Voter's Choice Challenge Winners

Here's the next update...

Winning certificates for the 37 shop donated prizes have been sent out. I will most likely publicly announce those names on Monday. I want to be sure folks have received their mail before their name gets plastered all over the internet.

Certificates for the $50 shop gift certificates and the 41 prize baskets/bags are in-process now. Hoping to get them mailed tomorrow. Some of those prizes need to be relocated from my shop to others, so we're also working on the logistics of that.

So...here's some more that I can tell you!

Our 2013 Shop Challenge Voter's Choice Winners are...

#3 - "The Silver Screen" from Fabricate in Bar Harbor;

#2 - "Cabins Around the Stars" from Whippersnappers in Hallowell;

AND (doo doodoo doo!)

#1 - "Shop Hopping Divas" from Quilt Divas in Rockland.

The voting was fierce and although these three obviously came out on top, number wise, the first place prize changed hands between the three of them during the course of the tallying! Here are photo reminders of the winners.

The photos do not do these quilts justice, especially the #1 winner. I will take a better series of pictures to show off all the workmanship and post it later.

Congratulations to all the shops - everyone received votes!

So Here's What I CAN Tell You...

As of 1PM today all the winners have been drawn and all the votes tallied. Over the next couple of days, Prize Claim Certificates will be mailed out to the winners and the winner list passed along to all the shop owners. I will not announce any winners publicly until certificates have been mailed. But I do have some interesting and fun info to share with you!

Here's the hopper breakdown:
All 37 Shops - 160 hoppers
31-36 Shops - 77 hoppers
21-30 Shops - 129 hoppers
10-20 Shops - 335 hoppers
Kids - 20 kid hoppers
That's a total of 721 completed passports received. WOW!

In addition to the prizes listed in all our materials, we had an additional 41 gift bags/baskets of items that were sent to us from our vendors! All prizes included, hoppers had a potential of winning one of 115 prizes.

So, watch your mailbox this week. You just might have a certificate! Tomorrow we'll announce the Chauffeur Drawing winner and we'll unveil the Shop Hop Challenge Viewer's Choice winners!

The Rest of the Story...

Phew! We made it! Do you have any idea how hard it was yesterday to NOT ask everyone who came in the door if they were hopping?

So, here's what happens next.

May 9th - Deadline for passports to arrive at Mariner's Compass in Bath. All the info is on the passport. Shops are also sending all the chauffeur slips from their shops to MCQS.

May 13th - The Shop Hop committee will meet and draw the winners. Since there has been some confusion, I want to outline how that will work. If you visited ALL 37 shops, your name goes into the first drawing. Whoever wins the GRAND PRIZE is no longer eligible for other remaining prizes. Everyone else is. At that point, we add the names for the next tier of prizes. Those winners are not eligible for other remaining prizes, but everyone else it. And so on. After all the tiers are gone through, we will pull for the gift certificates and then the sponsor gift baskets. There will also be one Children's Prize.

We have 37 shop donated prizes, 37 shop gift certificates for $50 each AND a nice selection of sponsor gift baskets (still not sure how many we'll have...).

Winners of tangible items will be notified BY MAIL. You will receive a Prize Claim Certificate stating what item you've won and where you can get it. Prizes must be picked up in person by June 29, 2013. Please present your prize claim certificate when picking up your prize. All shops will know the name of their prize winner. Gift certificate winners will receive their gift certificates by mail.

Please keep in mind that the drawing of prizes and notification process does not happen in ten minutes. This will be a day, if not days, long process. DO NOT call on May 14th to find out if you won. Even if you did, I won't tell you. This is not meant to be rude or unprofessional, just realistic!

From what I've heard from hoppers and shop owners, this was the best hop yet. As I've said before, without hoppers, there is no hop. So thankyou, again, to everyone who participated. See you in 2014.

GOOD LUCK!

A History Lesson

Wow, how memory lapses as time goes by...
So... Our Beatrix Potter quilt went to the Ronald McDonald House long ago. No picture.
Here's a picture of our Marie Osmond quilt - can't remember the name of the fabric line...my bad. This is only the bottom corner of the quilt.

And last but not least, here's our Hoffman Bali Batiks quilt.

Which means...there was no Big Top Circus! And only 2 people knew it! WTHeck?
So, since I'm in a giving mood, we'll give a fat quarter bundle to each winner.
Robin Zelonis and Meaghan Foster, feel free to come over to Mariner's Compass in Bath and pick up your bundles at your convenience!

Thanks to everyone who played. I think we have enough time for one more give-away before the end of the hop, so watch the blog and like our page on Facebook if you haven't already!

 

 

A Blast From the Past

It's hard to believe that we're already halfway through the month of April! To mark the halfway point of the hop I thought it would be fun to have another contest and give-a-way! So, to be entered to win, you must leave your answer to my question either here as a comment, or in the comments section of the Facebook page. Our prize this time will be 12 black and white fat quarters. This will be a fun assortment but not necessarily from the shop hop line.
So, here it goes...

A Blast From the Past Shop Hop Trivia Question
Which of the following fabric lines was NOT used as a shop hop collection over the past ten years?
A. Marie Osmond
B. Big Top Circus
C. Hoffman Bali Batiks
D. Beatrix Potter
Leave your answer here as a comment or as a comment on the Facebook page. All correct answers will be put in a basket and one winner will be drawn! Good luck! You have through Friday 4/19/13 at midnight to leave your answer. I'll announce the lucky winner on Saturday 4/20!

Quilt Shops on the Road

This post is coming to you LIVE from the MQX-New England Quilt Show in Manchester, New Hampshire! And what does this have to do with the Shop Hop, you ask? Well, you may not realize it, but many of your favorite quilt shop owners are not only crazy enough to participate in the Shop Hop every April, but they're also attending quilt shows and hosting other events. If you're headed to MQX in Manchester this weekend, you CAN have your passport signed at any participating shop that is vending at the show. Just remember, visiting a booth at a show is definitely NOT the same as visiting a shop; you won't get to see each shop's challenge quilt; no goodies; no door prize drawings; and not nearly as personal service. So...keep that in mind as you hop.
Here's a list of the shops that are open at home AND at the show...
Cotton Weeds Quilt Shop
Country Creations Quilt Shop
Maine-ly Sewing
Mariner's Compass Quilt Shop
Quiltessentials
Sanford Sewing Machines
Tony's Sewing Machines
We are all having a great time visiting with each and every one of you as you hop. Thanks for your part in making this event such a success!

A Quilt of a Different Color

I remember from my Art History classes that black is essentially all colors and white is the absence of color. When we picked the Black and White fabric line for this year's hop, we knew that shops were going to need to do something to spice up their samples. So, each shop was instructed to choose an accent color of their choice to add to the black and whites. Since this year is also the 10th Anniversary of the State of Maine Quilt Shop Hop, we decided to make an Anniversary Quilt to mark the occassion! Each shop made a block with their accent color and when we put it together, this is what we got!

It's a beautiful rainbow of colors mixed in amidst the black and white. The quilt will be on display as part of the Shop Hop exhibit at Maine Quilts 2013 and during the hop, you can see it in person at Mariner's Compass in Bath. Happy Anniversary State of Maine Quilt Shop Hop!