I had a wonderful experience at one of our local shops the other day - one of my long arm quilter friends met up with her customer in the shop, and we got to see the first reactions to the work that was done on her quilt! The quilter was telling us how she felt such a family connection to quilting because of her grandmothers, how she was reproducing some of those quilts from the 1800's, and how excited she was that this particular quilt would be in our local quilt show this year.
Then everyone loaded up into their cars to head over to another quilt shop, who's owner was this quilter's mentor - all so this quilt could be shared.
It reminded me that there is a closeness, a connection to be made in local quilt shops that just isn't there (to me) in mass merchandise stores. Not a trip goes by that I'm not asked what I'm working on and when I'm going to bring it in for a 'show and tell.' Don't get me wrong, I love my online shops too :wink: but the trips into my local shops really feed my soul :)