Quilters ditch U.S. ‘shop hop’ in favour of supporting Maritime businesses

A group of friends organized a weekend ‘Quilting Shop Hop’ featuring more than 25 quilting businesses in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

For years Colleen Comeau and a group of friends from Fredericton have been travelling to Maine on the last weekend of April for a ‘Quilting Shop Hop’ which has been happening for about 40 years.

At the start of this year, the friends made the decision to not hop over the border for the shopping deals given the situation brought on by tariffs from United States President Donald Trump.

“My son kept saying to me, ‘Mom, why are you worried about this? There’s nothing you can do about it’,” Comeau says on the trade war with the U.S. “I couldn’t accept that there was nothing that I could do and that’s where the idea came.”

Rather than spend the weekend at home, Comeau decided to organize a ‘Quilting Shop Hop’ of her own featuring more than 25 quilting businesses in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The idea started by reaching out to Maritime quilting guilds and shops to gauge interest.

In just a month, a Facebook group has grown to include more than 700 members, many of whom spent some time this weekend visiting their local quilting shops. Most stores were offering various discounts as part of the event.

“There’s lots of us who have this hobby, and we want to see our shops do well and survive,” says Comeau. “We’re really hoping that the tariffs are not going to have too much of an impact on them, but this is something we could all band together and do to help our economy and to help our local stores survive this tumultuous time.”

Comeau says stores have been busy because of the hop, and quilters have been very supportive of the idea becoming an annual event.

Quilters aren’t just taking advantage of the deals at their local shops.

Comeau and her friends, like many others, have been travelling across both provinces to visit as many shops as they can over the weekend. One of them was Quilting with Murphy in Saint John.

Owner Darlene Strickland, who initially opened her store with the loss of Fabricland within the city, says she has seen car loads of customers from various places in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia come to visit just for the shop hop.

“This has been the most uplifting experience,” says Strickland. “They’re coming to the local shops and there’s people that are coming out and actually finding out that there’s new shops that they didn’t know about.”

Deals at her shop include 20 per cent off all fabric and notions as part of the event, including an extra five per cent off purchases if customers pay in cash. While some shops were only open Friday and Saturday for the hop, Strickland will have her storefront open again Sunday.

“The carloads of girls are getting together, they’re putting together a plan, and they’re making a day of it,” she continues. “It’s become very much of a social event for them.”

Diann Beatteay was just getting her Saturday shop hopping started at Quilting with Murphy when she spoke briefly with CTV News about the event.

She says she will be getting all sorts of materials from various businesses to take advantage of the event and support the local shops.

“I love it,” Beatteay says. “I’m really, really pleased with it. We needed a shop that we could do this with, so this is great.”

Comeau says the event has also helped tighten the quilting community around the Maritimes, one which Comeau hopes to grow in the years ahead.

“It’s an incredible event,” Comeau beams when speaking about the hop’s success. “I’m so happy for the quilt stores who’ve all said how busy they were this weekend. I look forward to what we can do going forward.”

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