My DH and I just got back tonight from a brief trip to Kentucky and Ohio. I agreed to attend an antique telephone collectors meeting if I could also spend time in a quilt shop. (I ran into a wife at the meeting who was quilting and we had a great conversation while the guys got excited about their old phones.) Today was my turn. On the trip home I ran across a very nice quilt shop in Waynesville, OH (between Dayton and Cincinnati) -- The Fabric Shack. The folks were nice, great fabric selection, and they have a web site that has some good prices on some lines of fabric: www.fabricshack.com. Take a look...they have a big selection. I saw there were some good prices on some of the holiday fabric. And for anyone in the area (I'm six hours away and will likely not be there again) she said you can order online and arrange pickup at the store to avoid shipping. They had a second store up the street that focuses on upholstery and drapery fabric. I didn't have time to explore it, but if you're in that area, you might want to take a look.
This afternoon we stopped at an antique mall in Indiana. In one booth I was dismayed to see over a dozen old quilts cup up to make IRONING BORAD COVERS! It made me sad to see a lovely Irish Chain, Drunkard's Path, Grandmother's Flower Garden and other quilts in really pretty good condition cut up like that. The ironing boards were cute, but the quilts ruined. Not to mention that they are impractical to iron on, as they are not completely smooth and the seams will eventually stretch and tear. There were also dozens of pillows from old quilts...mostly pieces that had some wear. I don't have as much a problem with that...I prefer to see old quilts intact but if one is really a mess, taking part to make pillows doesn't seem so bad. But ironing board covers from quilts in decent shape??? Anyway, it bothered me. I guess I just treasure my few old family quilts and would hate to see them end up this way.