sporting a lighthouse, crabs and sand dunes!

And that’s why the quilt shop owners on Delmarva are meeting people like Jeanne Hill of Wall Township, NJ, who stopped in Sharon Beyma’s “Pincushion” on Market St., in Pocomoke on her way down the coast collecting kits, patterns and license plates.   Today while I was talking with Patty Woodhurst, owner of “Quilts By The Sea”, Myrna Sunderland of Joppa, Maryland dropped by to get a pattern. 

Independent quilt shops are making an impact on local economies this summer by attracting new customers.  In turn , the new customers are shopping, eating and stitching up a piece of Delmarva.