here inEngland is a shop calles The fabric Guild in Leicester. It opens to the general public 2 days a week. I love going my friend says it only for the men not the fabric. Let me explain: after a 2 hour drive i am always thirsty when I arrive and they have a free drink area ( tea coffee etc) and biscuits. this is where the ladies who have husbands leave them while they shop. I have a wonderful time chatting to them. They are all very knowledgeable about quilting and know exactly what wives are doing and how. I've learnt a great deal about my obsession from them. The store also has male owners who again know a great deal and are very chatter. As a single lady in her prime of life it is very refreshing to chat to males without wives grabbing them or taking them away. I do purchase a great deal of material as well.I stock up incase I run out.

Hubby usually sleeps in the car when I am shopping at quilt shops, but there is a shop in Morro Bay (Cotton Ball, I believe ) that has a nice comfy sofa. I talked him into coming in since there was another fellow sitting there too. When I finished shopping, they were both fast asleep! Too bad more shops don't have nice sofas for the guys. It might keep the women shopping longer if they did.

My dh and I travel all the time and he is the one who always checks my Travelers Campanion Guide for shops along our way...he goes into every one of them with me..he goes in one direction and I go in the other..he is always trying to spot fabric he thinks I will love before I find it..he comes to me and tells me what he found and where he found it in the shop..he than goes back out to the car or truck and makes his business calls while I finish shopping...we have only had one bad experience in any of them..now mind you my dh looks like a Harley Davidson biker..big and bruly and sometimes dirty if we have been loading and unloading tractors on the way...but most shops are great to us both...and my LQS women love him to pieces...he is a great man and he is very good to me...he buys all my machines..sometimes without me even knowing it....and they have all learned not to say a word if he has been in the shop without me..he is usually up to something very good...hehehe....blessings

I find that I am very happily received in any quilt shop I have visited - people chat - some ask questions - want to know about my projects.....I have a lot of fun!

Susan, your trip sounds like so much fun. Please keep a journal of your travel and shops to share. I don't get to go anywhere this summer because of lack of $$$$. It would be fun to read someone's else travels.

There are tons of shops in Texas. Stop & stay a while.

Isn't it funny how businesses get tabbed masculine or feminine. I use to feel weird about going in to the feed store or Tractor Supply. The weirdest ever was when I went into the cigar store to buy this canister of Dutch Cigars because I wanted the Delft Blue jar they were in. Gave my daddy the contents. You never saw a man in the beauty salon except to pick up his wife. Guess I never thought about it. Now days everything is unisex. Go to Victoria's Secrets & check out all the bashful guys dragged in.

You never been around me then.......... I am usually the one dragging the wife into the Victoria's Secret and helping her pick out things.

Daddy likes the VS !!!!:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Billy

You dirty old man! I know I see alot not blushing too.

I have read about half of these replies on this thread and it looks like a lot of you have the feeling that men who are quilters are also gay and you think it's 'cute'.
I, for one, am a male. I started quilting about a year ago and my wife of 28 years just wondered why it took me so long to join her in her "hobby".
I am not now nor have I ever been gay. I simply know more about a sewing machine than she does and I'm good at making it do what I want it to do.
Sorry, but I just had to 'vent' after seeing what some of you wrote.