What quilting items do you buy when traveling?
My DH and I recently spent two glorious weeks in Seattle, Alaska and the Olympic Penninsula. For weeks, he plotted and planned all the quilt shops he would take me to. I was so excited. I do not know what I expected - well, yes, I did. For some reason, I expected to see a lot of fabrics that I can't get otherwise.....really? I came home with no new fabrics, but lots of plans to order online (to save the space and weight in my suitcase when we flew back to FL) when I got back home. And for the most part, I can find the "northwest" type fabrics I was interested in. I did actually buy one quilt kit i Alaska. Other than that, I asked at each shop if they had any patterns exclusive to local artists in their region. I did come home with three quilt patterns of this type.
I had fun but feel let down and disappointed that I didn't get more. Where did I go wrong? How do you shop on vacation?
I am going to San Francisco in August and want my experiences and expectations to equal each other....
Thanks for your advice.