Just heard from the Moda sales rep that a 7% price increase is to be expected in January. That'll be about a 30 cents per yard increase on their lines.

FYI.

Well it certainly didn't take them long to follow suit. You only posted last month that the Moda Rep said no price increase for now. :cry:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-74384-1.htm

Yeah. You're right about that!

I imagine that what it looks like from the manufacturers perspective is that you look around and watch all the competition... and hope that they all raise their prices first. That drives more business to those makers who have NOT yet raised prices. However... they can't absorb the loss, not for long, without damaging themselves significantly. So then they go and raise prices too.

I hate to say this... but it looks like nearly all of the major brands are going to have wholesale prices at or above the $5 / yard level by early 2011. Which, of course, means that retail prices will be crossing that awful $10 / yard level in most shops.

Yes, there are stores (Thousands of Bolts, Marshalls etc) that buy the closeouts, but there will be more competition for those limited amounts of goods... and even there, the manufacters are not going to be able to sell off the closeouts as inexpensively as before.

Thanks for keeping us up to date on things.

Are manufactors trying to cause us to stop buying new fabric? Maybe we should follow quilters of the past, reuse fabric. Recycle, reuse.

Dang --- I have to buy fabric for a king size quilt but can't do it till January!!!!

This is an issue of commodity prices. You know, Wall Street stuff - and that is not an area that I understand well. But remember, the fabric brands we know and love - Moda, Hoffman, Clothworks - any of them - though we think of them as manufacturers, they only arrange for the printing of various designs and the sale of those fabrics to stores around the world. They don't actually manufacture the cloth itself. That is all done overseas (mostly in Pakistan and China).

You know how anytime there's a freeze in Florida, there's always talk of "orange juice is going to cost more"? Well, it's the same thing here. Commodity prices, supply and demand... more demand for less available cotton (or oranges), and the price goes up.

Now I do not feel so bad about placing a big order with the Cottonloft at $2.75 a yard. I felt this was a good time to fill in the holes in my stash colors for 2011.

Well I joined the fabric moratorium and won't be buying much this coming year... Feeling kind of peaceful about the whole pricing discussion. :)

:(