Ha...how spooky to have stumbled on this thread this evening. I have just come home after spending about 3 hours driving between the 2 local fabric shops looking for fabric for some new quilts I want to start and am exhausted and thoroughly fed up. Most of the fabric, whilst having the "perfect" colours and shades for what I want to do felt awful to the touch. They were either coarse, or thin, or dull when looked at "close up". Both these shops are big chain giants and it seems that more and more these days I am going to them and coming home empty handed and irritated. There are 2 new P&Q stores that have opened "almost" locally to me and whilst their fabrics are double the cost I can see that I am going to be using them from now on. It just makes it harder to budget and afford.
But the last thing I want to do is put the time effort and love into these quilts only to be disappointed with the end product. I already have to accept the whoopsies I do in my quilting and that's quite enough for my little ego to cope with without anything else!
