ube quilting

After reading through the thread, most of us seem to agree with what we like and I would like to add good lighting and a place to open and lay out fabric.

One nice thing about my favorite place is that you don't have to put the bolts of fabric away if you pull it off a shelf and don't like it, They do it for you. Just stack them up. I confess I do pull a lot of bolts and put most of them away if I don't like them, others I just can't get back on the shelf. The owner and staff are great and if they don't have what you want they will order it or call around to other stores and ask while you wait! Isn't that great!

Jennifer22206

I like to have a friendly atmosphere. My DD is almost 3, and she goes everywhere with me. She even does a bit of her own sewing (I guide the fabric, she presses the foot pedal or turns the wheel on my treadle) she PICKS her own fabric, and if she says she wants something, chances are if it's a FQ, I'll get it and we'll make at least a doll quilt out of it.

If the owner can't treat my DD with respect then I'm leaving.

Grandma58

I find that to be more true of shops selling sewing machines. My local Ben Franklin is more and more appealing all the time and they have great fabric. They can also cut a 1/6 of a yard unlike my local quilt shop who can do 4 1/2" but not 6".

Nettie Phillips

I have never seen one of these shops like you have been talking
about or the other two that was talked about. I like a quilt shop
like you describe.

Ed

I would like to learn more on this. This is good and helpful.

Garnet1265

Here in Rhode Island we don't have many true quilt shops I am aware of. But we do have Ryco, a former lace making mill that still sells their lace and has a nice selection of fabrics grouped according to type, and then color. It is an old mill, so the lighting isn't the best and the floors are a bit warped in places, but the selection is great and prices even better. And the staff were very helpful and curious about the projects my aunt and I were working on (which happened to be the current Boomerang 6 Swap.)

Wonnie

I definitely agree! We had a lovely quilt shop that went out of business but it was huge with wide, wheelchair accessible aisles, fabric sorted all by color. Was heartbroken when they closed.

QuiltnLady1

I think having a friendly staff is at the top of my list. Then, no smells. Went to an LQS on a shop hop. they had a cat, and the place stunk. Got my block, my stamp and left (threw out the block at the next location -- it smelled too).

Don't like the 3-high bolts (I'm too short to appreciate them and the bolts tend to fall on my head when I try to take them out.) Like fabric organized by type -- put the flannels together, and the batiks, etc. I don't mind a mess if it organized, but the fabric must be clean (and sitting on the floor is not clean to me).

Rhaorth

oh how I would love to own a quilt shop/fabric shop.
all the descriptions here is how I would want my own store to be... maybe someday.

For now, I tend to not shop at quilt stores as I can not afford their prices.

sandybeach

We have three quilt shops in our town. One just opened and I can't go in there because of the smell. All that brand new fabric (and probably the new carpet) actually burn my eyes, so I stay out of that one. One of the others has a husband and wife team and the husband is very surley if you don't know him. So that turns a lot of people off. The other one is run by two ladies that haven't quite got the hang of running a store. If something comes up that you need an answer to, they look at each other, kind of shrug, then discuss it between themselves. PEOPLE, this is a business, run it as such. Also, none of them have sale fabric out to look at. One does have an on-line site, and you can order it on line and tell them that you will pick up at the store, but then you don't get to really see it before you buy. I have gone in there with a list of fabrics that I would like to see and they have to go to the back (or upstairs in their old store) and bring all the bolts down for me to look at. It embarrasses me to ask them to do that, but how else am I going to actually see the fabric?