I love to visit quilt shops when we travel. Different shops are a great source of ideas and, of course, fabric 😀
We recently travelled through Northern Maine, where we lived early in our careers, and were very pleasantly surprised to find the Majestic Touch Quilt Shop in St. Agatha. The owner, Sandra Bosse, agreed to let me her picture.
Sandra Bosse with one of her long-arm machines
Sandra told me she made her first quilt about 20 years ago. She was unhappy with the quilting done on it by someone else, so she bought a long-arm machine and learned to use it–just like that! I was amazed to hear this for reasons most of you probably understand. Clearly this lady is willing to take on a challenge!
Sandra’s business has changed over the years. She now does quilting for others and sells both long-arm machines and fabric. Her quilting is very much in demand and she is currently scheduling about 3 months out!
We talked about running a quilt shop 4 hours from the nearest “city” (Bangor, Maine, with a population of under 32,000). On the plus side, hers is the only quilt shop for miles around AND she is close to the Canadian border, so customers come a fair distance to shop and take classes. St. Agatha had a population of 730 in the 2020 census, but people in Northern Maine are accustomed to driving to little shops in little towns when they want something.
On the minus side, it’s expensive to get merchandise shipped to her and the fabric reps won’t come that far from the city! Sandra says they send her catalogs, and that’s the way she has to order.
In the photo above you can see just a bit of Sandra’s fabric shop. She has a lovely selection of batiks, and says they are especially popular with her Canadian customers. She also has so many beautiful printed fabrics from the major companies that I had a hard time sticking to my budget 🙂
Here are a couple of fabrics I was “forced” to buy. I haven’t seen them anywhere else, though maybe I just don’t visit enough shops 😉 She had both prints in many colors, with coordinating fabrics as well, and I had a difficult time choosing!
Sandra doesn’t have an online shop, but you can find her on Facebook here. (The internet tells me that 6-8 yards of fabric can fit in a USPS flat rate envelope, and I expect Sandra would send you pictures if you want to shop with her.) BTW, her prices were lower than those in the bit city.
PS: Hurricane Ian came this far into North Carolina, so I am writing this with the generator powering the house and my computer. We had a neighbor’s tree come down in the yard. It took out our weather station, but that was the only real damage. Steve has left for the hardware store to get supplies for the chain saw, and I am getting geared up to use some beautiful fabric!
I hope all of you are safe and stitching along happily!
Zippy Quilts 
Thanks for the link. I love visiting new quilting shops. I have a sibling trip to New York coming up in December, and I have already mapped out the quilting shops I plan to visit. I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with that gorgeous fabric. I just returned from two weeks with a two year old and a pre-teen. After I gather my thoughts and energy, I will resume stitching.
Good to hear from you 🙂 I will be interested to hear what shops you especially like, since we sometimes drive through NY state on our way to Vermont.
I’m glad to see that the hurricane damage was minimal.
I enjoyed the visit to this quilt shop and completely understand why you had to buy that fabric. Enjoy stitching into it.
Thank heavens that Hurricane Ian did not wreak too much havoc
Thanks, Mariss. We were very lucky. The power was out less than 24 hours.
Yeah, Ian changed his mind around our area (whew) but looks like he stubbornly kept with his inland agenda once he entered NC. Hope you’re off of the generator by now.
Glad to hear from you. I knew he had veered off from a direct hit on you, but I figured you’d get plenty of water.
How lovely of you to profile Majestic Touch Quilt Shop. I keep my eyes open for fabric stores when traveling as well. I think you came away with some interesting fabric. I have a hard time shopping with out a plan because I need to stop accumulating. Glad you are getting sorted out with the tree. We are still experiencing all the wind and rain up in Delaware today.
I probably should quit accumulating too but I love being able to start a project as soon as the mood strikes without having to go to the store. Hope the storm doesn’t wreck your yard.
Reading your profile of the quilt shop made me feel like I’d done a bit of traveling. You absolutely chose the most gorgeous fabrics as souvenirs — hope they inspire you in your creations.
Happy that you didn’t have more damage, and that Ian moved on through. What a horrendous storm/hurricane! Glad you are okay.
Thanks. Our neighborhood was lucky—this was the only tree that went down!
It’s great that you came across such a nice quilt shop during your travels. I rarely go into brick-and-mortar quilt shops anymore because they never stock the fabrics I like. As much as I’d like to touch and see the fabrics before I buy them, online has become my standard. I’m sorry to hear what Ian did to you! Gosh, you had it worse than we did here in Florida! Losing power isn’t any fun, though I can’t remember the last time we’ve lost it. Guess that’s the advantage of having underground lines. Hope you are back to normal now.
Those fabrics you were forced to buy (smile) are gorgeous!