Fabric stores in Provo, Utah

Provo’s two shops sit within a few minutes of each other on Center Street, and between them they cover two things the rest of Utah County largely doesn’t.

Harmony is the unusual one. It fills the Hannah Maria Libby Smith house, built in 1878, and stocks indie and vintage sewing patterns alongside apparel fabric — which makes it one of very few shops in Utah where someone who sews clothes rather than quilts is properly catered for. There’s quilting cotton, yarn and ribbons too, and the setting alone is worth the visit.

Dave’s Bernina is the other half of the picture: a family machine business open since 1960 and now the top-ranked Bernina dealer in the country. Even if you never buy a machine here, the repair bench takes any make, and that’s a useful thing to know about.

Making a day of it

Center Street runs through Provo’s historic downtown, so there’s plenty around both shops for lunch or a wander, and the university sits just above town. If you’re coming from out of the county, pairing Provo with Orem ten minutes north gives you four shops in an easy afternoon — The Fabric Mill there is the big-selection stop that Provo lacks.

Springville is also close, and Corn Wagon Quilt Co. is well worth the short detour. Everything else is on the Utah County page.