I have to confess, I LOVE FABRIC. I have a lot of it--and I mean a LOT of it. I am sure that my shelves of fabric could be labeled as S.A.B.L.E. (Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy) and yet I buy more. I tell my husband that "collecting fabric" is a hobby completely separate and different from quilting. He should not expect me to use all of my fabric. Some of it is just too gorgeous to ever cut into it. :)
A trip to Amish quilt shops is always fun and hard to resist, no matter how much fabric you already own. My very recent trip to Lancaster County, PA yielded a few more yards for my stash. I was very good and used a lot of restraint, though. I did not buy fat quarters or even half yard pieces just to build up my stash-I stuck to shopping for borders and backings, so my purchases were two yards of this one and four yards of that one, etc!
The first two quilt shops that we went to were in Intercourse, PA. The Old Country Store was our first stop and it is always a favorite of mine.
The shop has a wide variety of fabrics at great prices, and their book selection is awesome. I shop their website when I am at home in GA and even with shipping, their prices are still great. Upstairs is a gift shop and quilt museum. I was thrilled that there was an exhibit of Jo Morton quilts when we were there.
I am a huge Jo fan so it was so fun to see her work in person!
And all of the Jo Morton fabric was on sale for $5.99/yard!!
Our second stop was right down the street-Zooks Fabrics. A lot of Amish women shop here, so there are a lot of solids for their clothing needs, but they also have a great selection of quilting fabric for the rest of us. Their prices were great too-I didn't see anything over $8.00/yard!
Sauder's Quilt Shop is located off the Pennsylvania turnpike in Denver, PA. It is in the basement of a house, but has thousands of bolts of fabric, lots of notions, and even carries spices, flours, and grains. In addition to fabric, I bought four packages of batting. I am determined to finish up UFOs and if I can save money on borders, backing and batting, so much the better. EVERYTHING in the store was 20% off, so the bargains were even sweeter!
Our last stop was at Burkholder Fabrics, also in Denver. I do think that they had more bolts of fabrics than any of the other shops. The store has a great notion wall, is very well lit, and is super organized. The employees were so friendly and helpful. We were pressed for time and could have shopped a lot longer here-there was so much to see and buy. They have a great website and I am going to be buying from them in the future too.
There are many other great quilt shops in Lancaster County, but these were the only ones we went to on this trip. I hope to go back again soon (maybe in March for the Lancaster quilt show) so that I can check out a few more. In the meantime, I need to use up some of the fabric I bought on this trip--or not. :)
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