Quilt shop help, please

Sandy wrote: They will be in New England, Quebec, Nova Scotia and

There are lots of shops in New England and I haven't been to them all - yet :-) All the shops in this group are quite nice:

My very most favorite is Red Barn. Of the rest of them, Pine Tree is probably next on my favorites list. I would be reluctant to recommend Bunkhouse ONLY because I get lost every time I try to go there. I don't want to be held responsible for the disappearance of your DT :-) These three are "something for everybody" kinds of shops.

The Quilted Crow and The Quilted Acorn are more "country/ Civil War" kinds of shops.

Cobblestone is largely thirties repros but has a fair variety of other fabrics.

Chestnut is quite eclectic. The shop is a house so there are various rooms, each with a different focus.

That is all I know of due north of Boston. There is another slew of them south of Boston but I don't tend to travel down that way. West of Boston is also uncharted territory for me so I hope that you get recommendations from others on those locations.

Rita

Keepsake Quilting is in New Hampshire. Not the least expensive, maybe, but you can't beat them for selection...

M> My DT and her DH will be visiting parts of the east coast of the US and

Thanks so much, Rita! I do appreciate all of the trouble you went to in being so specific, and I'm sending all of this information to my DT. :)

Maybe you should hop on over that way and surprise her. Wouldn't that be fun? Taria

I'm stumped. What is DT? I'm not familiar with that abbreviation : )

Karen > My DT and her DH will be visiting parts of the east coast of the US and

Depending on where she is going in New England, the Sturbridge/ Charlton Area in Massachutts has lots of good ones.

There is the Fabric Stash in Charlton-

has a great selection of fabrics.The Charlton Sewing Center in Charlton- some fabric, sewing machines and usually a nice group of quilts in their monthly display. In Sturbridge The quilt and cabbage-(508) 347-3023

538 Main St Fiskdale, MA 01518 They don't seem to have a website- Small shop, but lots of stock.

If you are in the area, Appletree is in Auburn, not too far away-850 Southbridge St Auburn, MA 01501

(508) 832-5562=FD

These are the ones in my neck of the woods. They are near Old Sturbridge Village if your DT is into that type of thing.

Heidi in Massachusetts

I went to the Red Barn for the first time today. She does have beautiful fabrics in there.

Heidi in Massachusetts

Karen, it's her Dear (or Darling?) Twin I believe.

Hi, well, being from NH, of course I'm going to suggest Keepsake in Center Harbor, a beautiful store in a gorgeous area. . One of my other favorites is Bunkhouse Quilts in Lyndeborough, NH. Bits and Pieces Quilt Shop in Pelham, NH was voted "the best for novelties".

The two largest cities in NH don't even have quilt shops anymore. They all seem to be in the smaller, more rural areas.

Sadly, I've lost my 4 closest quilt shops in the last couple of years due to the economy. :-(

Denise

Rita said: I would be reluctant to recommend Bunkhouse ONLY because I get lost every time I try to go there. I don't want to be held responsible for the disappearance of your DT :-)

-------------------------------------------------- This cracks me up, Rita. I go there all the time. I was doing a BOM there last year, and one woman would get lost every single month! That wasn't you was it? :-)

Let me know the next time you go, I'll give you directions, or maybe I'll go with you.

Where is Cobblestone? I've never heard of it.

The last time I went to Chestnut, the smell of cigarettes and cat urine made me gag. The entire upstairs smelled like dirty ashtrays, and the cellar smelled like a catbox. She should have hired professional cleaners before bringing the material in. I loved her old place in downtown Manchester. I will give the new place another chance sometimes.

Denise

No, not me. I should clarify by saying that my trips there are infrequent - just for the shop hop. It is a bit too far out of my driving comfort zone to "just go there".

Now that could be fun. Are you doing the shop hop in May? I'm not going to do the whole thing - still not enough stamina for a trip like that - but I will do a few.

Cobblestone is on route 119 in Townsend, MA.

This is another that I only experience during the shop hop. I knew there was something that bothered me there but I was a bit "glazed over" by the time I got there last year. Yes, the Manchester shop was pretty cool.

Rita

Thanks for recognizing that visiting relatives is nice but there is more of the world to see. When my sons were in upper grade school through high school we took a one month driving trip every summer to see different parts of the US. Several of those trips involved a visit with grandparents in LA but we drove through different parts of the US each directions. The years we headed east from Chicago rather than west my mother-in-law was always upset. How could we take a vacation and not visit them? Well there are other parts of the country which we wanted to see. My husband would point out to his mother that the roads and air planes went both ways. Eventually she started coming to visit us more often. I cherish the memories of those trips with my sons. I always said if we could ride in a car for a month and come back speaking to each other we had a successful vacation.

Susan

Of course there's more to see in the world than relatives! I've never had a problem with that. Naturally, I'm disappointed that my DT (dear twin, for those who don't know me already ) won't get here this trip, but I do understand. I wish I could say as much for our mother. DT won't even be able to tell her that they're coming to the U.S., as she'll get terribly upset and verbally abusive when she learns that they won't go see her in Arizona. It's really unfortunate and not the only problem she has. :S

Thanks, Denise! I'm saving all of these replies to send on as suggestions to my DT. I did tell her about Keepsake, but of course everything will depend on how far out of the way it is on their planned route and how understanding my BIL is.

Thanks, Heidi! :)

And thanks again, Heidi.

Sorry, Karen! That's my own "made-up" abbreviation for Dear Twin. We live quite far apart, but we get to see each other several times a week via Skype and our webcams. :) We have a stepsister (we didn't grow up with her), but no "real" siblings.

Exactly! :)

That *would* be fun, but it's not going to happen. :S They'll be driving all over the place, not stopping long anywhere except with some old friends of theirs. It would probably be awkward for me to do that.