Eight Shops in Two Days !! - CHAPTER 1

Since July 4th fell on a Wednesday this year, my friend Vickie suggested I take off Thursday and Friday. We then proceeded to plan an 8-Cross Stitch Shop Hop, heading NE from Cincinnati. Relying on an admittedly outdated list of shops from the internet (glad they are going to update that directory now!), and using AAA to build an online Triptik, we found 8 shops we wanted to hit.

We left my house in Mason around 8 am and headed toward Columbus. From Columbus, we headed out on US 62 through Amish country, namely Holmes County, and specifically to The Stitching House in Berlin, Ohio. This may not have been the best choice of roads, being a 2-laner and pretty slow-moving at times, but we enjoyed the drive, as it rained off and on through the morning.

As we parked the car, the rain burned off, and we headed to the shop. The Stitching House is a nice little shop, right in the middle of downtown. I immediately saw Diane Graebner's Amish Alphabet on display, and knew I needed to buy that pattern, as a nice memento of Berlin. The shop will soon be changing its name to Country Craft Cupboard, when they integrate their yarn department into one store, so they are having Fun Fridays, where you can get some real bargains.

We tried to get seated at Boyd and Wurthmann's restaurant right next door. It being right at lunchtime, though, it was packed with locals, and we walked back up Main St., to Java Jo for soup and sandwiches. Downtown Berlin is very attractive, and it was so tempting to browse the other shops, but we had 7 more cross-stitch shops to visit in the next day and a half. Next shop - Inn Stitches in Canton, Ohio !