In addition to having your guide book spiral bound, I have some additional tips to share, learned from my extensive research on finding quilt shops wherever I go! My husband swears I can sniff them out! No sniffing required, just the Quilters' Travel Companion!
- ALWAYS call the store you are going to visit just to make sure the hours are correct! No fun going out of your way only to find the "Closed" sign posted due to a change since the book was printed. It will also help you weed out any shops that have had to close, sadly.
- Make some notes in the book about the shops visited, for future reference. Or devise your own rating system. My own rating system is pretty simple: shops that I will go out of my way in order to return vs. shops that I will only see in my rearview mirror!
- Bring your own shopping bags! Helps to keep your needful things separate and safe. And eliminates one more piece of garbage from our world.
- Take pictures both inside and out of the store, with your travel companions or shop owner or a total stranger! Make a file for your "Quilting on the Road" pictures, with the name of the shop either in the picture or as a label.
There are so many quilt shops to visit and so little time! Last winter in Sedona, AZ, I really hit the jackpot--a quilt shop and yarn shop almost directly across the street from one another!
I hope that you will enjoy your "research" as much as I do!
And make sure your travels always bring you
to the doors of Bear Patch!
