Originally Posted by ghostrider

There are a quite a few wonderful shops that I would consider “local”, but three really stand out.

The first is Quilted Threads in Henniker, NH. http://wwwquiltedthreads.com Gollytwo mentioned this shop briefly, but I’d like to add some comments. Becky Weber, the owner, believes in community building and making opportunities for people to share their talents and interests. She comes up with all sorts of innovative events with that goal in mind. Every two years she holds a Longarm Quilters Fair where the longarmers set up tables with brochures, samples, contact info, all that sort of thing. You can go from table to table asking questions, looking at the quilters work, seeing sample patterns, and getting a feel for which quilter you’d like to maybe work with.

She also recently had a two hour lecture called “We are Not the Quilt Police” by a certified quilt show judge. It was all about what judges look for, how to improve your work to better please them, and all sorts of great tips. The house was packed! The staff is great and their selection of batiks is totally awesome!! The store was recently remodeled and has almost doubled in size. Becky will be displaying my 2009 Hoffman Challenge quilt after it returns home later this year.