This next week, 10 area quilting stores will collectively market their goods and expertise as they join to host the Heartland Quilt Shop Hop.

Sharon Vesecky, owner of Quilters’ Paradise at 713 Eighth St., in Baldwin City, said it was the third year for the tour in its current form. The tour started Saturday before taking Sunday off. It continues Monday through Saturday, April 8. The shops’ hours during the tour are 9 a.m. to 6 pm.

The tour features the same 10 stores as a year ago. The stores stretch from Parkville, Mo., in the east, to Topeka in the west, and includes Vesecky’s store, Sarah’s Fabrics, 925 Massachusetts St. Lawrence; Stitch On Needlework and Gift Shop, 926 Massachusetts St., Lawrence; and Quilting Bits and Pieces, 736 Main St., Eudora. The other shops on the tour are Li’l Red Hen Quilt Shop, 7 S. Agate, Paola; Prairie Point Quilt and Fabric Shop, 11950 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Shawnee; Quilters’ Haven, 116 N. Clairborne Road, Olathe; Overbrook Quilt Connection, 500 Maple St., Overbrook; Stitching Traditions, 2900 SW Oakley, Topeka; and Peddler’s Wagon, 115 Main St., Parksville, Mo.

The tour is scheduled with the arrival of spring when weather won’t deter quilters from traveling, Vesecky said.

The theme for this year’s tour is “Fifties, Fabrics and Fun.” Fabrics and fun are self-explanatory to quilters. Fifties refers to the chance for those who visit all 10 stores on the tour to win one of the 50 $50 gift certificates to be given away, Vesecky said. The tour’s grand prize is a $500 shopping spree at one of the shops, she said.

Vesecky said the Baldwin City Quilters for Veterans Club was seeking names of veterans in the Baldwin City area to give the quilts they make during weekly Wednesday meetings at Quilters’ Paradise. Interested parties should call Quilters’ Paradise at 785-594-3477.

Outside of the quilting community, the extended Vesceky family of Sharon and her husband, John, and their son and daughter-in-law, William and Joanna Vesecky, are known for the free-range poultry operation on the farm they share south of Vinland, which is a stop every fall on the Kaw Valley Farm Tour. Lacey Vesecky, daughter of William and Joanna Vesecky and Eudora High School senior, has proven the egg doesn’t roll far from the nest by being named a Future Farmers of America district and state proficiency award winner for poultry.