MollieSue

I have one Walmart about 5 minutes away,and another two about 20-25 minutes away, all three still have lots of fabric. JoAnn's, Fields Fabric, and Hobby Lobby are probably 20-25 minutes away. Two quilt shops, that I know of, about 15 minutes away. :-)

mamaw

I have 2 quilt shops about 15 miles from here, and 2 more 35 miles from me. I am very happy with that. Also, we have a store called Mardens that is a Salvage and Surplus store; and they sell fabrics for $1.99 to $3.99 a yd. I almost always find some lovely brand name fabrics there.

tlrnhi

Sigh........I don't have any place that sells NEW fabric. I have Ben Franklin's and that's all I have. If I were to drive to someplace that has new fabric available, I'd have to put pontoons on my van and set sail for "the promised land". Sigh...........

butterflywing

i live 35 minutes by train from the garment district in manhattan. i do most of my shopping there. i also live 7 minutes from a miserable joanns, and 30 minutes from a glorious joanns. i go to them with a coupon.

amma

There are 2 LQS 1 mile away, Walmart is 3 miles and another LQS 4 miles away.
I always check out the shops when I go home, there are many choices there :wink:

wesing

We must be really fortunate here in East Tennessee. The store we considered our "home" shop closed last year, but we have a nice shop about 8 miles away in Knoxville. The shop where we bought her machine is about 15 miles away and has a great selection of fabric (plus as a machine buyer we get 10% off fabric any time). Two other large shops are within 20 or so miles of us. A little further away, we can hit 4 shops in Sevierville and Gatlinburg within a 35 minute drive. We can make a day of it and go to Crossville (Julia at Little Blessings is great and gives really good classes) or extreme Northeast TN and find 3 or 4 shops up there (Dandridge, Jonesboro, Cosby).

Now that I think of it we must be spoiled with all these LQS. Some of our Wal-Mart stores still carry fabric but we never see anything useful. Jo-Ann's is about 15 miles away, but we've never found anything there either. Also 2 Hobby Lobby within 20 miles. Our Hancock's closed several years ago.

The AQS show will be in Knoxville next week and also in 2010 and 2011. As "new" quilters, we're looking forward to attending the show and seeing the displays and quilts.

Bevanger

Hi Sunshine. Quilted Strait IS still here. I just can't afford to walk in there. Ashamed to say that, but true. I go to Walmart first unless Joanns has a sale on something I need. I really should just go into QS. Maybe I'll suprise myself huh?

Scissor Queen

I am really kind of surprised at how many people list walmart as a fabric source. I haven't bought walmart fabric for years and years. The quality just isn't there.

I can look on their wall of fabric and point out several prints that are exactly the same as they were 10 years ago. Except now they're even thinner and cheaper.

sewjoyce

I am really spoiled -- my favorite LQS is only about 3 min. from my house. I have a Wally World less than 5 min. and a "super" (their term -- not mine) JoAnn's about half an hour away.

tlrnhi

Well, to stick up for Walmart fabric and those that shop there,,,some of it IS good stuff. And those that buy there do so because that's what they can afford. Doesn't mean their quilts are any less because they don't buy at the LQS. We buy what we can afford at the time.
I shop Ben Franklin. WHY? Because that's ALL there is here. Would be nice if there was something else, but there isn't. Most of the fabric I find there is a bit out of date, but they do have some new lines come in once in a while and when it does, it sells out FAST.
If I want something REALLY nice or am looking for the latest and greatest...internet shopping is what I have to do.
So, we buy what we can, where we can.