moonwork42029

The patterns are FREE but you have to purchase the kits.

After the cutoff date, you can purchase the kits online or via mail...until then you have to go into the shop to get the FREE pattern and / or purchase the kit.

The kits are never free

seamstobesew

This is not quite the case. Shops have the right after the November 1 deadline to do what they want with their patterns and kits. Many will add them to their online shops and will sell them, others will not. Last year was my first rbr experience, and because I wrote a blog post about it, I had to do quite a bit of research on the rbr experience itself. I, of course, bought patterns after Nov 1, because I'm not a "kit" kind of person. I like to use my own fabrics, my own interpretations etc.. Kits are NEVER free. Patterns are free and the shop must provide a pattern to someone who walks in their door and asks for it. Some shops will change the kit a little because the kit allows them a bit more freedom, but shops must also put the pattern into the kit. If you buy a kit and it doesn't have a pattern, they are breaking the rules. It notes this right on the page at the row by row experience website for shop participation and rules.

Not all shops are online either, so they have no way to offer their pattern or kit to sell online. They don't take into account that they could gain extra sales from the people who can't visit their shops. The deadline that you can no longer pick up free patterns in the shops is September 6, 2016 (for the year 2016). The shops have to put the kits and patterns in a storage room or perhaps something like that and can not do anything with them again until Nov 1.

The September 6 to October 31, 2016, deadlines are for those who are still turning in finished quilts to shops for the giveaways. When November 1 comes, shops can then put the patterns and kits out again, but the shop can start charging for the pattern at that point or offer it free. Not all shops will do this either, because a shop may have hired out a designer, and the restrictions set by the designer may not allow them to even sell the pattern, so you can't count on the Nov 1 deadline to always get even just the pattern.

There are groups on Facebook that have people will travel to shops, they pick up kits, license plates, and pins and then send them to others who've paid for the kits. If it weren't for these really kind people, I personally couldn't participate until Nov 1. I live in Italy, nowhere near any quilt shops. Most of the shops here are fashion oriented materials, there is one shop in my area that carries some cotton, but not enough to what I'd call it a quilt shop. They are a Bernina dealer tho, so it's helped me to keep my machine clean each year.

Shops that are online can apparently take pre-orders, just as a shop who isn't online can take pre-orders by phone. When the Nov 1 date comes, they can then ship those pre-orders out. I have pre-ordered from some sites, so I know it is possible.

I hope I have explained this ok,

seamstobesew

WoW, that's me thank you!!

seamstobesew

I agree with you 100% on this, I love this event for shops, if I were in the states, I would be driving to as many shops as I possibly could helping to support them. While I am not likely to buy a kit, I would most likely buy fabric, supplies, something to show my support. We need to keep our Quilt Shops in business and wanting to stay in business also, while their is a lot you can buy online, their is nothing like walking into a shop and seeing the actual fabric, feeling the fabric, looking thru a book, or seeing the actual pattern. You can't do this online, and most of the time you don't see the actual colors of the fabric. So Quilt Shops are necessary and I would support this 100% if I were in the states, as it is, I can't, everything I buy right now is 100% online. I simply have no choice, but in November, I'll be doing just like last year, calling shops and ordering patterns.

sewbizgirl

I want the Fairbanks row kit too! Anyone up there willing to trade for patterns or kits from MS or TN?

sewbizgirl

I'd also like the row kit from Tipton IA, if anyone is from there...