Originally Posted by MadQuilter

I'm sure she thought she was being funny. Here is a pic of "Nightmare" (The only quilt I ever named - lol)

Originally Posted by OHSue

I live in a town with 7 LQS, they have to be nice around here or they don't survive. My favorite one is closest to home, and several of the folks know my name, are very helpful and give me lots of positive feedback on whatever I am doing.

Originally Posted by MistyMarie

I have had awesome experiences in quilt stores and horrible ones.

I was in one in a small town up in Idaho (Glenn's Ferry, I believe) and the couple that ran the shop were the NICEST shop owners I have ever had the pleasure to meet. We had had vehicle trouble heading up to my grandmother's memorial service in northern Idaho, so my mom, sister, and I had time to kill while the guys dealt with a locked up brake on my parent's fifth-wheel. The store was tiny, but the gentleman was using a long-arm and let me pick his brain about how to use it for almost half an hour. I ended up buying several yards of fabric from them, even though I had no project in mind for it because they were such wonderful people. They seemed genuinely glad to have a "visitor" to their shop.

Where I live, I hate going to my LQS because I always feel like they don't have time to give me, see me as not a big spender (which is funny, considering my stash of fabric!) and not worthy of their quilting wisdom. My husband is gone quite a bit with the military, so my children often have had to go with me to the store. I think this is the reason they are so rude to me, even though my kids never have acted up or messed up or touched anything in the store. Not only that, but I have asked them several times to call me when they get in a certain type of muslin (that they keep selling out of), but then I've gone in to see if it is in, they tell me they just sold out of it and to get on the calling list. It doesn't seem to matter that I keep telling them I AM on the list and when they check, there I am!

I will drive an extra ten miles to the other quilt store because they have a play area for children and I don't see a look of sheer panic spread over their faces when my children walk in with me. My kids are VERY well behaved and have been taught to not touch anything, so it angers me when shop-owners assume that they are going to be terrors.

Originally Posted by chris_quilts

Also related to sewing machines. In a local sewing shop, not a LQS, I was looking for the Janome brand since I'm hunting a new machine. The owner told mre that I would not like a Janome but she had the Project Runway edition Brother which was very comparable to the Janome model I want to test drive. They are a small shop and only carry Brothers, I believe, but I couldn't believe her answer about I wouldn't like the Janome. She wanted the sale and not the customer's satisfaction. It is true that when I testdrive the Janome, I may not like it but I want to try it first before looking at other brands. My Singer is approximately 25 yrs old and I just want a larger throat area for quilting.

Originally Posted by sassyquilter

I hate to purchase fabric from shops and they tear the yardage instead of cutting.
Am I the only one who dislikes this ? The chain fabric stores I do go to always cut the fabric...
Am I just being to picky ? Makes me not want to purchase from the individual shops.

Originally Posted by linkat

I will not go into a quilt store that is closest to me anymore. I went one time and took my mentally and physically handicapped son. My son is very friendly and says "hi" to everyone. The people that worked there all asked what he wanted. I explained he was just saying "hi" and they turned their backs on him. He was hurt and I left without buying anything and won't even go back if I don't have him with me.