My #ScottSentMe2023 Experience! A guest blog by Catherine Brown, A #ScottSentMe Champion

Good morning!  I’m Catherine and I was invited here today to tell you a bit about my experiences with #ScottSentMe.  Some of you may remember me from my participation in #ScottSentMe2019, and some of you may know me from my map postings of shops visited during #ScottSentMe2021 and #ScottSentMe2022… and many more of you probably have no idea who I am. So let me tell you a bit about how I became involved in this great challenge.

In 2019, my husband and I took our first road trip from Nova Scotia to Florida.  We had been going there for years, but this was our first time driving (I love retirement!).  We picked a few random stops along the way – one of them being Intercourse, PA.  It was there that I discovered fabric – and knew I needed to make it my retirement hobby!  Not to be too dramatic, but I seriously walked into The Old Country Store and wow – that was it for me.  Of course, I didn’t have two clues about quilting and all I bought was a couple of charm packs  – but I was determined!

Later that fall, I was searching for some fabric shops in my home province of Nova Scotia, and I discovered a video that Quilts by the Bay had made for the Jaftex Video challenge. The video led me down a rabbit hole and started a great search to figure out ‘What is Jaftex?’, ‘Who is Scott?’, and ‘Where is he sending me…and why?’

I remember the glazed look in hubby’s eyes as I tried to explain it to him over dinner that night!  I told him the challenge started in 2018, and ‘some lady named Diane went to 46 shops!’  (Sorry Diane – I wasn’t familiar with shop hops and I thought you were a bit nuts!).    Apparently, what I saw as impossible, Kevin saw as a challenge. He suggested that it wouldn’t be that difficult to get to 50 shops and that we were driving to FL in October anyway. So, why not add on a few weeks and take a longer route?  Not the response I was expecting, but heck, why not?  Kevin’s only stipulation was that he be allowed to build in a few ‘pity days’ where he didn’t have to go to any shops! 

We left home in mid-October and headed to Maine.  My goal was to hopefully get 5th place.  We made our way down to DC where we toured the Capitol and visited the Smithsonian etc.,  then headed west to Ohio.  Of course, we had to stop at the Football Hall of Fame, and then back on the road through Illinois and Indiana. We spent some time in Missouri before heading south to Nashville (one of the pity stops that I enjoyed!).  There were so many great shops to visit, and by the time we made it to Tennessee, we had already visited 100 shops.  I was ready to stop at that point, but I was ‘told’ that we still had to get to Florida and we still had a week to get there… so keep shopping! 

We toured the Jack Daniels Distillery and the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.  We visited Graceland, we saw our first cotton fields, and we drove through the Smoky Mountains.  By the time the challenge was over, we had visited 213 shops.  But you know what? As great as winning was, the best part of the challenge was the time we spent together just driving, talking, and visiting spots we probably never would have gone if not for Scott sending us.   Equally great, are the friends I made along the way.  Somehow, through our posts, Diane McCandless, Liz Ree, Steph Freud and I started talking… and we haven’t stopped talking since.  And somewhere along the line, we also became known as the #ScottSentMePosse. 

We were all excited for the third year of Scott Sent Me, but Covid had other plans. So for obvious safety reasons, the contest didn’t happen in 2020.

#ScottSentMe returned strong in 2021 with a number of new players turning out huge numbers!  Congratulations to Dawn Delles Dalton for taking first place in 2021.  I certainly wanted to get out and play again, but travel restrictions were still in place and I couldn’t cross the border.  I decided that if I couldn’t play (beyond the dozen shops within a 6-hour radius!), maybe I should start counting visits and tracking them on a map.  I was just curious as to where the most visits were, but it quickly became ‘a thing’ for me to post updates.  Numbers dropped a bit last year, but this year is on track to be bigger and better than ever!  Good Luck to everyone, and thank you to all the new people participating this year.  

If you are reading this and haven’t completed a visit yet, what the heck are you waiting for?  It’s a  beautiful time of the year to head out and support your local shops or take a trip and visit some new ones.  I was looking through my 2019 list of shops the other day, and was saddened to see how many had closed.  As you make this journey, I promise you that you will have meaningful conversations with many shop owners and employees.  You will leave feeling like a friend, and you will feel hurt if you hear of a closing.  Purchases aren’t required at every shop, but please show your support where/if you are able.  We need our local shops and they need us.  Grab a quilting friend and make a day of it, or grab your partner and head off for a week!  Take the back roads and enjoy the scenery, and stop for a nice lunch or pack a picnic…. there is so much to see! If road trips aren’t your thing, how about great prizes that will get you moving?  First place is a $1250 credit – that’s a lot of fabric!   Don’t forget that although there are prizes for the top 5 visit counts, there are also 5 random prizes that could go to anyone!  One post may get you a random prize. With that, please don’t hold off on posting your visits because you don’t think you have enough. 

Please read the rules carefully to make sure you will be able to supply proof of visit as required.   That was my biggest concern back in 2019!  ‘What do you mean I have to be in every picture? I am not a picture person!’  I think I took 20 pics at the first stop before I found one that I could live with.  That changed quickly.  The more you take, the less you care! Seriously, I am not trying to burst anyone’s bubble, but we are all less interested in how you look in the picture, and more interested in how the shop looks, the displays, the sample quilts, etc.! 

Although every shop you visit will count in your total, don’t expect every shop to know about the contest, and don’t get discouraged if they don’t.  The majority of the shops are open to listening to you, but don’t take it personally if a few cut you off mid-sentence.  Who knows what is going on in others’ lives at any given time? Just be nice even if they aren’t!  Most of the shops are warm and welcoming and encourage pictures.  Please post pictures of your visits. We are always interested in seeing shops and fabric.  At minimum, please post inside pictures as well as shop names and locations.  We need to be able to find these shops if we see something we want!  Of the 300 visited so far this year, over 50 start with either Quilt or Sew, so the exact location is very helpful! 

I’m sure the shops appreciate the tags they are receiving.  If you are able to post more details, please don’t hesitate to do so and give rave reviews to the ones you think deserve it!  We have seen some great, detailed posts in prior years from Amanda Howard Bandy, and this year from Michael Fortner.  Thank you for taking us with you on your journeys! Also, please remember that everyone has a bad day sometimes – so if you aren’t treated well at a shop, or have a grievance with them, here isn’t the place to address it.  Contact the shop directly instead of painting a nasty picture of them on Facebook or Instagram.  We all know the power of social media – and as our mothers told us… if you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, then just don’t say anything.  😉  In short – play nice.

In closing, please let me encourage you one more time to get out there and participate in #ScottSentMe2023.    I had the opportunity to hear Scott speak at two different shops, and I have heard first hand how much he cares about helping local quilt shops succeed.   Scott’s hope for this challenge is that quilters like us will indulge our passion for fabric by visiting shops, both old and new, and sharing our experiences.  Let’s help him achieve that!  Grab a DD Iced Tea and a bag of Twizzlers and get out there!  Visit and Post – we can’t wait to see your smiling faces!

Good luck – Happy Travels – and who knows, maybe we will see each other on the road!