I was just wondering - several of you have mentioned you have to drive a long way to buy fabric -

I live near St. Paul, Minnesota and there seem to still be several places that fabric is available within 30 miles of my home - although several LQS have closed, several of Hancock fabric stores have closed, JoAnns' have consolidated - there are two or three super stores around

What do you consider a "reasonable" distance - or if you are on an expedition or mission - how far will you go?

1 live 35 minutes from the garment district in NYC does that count as having a lot of fabric close by? i think so :lol:

I'm about 10 mins from Joanns and 15 mins from Walmart. That's all we have here, Just the 2. Otherwise I'd have to go to Port Townsend which is an hour away

It is 50 miles one way to the nearest place that has fabric. Our fabric store closed a year or so ago can't even buy a sewing machine needle or anything other than black and white thread around here.

I feel spoiled (not as much as KLue though). I have two high end LQS stores within 3 miles. I have the choice of two more that are about 15 miles away. I have a Joann's about 2 miles from my house and of course my computer, which allows me to shop day/night while I'm in my jammies! :shock: :-o

I'm lucky enough to have 4 that are very close, and of course the internet.

We have one Brother dealer in town that has some fabric and notions but the atmosphere of the shop is cold and unfriendly. JoAnns and Hobby Lobby is an hour away so I shop there with coupons. Most of my quilt shopping is online.

Denver still has quite a few LQS's. I can go anywhere from 2 miles all the way to about 20 miles from my house and find them, including a Joann's, which I don't usually go to except for supplies.

Well lets see, I have one fabulous quilt shop 1 mile from me, another shop two city blocks away and three that are within 30-40 minutes from me. How lucky can I get. Joann's and Walmart are further away and I don't buy there fabric anyway. I know, I am a snob, but it comes from owning my own quilt shop several years back. (retired) Marge

I am really lucky! I can see one of my lqs from my bedroom window. It is about a block away. The other one is about 3 or 4 miles away, but the fabric they carry is not as much to my taste. Other than that, my Walmart still has fabric- about 6 miles away.

I am an hour from Green Bay, WI, where there is a Joann's superstore, a Hancocks, and several independant quilt stores. What is readily available to me is mostly country-ish, Thimbleberries style fabric. I do see something of a trend towards more brights and batiks now, though, along with a fair amount of 30's repros. If I want anything along the lines of Amy Butler, Heather Ross, those kind of name brands, I have to buy it online.

Fort Smith (AR) is 18 miles away and has three Walmarts. Two have fabric. There is also a Hobby Lobby, a Hancocks and an LQS. I still miss Joann's though. It is 128 miles away in Tulsa.

Well, yesterday my girlfriend and I went on a mini shop hop. The shop hop was only 3 shops but we went to another one because we were close. (60 miles)

I drove 90 miles just to get to her house. The trip around to the four shops was about 170 miles. We were back at her house at supper time. Then another 90 to get home.

We had a blast! I got to go to a new shop I hadn't had a chance to get to yet and they have a great selection of fabrics and notions and patterns. It will be a definite on my regular shop list. If I go to that shop straight from my house it'll be about 135 miles one way. That's so close it's like not even leaving home!! LOL

The closest quilt shop to me is only 10 miles but she doesn't have regular open hours and you have to make an appointment to shop. I won't do that just to wander in a shop. Plus since she's mostly an internet sales shop she doesn't deal with in person customers all that well.

The next closest is 30 miles and it's an okay store at least.

Then there's another one just about four miles from that store that's... hmm, how shall we say, a mess. It's more like she sells fabric out of a huge sewing room than a store. The main shop hop is in September and it's going to take that long for her to get it cleaned up!

I live 5 minutes from Hancock Fabrics and about 10 minutes from the LQS. Also there is Omaha just across the river. I'm lucky, I guess.

Joann's about .5 miles away, Huntley lqs is maybe 3-4 miles, Crystal Lake lqs and Hobby Lobby about 6-7 miles, Carpentersville lqs 10 miles just moved to rural Woodstock which is 15 miles, Hampshire lsq (haven't been there yet) is 8-10 miles.

I guess so far we are lucky... There are four lqs's, a discount store called mill end, joann's, Hancock Fabrics and a Ben Franklin's all within 30 miles of me. THere are three in Carson City and two in Truckee both of which are 45 minutes from Reno. That is not counting the ones in Lake Tahoe or over the hill an hour and a half in Sacramento or the surrounding small towns. Oh and there is always the Walmarts (2).

I have 2 Walmart stores within a 15 minute drive from me but both are
getting rid of their fabric dept. I have got some good buys on some quilting supplies because of that. Large cutting mat for $10 and a a 12in.
rotating mat.

So when they close down I will have to drive an hour to Jackson which has a Hancock, Hobby Lobby and one other that I forget the name of.
I can drive 2 hours to Tupelo that has a wonderful shop.
Several ladies in the guild try to get together and go up there, great excuse for a day trip.

Beverly

Not counting the chain stores, there are 8 quilt shops within 25 miles of me that I know about, including Keepsake Quilting. Not bad for a tiny little town way out in the woods. :D

Within 20 minutes I can go to four LQS, Joanns, Hancocks, Hobby Lobby and two WalMarts that still have fabrics. I feel lucky. If I visit my son about two hours away I can go to four more LQS and on the way there could stop at two more. Usually I don't stop as I am always in a hurry. :wink:

Well, guys , sounds like a party at the new guys place!!!!!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I live in the boonies and it's a 30 minute drive to the Hobby Lobby. at 1 1/2 hrs to a real fabric shop!!!

I am definitely spoiled,there are 3 LQS within a mile of where i live, not including Joanns which is practically around the corner

There's 1 combination fabric store/shoe store/thrift store close to me, otherwise it's 100+ miles to Klamath Falls.

Well, I have Gingers Needleworks right across the street from my house, I could walk if I were so inclined. Then we have a new LQS that has been open a year that is just across town. We also have a regular JoAnns & Hancocks. Don't care much for the Hancocks tho, ours has gone down hill in the last year. JoAnns is ok, use my coupons there alot for supplies. But I have become spoiled to the LQS quality of fabric. I have traveled as far as 1-2 hrs away to QS's as special treats. Speaking of special treats my friends & I are headed to Houston in 3 months for the International Quilt show there. Can't wait!!!!

I live in a rural farming area, so my tiny little LQS is in a small town about 45km (28 miles) away. The nearest city is 100km (50 miles) away and has one very good quilt shop and a couple of fabric stores. I buy most of my fabric online, and I stock up on thread and rotary cutter blades when I go to the city :)

Jan

I have a JoAnns and 2 small quilt shops about a half hour drive away. My two favorite quilt shops are each 1 hour away in opposite directions. I do a lot of on line shopping.

In about a twenty to thirty mile range, I have 5 LQS, 2 Hancock's, 2 JoAnn's (one small, one supercenter) and 1 WalMart that I know of that still does a little fabric. There used to be more.

As if this can be uttered, but I really only like the fabric at one of the LQS but don't get out to it very often.

Years ago I was quilters heaven. About 30 miles from literally scores of shops, plus two Ben Franklins, a Hancock, a few JoAnn's and a WalMart that had a decent size fabric department, all before everything went. There was another shop I'd go to about an hour or so away that had like 6-7,000 bolts. All I can say for that one is good thing it was a drive away, my family probably wouldn't eat if I lived closer. :lol:

I have one about 3 min away and another 6 within a 20 min drive. Two of those are Joanns. This does not include Walmart, which I never shop at.

I have WalMart and an LQS called "In Stitches" here in Red Bluff. If I go north about an hour to Redding there are 4 LQSs and Joanns. If I go South East about 1.5 hours to Chico there is 3 LQSs and Joanns. If I go another 15 minutes up in the foot hills there are at least 3 LQSs in Paradise. Another 10 minutes up in to mountains from Paradise to Magalia is my favorite LQS. It's called Patchwork Barb's. Nice selection and wonderfully low prices. :lol:

There are lots of LQS in and around the greater St. Louis area, plus Hancocks, Jo-Anns, Hobby Lobby, other fabric stores and Ben Franklins. Alas, or fortunately, none are really close to me. The nearest are about 5 miles away, but on a route I travel feguently. :lol: I have no trouble finding wonderful fabrics and supplies. :lol:

I was just on a road trip in Wisconsin, and looked up several LQS near where we were going anyway. One in Manitowoc was fabulous, Quilts and Silks is right across the street from the Maritime Museum there and the people there were so helpful! I dropped some $$ there. They have a wonderful variety of beautiful fabrics! I will go bak when I visit next time. :lol:

If 30 miles is the limit, I have two Joann stores, a Hancock's. and 4 quilt shops. Gotta say, of the four LQS, only one I can afford now and then. The others are waaaaaay out of my price range.

Bev, what about the Quilted Strait? We visited it last October, and it seemed to be a lovely quilt shop, and very friendly. Isn't it still there? I hope they haven't gone out of business!

I have one Walmart about 5 minutes away,and another two about 20-25 minutes away, all three still have lots of fabric. JoAnn's, Fields Fabric, and Hobby Lobby are probably 20-25 minutes away. Two quilt shops, that I know of, about 15 minutes away. :-)

I have 2 quilt shops about 15 miles from here, and 2 more 35 miles from me. I am very happy with that. Also, we have a store called Mardens that is a Salvage and Surplus store; and they sell fabrics for $1.99 to $3.99 a yd. I almost always find some lovely brand name fabrics there.

Sigh........I don't have any place that sells NEW fabric. I have Ben Franklin's and that's all I have. If I were to drive to someplace that has new fabric available, I'd have to put pontoons on my van and set sail for "the promised land". Sigh...........

i live 35 minutes by train from the garment district in manhattan. i do most of my shopping there. i also live 7 minutes from a miserable joanns, and 30 minutes from a glorious joanns. i go to them with a coupon.

There are 2 LQS 1 mile away, Walmart is 3 miles and another LQS 4 miles away.
I always check out the shops when I go home, there are many choices there :wink:

We must be really fortunate here in East Tennessee. The store we considered our "home" shop closed last year, but we have a nice shop about 8 miles away in Knoxville. The shop where we bought her machine is about 15 miles away and has a great selection of fabric (plus as a machine buyer we get 10% off fabric any time). Two other large shops are within 20 or so miles of us. A little further away, we can hit 4 shops in Sevierville and Gatlinburg within a 35 minute drive. We can make a day of it and go to Crossville (Julia at Little Blessings is great and gives really good classes) or extreme Northeast TN and find 3 or 4 shops up there (Dandridge, Jonesboro, Cosby).

Now that I think of it we must be spoiled with all these LQS. Some of our Wal-Mart stores still carry fabric but we never see anything useful. Jo-Ann's is about 15 miles away, but we've never found anything there either. Also 2 Hobby Lobby within 20 miles. Our Hancock's closed several years ago.

The AQS show will be in Knoxville next week and also in 2010 and 2011. As "new" quilters, we're looking forward to attending the show and seeing the displays and quilts.

Hi Sunshine. Quilted Strait IS still here. I just can't afford to walk in there. Ashamed to say that, but true. I go to Walmart first unless Joanns has a sale on something I need. I really should just go into QS. Maybe I'll suprise myself huh?

I am really kind of surprised at how many people list walmart as a fabric source. I haven't bought walmart fabric for years and years. The quality just isn't there.

I can look on their wall of fabric and point out several prints that are exactly the same as they were 10 years ago. Except now they're even thinner and cheaper.

I am really spoiled -- my favorite LQS is only about 3 min. from my house. I have a Wally World less than 5 min. and a "super" (their term -- not mine) JoAnn's about half an hour away.

Well, to stick up for Walmart fabric and those that shop there,,,some of it IS good stuff. And those that buy there do so because that's what they can afford. Doesn't mean their quilts are any less because they don't buy at the LQS. We buy what we can afford at the time.
I shop Ben Franklin. WHY? Because that's ALL there is here. Would be nice if there was something else, but there isn't. Most of the fabric I find there is a bit out of date, but they do have some new lines come in once in a while and when it does, it sells out FAST.
If I want something REALLY nice or am looking for the latest and greatest...internet shopping is what I have to do.
So, we buy what we can, where we can.