Valley Fabrics — Local services in Northampton

Please BEWARE: I am a professional nurse and I almost never complain because the world we live we all have bigger fish to fry! However, I went into the shop 9 weeks ago yesterday and I wanted to have a quilt quilted for my one and only niece (no nephews) for her wedding shower Nov 8th. I stood at the desk and specifically asked what the turn around time was and they told me 8-10 weeks. I had my cell phone and opened it up at the counter and I checked my calendar and 10 weeks would bring me to 7 days before the shower. I know that may be cutting it short but I knew I could get my binding put on in a week once I got the quilt back and honestly I didn't expect it to take the full 10 weeks so I choose a pattern and left it. This past Friday was 1 day before the 9 week mark so I called the shop to make sure everything is on target for me to have my quilt back by next Saturday which would be the full 10 weeks. They said they would check and call me back. I received a call back within an hour from Karen telling me she was sorry but they cannot get it to me by next Saturday. My heart dropped to the floor. I thanked her for checking and told her I would pick it up the following morning when they open. When I got to the shop I was telling a girl at the desk that I had called the day before and the owner stepped in and took over and said YES, you are here to pick up your quilt, I will go get it. There were 3-4 women working all at the desk when owner said this and they all said "how exciting" to her remark I was here to pick up my quilt.....sigh......The owner said NO, not exciting and walked to to the back to get the quilt. There was 5 minutes of uncomfortable silence as these girls had no idea what was going on. The owner approached me with my quilt in a bag and said "Do you have someone to quilt this for you?" I replied "I am not going to discuss that with you", she said" well, I just was going to make some recommendations to you", I replied "I don't need your recommendations". I took my bag and was walking out and she said "I'm sorry"! REALLY???? I am so hurt I will not have this quilt for my niece for her wedding shower. The owner needs to take a class first with Dale Carnegie to learn how to communicate with her customers and her staff. There was no reason for me to get upset and yell because she doesn't care! I stood at the desk and counted the weeks to be sure I would have this beautiful quilt done. Now she says "it's just an estimate, depends on how big the quilts ahead of me are"......shouldn't they be tracking this? Shouldn't she have called to give status updates???? Not if she doesn't care! Take my word ladies......she doesn't care! I will never step foot in that shop again because of the owner Francesca! ...

Absolutely PHENOMENAL fabric store! I visited Valley Fabrics for the first time yesterday and I was completely blown away by the incredible selection of high-quality fabrics. Not only does Valley Fabrics have a vast array of quilting fabrics from different fabric designers/manufacturers, but they also carry a curated selection of beautiful apparel fabrics (linen, linen/cotton blends, jersey knits, and rayon) as well as garment patterns from independent designers. The store itself is total eye candy if you love color and pattern - fabrics are organized by designer and color so searching for a specific fabric is easy to do. I really appreciated that the store is very well-lit and has large windows in front allowing natural light so that you can see the true color of fabrics - so important and not something you always find with fabric stores. The staff were super friendly and knowledgeable, ready to answer questions and provide guidance on choosing fabric for a particular project or purpose. There is a large area in the back of the store for classes, and the store has open sewing twice a week for sewists to drop in and work on projects together which I absolutely love - I wish I lived closer so that I could join in the community! While I was visiting the shop, I overheard one of the employees giving a one-on-one orientation to a customer learning to use a new sewing machine, and she was so patient and encouraging with the customer. If you are in search of a specific fabric, Valley Fabrics also has its entire stock listed online on its website. I would say that Valley Fabrics is an absolute must-visit for anyone who loves beautiful fabric. Highly...

I’ve been coming to valley fabric for a few months and they have such a good fabric selection. All my favorite fabric designers and design houses are here! I’m also pleased they have a decent selection of linen, and yard-dye wovens. The store is well laid out and things are easy to find. I love seeing what’s on the long-arm machine when I come in, it’s such a fun display to see the machine in action!

I dropped off a large quilt to get long-armed (my first time doing so) and the process was really easy. The instructions on the website are very clear for how to prepare your quilt for drop-off. The folks working helped me measure, pick batting, and let me look through a book of 1000s of quilting designs. They were really helpful in suggesting good designs for my quilt and what scale would be best. The whole process took a few months which I expected, but I actually got it about 4 weeks earlier than I expected. I am so thrilled with the finished quilt! I got it back trimmed to size and only need to bind it now. The price was totally reasonable and I’m so glad I opted to have it quilted at Valley and feel good about sending any future quilts to them for the service. Thanks so much...