All Southeast Shop Hop – Progress so Far

August 6, 2026

Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina are all divided into different regions. There are anywhere from 6-13 shops per region. True, some participating shops are clustered somewhat together (Greater Huntsville, Metro Atlanta, Coastal Georgia) but there’s still a LOT of driving involved to hit all of the shops.

Random observation: The Stitching Atlanta and Middle Georgia Shop Hops provided the nucleus of participating shops for the North Central and Central regions of the new All Southeast Shop Hop. If you are trying to visualize it on a map, I-85 is basically the dividing line between the two regions.. I decided to concentrate on these two regions because they are closer home. There are 24 participating shops in these two regions alone.

Today, I hit 5 shops in the northeast Atlanta area, bringing my total number of shops visited so far to 13. This took about 3-1/2 hours with traffic, road work and rain. Getting to the remainder of the shops in these two regions will require another 1/2 day like today, plus two full days.

New-to-me quilt shop discoveries that I’ll definitely visit again: And Sew She Did quilt shop in Ambrose (S. GA) and Needle Down Quilt Shop in Ringgold (NW GA).

Will I attempt another region? Let’s see what September brings. The Quilted Cow in Gulf Shores, Alabama has been on my list for a while. A little beach time while collecting a few more passport stamps? Sounds like a possibility!

Collectible fabric squares from today’s visited shops.

Tip: Use Google Maps to create sample routes to make the best use of your travel time and gas. It may make more sense to split your shops into smaller groups and catch them over multiple days. With all of the road construction around Atlanta, this is what I’ve had to do. I’ll catch the Fayetteville and Hogansville shops in one trip, avoiding the Northeast GA on another day and points Macon & below (picking up 2-3 south GA shops I haven’t been to previously).

The signs were already there three years before I finally left

August 6, 2026
Finding your happy place

Hindsight’s always 20-20. This turned out to be one of my most stressful years as a teacher. I suffered a bout of Bell’s Palsy in late April, which was directly attributed to all of the stress I’d been under. Knowing I had the Featherweight retreat to look forward to in June was the only thing that got me through that awful year.

And just like that – a new school year is underway!

August 4, 2026

Publix was quiet this morning as I did my grocery shopping. Seeing the school bus at the traffic light was a reminder to go the back way to my dentist’s office. Only adult patients were in the waiting room when I checked in for my dentist appointment. I returned home, walked Sadie and spoke with C’s mom to see if she would be coming today to sew on her quilt binding. C. doesn’t start school until Wednesday and she’s still quilting her quilt.

Five years ago, I greeted hundreds of elementary school bus riders as they exited the big yellow limousines excited to begin a new school year. Little did I know that year would turn out to be my final year as a public school teacher. I joined my husband in early retirement the following May. The first couple of back-to-school seasons after leaving my job were hard, but now it’s just another day. I always enjoy the first day of school photos posted by friends on social media. It’s an exciting time and I fully understand the enormous amount of work that the school staff does to begin a new school year.

Life is still influenced by the school calendar – only multiple school district and private school calendars nowadays! Therapy dog visits cover 3-4 different school districts and CraftLAB students all attend different private schools. A long-time therapy dog friend reminded me the beauty of volunteering in retirement is that I should plan travel for when it works best for me. Standing weekly visits are important, but it shouldn’t be the reason I pass on a quilt retreat or other trip I really want to take. He’s 100% correct. And I planned two trips for fall semester without looking at the Fulton County Schools calendar! As it turns out, one trip will be before participants in the READ program are fully vetted with all permission slips signed. Election Day falls during the other trip, so our visit wouldn’t happen anyway due to a teacher workday instead of a regular school day. It’s a big election cycle for Georgia, so I’ll make sure to cast my vote during the early voting period.

Photo by Vitaliy Haiduk on Pexels.com