Port Gamble, WA

My sister, Barbara, was here for a week during May. One of the things she wanted to do was visit a quilt shop she'd seen in Quilt Sampler magazine. It was on Vashon Island, a place I'd never been to. We set out early one morning for our self-guided shop hop, en route to Island Quilter on Vashon. After a two hour drive and a very short ferry ride, we were there. You travel for approximately four miles on the main road before you get to "town" proper and Island Quilter is on that main drag.

It was a beautiful store with a ton of fabric. I would highly recommend visiting this store if you get the chance. They also have a gorgeous class room with mostly contemporary quilts hung all around. They had the quilt hanging that was in the issue of Quilt Sampler that featured them; it was beautiful. The staff at Island Quilter were terrific and even gave us a coupon to have lunch at the Hardware Store; excellent food and nary a tool in sight! <wink>

From there we headed to Bainbridge Island and Pine Needles quilt shop, the home McKenna Ryan Quilt Designs. That is the most beautiful store with McKenna's quilts all around. They offer classes and kits for sale. One kit was hanging that Barb had even done herself.

Last stop was Port Gamble and Quilted Strait. I'd been to Quilted Strait when it was located in Port Angeles, but this was my first visit to Port Gamble and Quilted Strait in its new location. I fell in love with Port Gamble; the town is very historic and they take great pride in that. We walked around the town cameras in hand, it was that cute.

Quilted Strait:

A fun quilt in their shop:

The shop used to be a stable!

We loved this church. Barb got some great pics of it; I only had my phone so this doesn't even do it justice.

It was such a fun day traveling all over western Washington with my sister. Initially I had planned to drive, but then Barb ended up having to chauffeur us around. She was a good sport about it even though that meant hours of driving just two days before her long trip home to Carson City. I think she's convinced to fly up next time and I love that there will be a next time. We sewed/quilted almost every day and threw in a few fun outings. Next trip, I'll have even more fun things to show her.