Road Trip!!

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On Friday my sister and I took a day-long road trip to check out some of the quilt shops in the area. I like to visit shops within a few hours' drive so I at least know what they carry and what their prices are like.

We started out about 8:30 in the morning and returned at about 6:00 pm.  Sis and I are both quilters, so we both thoroughly enjoyed the trip.  We get along very well and I enjoy having the chance to spend extra time with her.

We first drove to a nearby town called Elkins.  The shop there is called Lonesome Pine Quilts and is in a building shaped like a red barn. It is actually located several miles past Elkins, between the communities of Durham and Crosses, AR. It is only open on Fridays and Saturdays.

  My sister is standing next to my pickup in front of the store.

  They have a great selection of fabrics at reasonable prices, somewhere between a discount store's prices and those of a large quilt shop. The shop samples on the walls were really pretty and well made.

  This old truck is inside, filled with rolls of batting and more samples. The store is much bigger and nicer than I expected from their website.

  The small classroom has their pattern and notion walls.  I bought a template for the L'il Twister blocks used in the samples on the table; Sis bought one of the patterns.

The fabric selection was actually very nice, and of good quality. We were very pleased with the shop, and even though it was almost an hour's drive away, I can see a return visit in our future!

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We then drove on into the small town of Alpena, AR.  Friends had told me about a shop called The Rag Barn, and I was anxious to see it.  I was not disappointed.

 The store is hidden around a curve in the road, and you could easily be past it before you realized it was there.  It is well marked, though! You see this side as you approach from the west.

 

  The entrance is on the east side of the building.  It is considerably smaller than the previous store.

  The entire south end of the store is filled with fabrics. The flat folds are more discount quality while the bolts are just a touch below high quality; still very acceptable to quilters.

  Although it doesn't have a large inventory, the fabric selection is pretty good.  Sis and I both came away with some gorgeous pieces.

The flat folds are bargain priced, and even the bolts were well under quilt shop prices.

(Don't get me wrong--I do advocate shopping at your local quilt shop if you have one, but some have exorbitant prices while others are more reasonable; and if you don't happen to have many local quilt shops, you are glad to get what you can.) The other end of the store is devoted to gift items and jewelry--both Sis and I bought some earrings for $1 a pair that are really pretty.

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As a side comment here--there is a definite difference between a "quilt shop" and a "quilt store." A quilt store sells mostly finished quilts; a quilt shop sells the supplies to make them yourself.  I do not like it when a quilt store labels itself as a quilt shop.  To me it is false advertising. Several of the "shops" we were intending to visit were actually "stores." Sorry, not interested.

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We then went looking for The Country Corner Quilt Shop. Online it is listed as being in Harrison, AR.  We drove there, looked for the shop, didn't find it, so we stopped for lunch, then stopped at a yard sale and asked for directions.  It turns out that this store is actually closer to Alpena than to Harrison.  We were headed back that way anyway. It is located down a side road, but was not hard to find once we knew where to look.

They really needed a sign like this back at the turnoff from the highway.

 

I didn't get any photos of the inside, unfortunately.  I had misplaced my camera inside the truck. Although the selection was fairly good, the prices were high-end.  I guess when you don't have much competition you can charge what you want.  There were several customers there, so it must fill its niche. We didn't buy any fabric, though I think Sis bought a pattern card here.

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Near the town of Green Forest we stopped at another yard sale, which was set up in front of McKee's Sewing Center, a New Home and Janome dealer.  We weren't going to go inside until we noticed a sign advertising Quilting Fabrics.  We were glad we changed our minds!

 It's obviously been here awhile, as the building is showing its age, but it is one of those places that seems to go on forever!  Just when we thought we'd seen it all, there would be one more room.

 

 There is a large selection of fabrics, notions, and patterns here, well worth a stop. 

 

  Prices were closer to high-end, but if you were looking for something special, prices were still within reason.

The man who was tending the store was very nice and friendly.  We didn't buy anything here, but it was well worth the time to look around.

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We continued west to Eureka Springs, which is a tourist area, very beautiful but very crowded. Our niece and her family just moved there, so we located her house and stopped in for a quick visit.  By that time we were getting tired and it was getting late, so we headed home.

It was a wonderful trip; in total I bought 3 items at yard sales; a FQ pack of fabrics, 2 pairs of earrings, a pattern, and a template.  All in all, a good day.

I wasn't in the market for fabric, since I have just spent a whole week going through my stash and organizing it into categories.  I have way more fabric than I should, but now I know which categories I need to work on to reduce their size.  My stash still fills one wall of my sewing room, and most of an upstairs closet in a guest room, but at least now I only have one bin marked "miscellaneous" instead of six.

  These categories are the ones I need to use or the ones I use the most. (My labels are crooked because they are index cards placed inside the bins.)

 These small bins hold the categories I have the least of, such as solids divided by color, stripes or dots, or categories like  "farm,"  "fish fabrics,"  or "monsters." 

The closet holds overflow--categories I don't use very often, like wool, Christmas, or Halloween. The large bins of single colors- red, blue, green-- and blenders, are bins I will be constantly getting into, but don't have room for downstairs in the sewing room.

So you can see what I mean.  I don't NEED any more fabric.  I intend to shop from here for the next year or two at least.  That doesn't mean I won't occasionally pick up a bargain piece somewhere--after all, you can't just pass up a good deal!

The same goes for books and patterns.  I have more than I will ever be able to use, but how can I know what I will want to be doing 5 years from now? 

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