Re: DSisILs impending visit to MA

I can help with some of these.

Quilted Crow - Lovely small shop with attached tea room. Fabric is largely "not my thing" but the people are wonderful.

Quilter's Way - Another small shop. Nice fabric selection (more to my taste). Staff is a bit "scattered" at times but still very nice and helpful.

Button Box - Haven't been to this one much. It is a bit out of the way for me. They have a lovely selection of Asian prints, Kaffe Fasset, and much more.

Red Barn - My personal favorite. A little bit of something for everybody. Huge selection of batiks, a small yarn section, sewing machines, etc. The staff is awesome. Your DSisIL will be made to feel like family the minute she steps through the door.

I do think she should be selective about this. A map would help. The shops listed are scattered far and wide. Unless she really loves to drive and has a great sense of direction, you may never see her again :-)

Rita

Rita's quilt shop reviews are a fun read. The few that are within 100 miles of here are, in Rita's words, "Not my thing". No telling what I'd do if we came upon a shop that was. And, oh my yes, there is one that makes you feel like family. We wouldn't be at all surprised if that happy bunch asked us to be sure to wipe our feet and take out the trash. Polly

I do love to entertain :-)

I should mention that there are people on this list who would be horrified that I do not love the Quilted Crow. Their fabric is mostly what they call "classic appeal". I call it muddy =:) I went in there once on a shop hop and mentioned that I preferred bright fabrics. (This is where the wonderful people come in). The shop owner and two of her staff went busily searching for the one bolt of bright blue fabric that they had. They were so proud of themselves that I just had to buy some :-) They really are VERY nice people.

Rita

Thank you Rita - much appreciated. I have forwarded on to DSisIL.

The friend she is travelling with is a fellow Button Collector and not a quilter. I am not sure how many quilt shops she will be happy with and whether they will be speaking by the end of the trip!!

As the price of fabric here is at least twice what you pay, I will be grateful for anything she brings, and even ugly fabrics can turn wonderful at your prices!

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Rita L. >> DSisIL who is about to descend on a button convention in Manchester, MA

Hmmm... I was curious about the button show so I looked it up. It is in Manchester, NH and not Manchester, MA. This may demand a different list of shops. There are some quite close to the show hotel, I think, but I need to check. I haven't shopped there in a while.

What is your preferred fabric color/type?

Rita

Yes, it was me that had the wrong Manchester - at least I had the right country!! I was thrown by the recommendations being for MA shops, but of course as she flies in to New York she will drive through MA on her way to the correct Manchester. I hadn't realised there were two Manchesters fairly close together.

Its a good thing I'm not going as map-reader. This is especially true as she has just told me gleefully that she has found a second-hand (she lives in secondhand shops!) map of the USA. She says it is old but has proper roads on it, not wagon trails! I am hoping she has a sat-nav in the car!!!

She is quite a feisty lady with lots of confidence, so I am sure she will return from her adventures safely.

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Rita L. >>

There's no surprise from me that the button show is in New Hampshire instead of Massachusetts even if both of them have a Manchester. When Megwen wrote that Pat on the Green's Hug had even travelled from " Bath to St Andrews and back as well " I had no clue what sort of tour that might have been. Actually we do really well communicating what with crossing ponds. Brings to mind the time the Olympics were in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and the ticket office could not provide tickets for anyone in New Mexico because they were a foreign country. Polly

So many of the place names around MA and NH are the same as places around me I could be really thrown and think I had a near neighbour on the Group! eg Ipswich, Haverhill, Norwich, Newmarket, and Middleton is a small village just about 4 miles away! Lots more familiar names, but they are more of a journey from me.

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Polly Esther wrote:

I would recommend Quilted Threads in Henniker, NH - they have all types of fabrics. It is a very nice shop. Henniker is about 45 minutes from Manchester, NH >

There is also a small but cute quilt shop in Bedford, NH called Quilt Patch. That shop is only about a 10-15 ride from where the downtown Manchester where the Button convention will be.