Hi!
do you really know how lucky you are. Well may be I am the one who is lucky as I would probably buy more fabric that I will ever be able or willing to quilt... loll

We went on a 5 week vacation in the USA in April and while looking at some info from a visitor center in Tennessee we found out that there was the "Appalachian quilt Trail"
My husband suggested that we did one trail towards our destination that night. I had heard that some people painted some quilt blocks on their barn or garage. What a nice day it was. We stopped at Holloways Country Home and then, I thought I had earned the lottery or rather, I wish I had won the lottery.... I had never seen so much nice quilting fabrics on so many shelves..... in one single store
I felt like a child in a Chrismas Shop.

Many days later, we happened to drive by a LQS from the author of the book with which I am starting to learn to quilt: Harriet Hargrave
Well, I just could not beleive all the nice fabrics I saw there too.

We looked in the directory book for quilting stores and to no surprise to me, there are not any in my area and not too many in this part of my country.

My only travel "souvenir" was... fabric
I already had a lot of blue, because I just like blue. I did not have much red or neutral colors and no green because I have a hard time to like green in general

If only for that, what a nice trip we had... lollll...

Congratulations and have fun with your cool fabrics, tell your hubby another road trip for you

You got some BEAUTIFUL fabrics. This gives you a good excuse to come visit the US more often, all the LQS and there are many much closer to you, like in NYS.

What a wonderful discovery for you! And I think quilting fabric souvenirs are just what you needed. Hope you get to come back here sometime soon so you can enjoy some more of our wonderful LQS. We really are blessed with our shopping choices & sometimes we need someone like you to remind us.

Yes, we know how lucky we are. I'm glad you got to share in that luck.

Are you doing the quilter's university by Harriet Hargrave? I've bought volumes 1 and 2 and would hightly recommend them to any beginning quilter. I took a 2-day machine quilting class from her and just loved it (and her).

You did great....love your choices...

This is exactly what we do on vacation. My husband stops at every quilt store we pass and I stop with him at every steam train or museum. Works out well. I have an app on my phone called Point. You type in "quilt store" and it gives you every store in that area.

Sounds like a great trip. Did you see any barn quilts along the way?

No I'm not. My SIL lent me her book 3 or 4 years ago and I read and re-read it more than once and referring to it as needed.
When I mentionned to the store person that I had that book the answer was:
"Oh! it is not available anymore..."
lolll and she told me how this old edition was redone in different books with more and more details.
but I am very satisfied with mine as I am a part time (very part time) quilter but still enjoy it.

what I really appreciated was that the lady took all the time to help me find and choose some coordinated fabrics according to my taste (remember, I am not too inclined to choose greens but I wanted some) she did not choose for me ....
I have to say that my husband was very interested for the first 2 stores we visited and after that, I started to think that a couple of hours in 2 of them was enough.
I'm still working on my first quilt that I started may be 5 years ago and I have enough fabric now for at least another 5 years considering my pace loll...

Sounds like you had a great time!! We are very lucky with the wide selection of fabrics we have around us. :)

Cheers!
Rachel