I think that you might have better luck researching on the internet. Or you could let us know your travel route and we could all give you the best information available.

Useless, indeed. Doubt if they make them now. Shops disappear so fast. I think Needleworkers Delight/ Silkseavers is up in NJ. They seem to have a big store & are one of the major hand dyers.

You can't even really depend on googling the shops in the cities....if you do, call or e-mail ahead of time. You can usually depend on a warm welcome, but like everywhere else, you're dealing with individual personalities. Got a notably friendly welcome at a shop in the Dallas area recently. She had a stitching group in on Sat afternoon. Very lively group! I have it noted somewhere for return visit, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the shop! So annoying!

Happy travel-shopping!

Hoffman is a major distributor of cross stitch patterns. I just took a look at the website www.hoffmandis.com.

They have a list of all the shops that they supply to.

You still have to check it out in advance. Last summer I saw an on-line recommendation for a shop in Bethalto, IL. The article was only a couple of months old at the time. my husband agreed to drive there -- about a 90 minute drive. The store was totally empty without even a sign that they had gone out of business.

Have needle will travel

I don't know if there is a needlework travel book. I do have one for my Quilt Shops and it comes out every 2 years. It is pretty good. The Quilt Shops are very popular now. Even so I always call ahead to a shop before I make the journey especially if it is going to take a while to get there. So few craft shops have much of an inventory of cross stitching stuff anymore I just usually do all my ordering online. ECS here is my #1 stop for ordering and then I branch out if I need to.

VCESS, was it the Stitch Niche?

I never heard of such a things. Reading the posts I figured it out. When we had to relocate we went straight from point A to point B. DH would have lost his mind if I had wanted to stop at a x-stitch shop. It sounds like fun but must be very time consuming depending on how far the shop is from one's route especially in big cities. Can you Google the cities you'll be traveling through? Good luck and have fun.

The last page of American needlework mags like Just Cross Stitch or Cross Stitch & Needlework have shops by state as well as on-line sites.

Reminds me that Dad allowed Mom 2 gift shops per day & they had to be on the route. Mom would really gripe when Dad stopped for gas. Big waste of time. Don't mention logic; that didn't count for much in Mom's thinking.

JLHEWES

Are you sure we aren't blood sisters. My Mom had no logic in her at all. She was a great seamstress and my dad once said "You'll be sewing up your shroud on the way to your funeral, Dorothy." My dad was an organic chemist, great mathematician, spoke and could read Latin Greek, High German, Low Germ, and some French, Italian. He loved mystery books and grew and hybridized orchids. A very wise man who loved teaching us logic and common sense. He could recall anything he had read saw or heard.

My mom was very illogical and got her own crazy way until he died.Part of her grief was anger with my Dad for leaving her with a house, a checkbook she couldn't manage and the sad duty of notifying all of their friends (she gave me that job...talk about feeling like an idiot. "Dear Mr. and Mrs. Whoever, My mother has asked me to write to let you know...).

I think mine might have been passive-aggressive with some serious control issues. She might have been happy if she had been a dictator in a small country, where she could lop off heads at will.

jl, your Dad should have called her bluff and left her stranded on the highway. She'd have realized right quick how important it is to fill up. LOL

Su, I feel your pain. My mom was like that. She was such an intelligent and resourceful woman but very self centered. She would cry when she saw birds on the news covered in oil from oil spills, yet would not show the least amount of compassion towards humans (family members) if it did not coincide with her opinions. She, too, was an outstanding seamstress. I HATE sewing. She also had her own sense of logic and was totally disorganized. She kept a very clean home but good luck in trying to find anything in it. DH is the same way. I guess I looked for familiarity unbeknownst to me. The psyche is a mysterious thing and a poor friend. I love the old guy and he has many admirable traits but we're about as compatible as fire and ice. Su, I LOVE orchids!!! What a wonderful hobby. I am thrilled to pieces because one of mine is reblooming. I've had the worst luck since moving to Dallas. This is only the second one that rebloomed. Brenda now takes them to work and they bloom like crazy in that old building with over 2,400 employees and no fresh air. I've tried everything. There is too much conflicting information out there. That reminds me - we went to an orchid show in Okinawa. I have never seen so many beautiful specimens. All colors, varieties, etc. I took lots of pictures but they don't do justice. Wish I knew more about photography. I saw a triptych (sp) on HGTV once that the decorator has done herself of, you guessed it, orchids.
Gotta run, Olivia at 6:30 and the microwave repair guy at 1000. Now the stupid thing is working again. It's only a year old.