Just my 2 cents here..
I think a quilt shop is no different than any other small business. Having said that, I think the single largest mistake any small business startup makes is starting out with too much overhead. Most go in with a wild exaggeration of profitability and very little realistic expectations of loss and how they will weather the slow periods financially.
If you have to buy bolts wholesale and sell on ebay until you have a good cushion, I would do that, or whatever it took to build up enough cash(not credit), to realistically get your new business through it's firs year.
Then there's the other downfall of many businesses...your personality....not..are you nice or not...but can you delegate.... trust people with assignments, follow through, handle difficult customers that you KNOW are out of line, but will have to coddle to anyway?? Can you juggle 5 balls at a time without losing your mind?
Are you creative? If not, can you spot/hire those that are? The quilt shops are very competative and always have a new promo going or new BOM or something to get people in the door...or do you plan to just sit there and hope people will wander in?
I think it can be done, but a person needs realistic expectations of cost/profit/loss, as well as their own shortcomings..we all have them, but you need to identify them and how they can help or hurt you in business..
Good Luck to you!