mariatherese

I'd say it's the same in Sweden. I have a book on the history of quilting. It talks about Sweden and Scandinavia but not for traditional quilts. I guess we used wool and linen more than cotton?
In Sweden embroidery was always big. We have traditional clothing from different parts of Sweden which is often quite embellished.

http://holomorkohbf.se/hbf/?page_id=197

We have quilting stores but the prices on fabrics and quilting related haberdashery are way, way higher than in the States. I buy most of my fabric from the fabric shack. Even though they charge a shipping fee of $18, it's still much cheaper than in Sweden. A fat quarter in Sweden usually goes for about $8-$10.

tron80

Hi Mariatherese, the tradicional sweden clothing is gorgeous!! and I buy the fabrics on line in Fabric shack too!!!

mariatherese

Fabric shack are the best. They used to include a small gift in their packages and I miss that. I have a wonderful ruler I got once which is both metric and imperial units. Another time you'd get a pack of needles or possibly a measuring tape. Sorry for the OT.

carolaug

Wow...this thread is very interesting...funny how I assumed Quilts were always made everywhere.

barri1

This thread is very interesting. I went to a quilt show in PA, and there were a lot of quilts from all over the world. There is a group in Israel that exhibited their quilts at the show, and they were a very talented group.
Would love to hear more about quilts from other countries.

CarolynMT

It is also interesting to note that in some places the spread of quilting as a hobby started in the 80's....which coincidentally was when the internet started. I am sure there is some correlation of the ease with which we communicate internationally and the spread of traditionally "local" hobbies.

Love to hear more, it is wonderful to see how each country adds it's own twist on the different hobbies.

And to you ladies without good selection of fabrics and notions, could there be an opportunity there? Like what Jenny Doan did with Missouri Star Quilt Co?

Geri B

Why is fab so expensive in Europe.......most is milled in China or some other third world country then imported here....so why not shipped there too.......is clothing more expensive too?

I think most notions are also " made in China"

Have you also noticed most of our Quilt books are printed on China too!

CarolynMT

Geri, it really depends on how that country sets it's tariffs, the taxes on import/export. some European countries are not as "generous" to imports than the US is.

Elisabrat

Australia and New Zealand pay a premium price on fabrics also similar to the high Swedish costs. My great grandmother by marriage was born in 1868 in Italy. She made quilts all her life but out of the fabric left over from clothing.. large family not much money lived through seriously tough times.. you didn't waste a thing so they made blankets (quilts) for the family when clothing was no longer good enough to pass down. My mom made them out of flour sacks she would embroider on them then make them into table clothes and blankets.

mariatherese

Well, for Sweden there's the tax thing. For the person transporting and selling commodities to make a profit, first all social fees and taxes needs to be paid for. That is the main reason in most cases. I'd say that somewhere around 60-75% of all incomes for the sales person goes to tax. And on top of that there's the sales tax of a whopping 25%. It's just crazy... They've also found through bench-marking that Swedish shop owners expect more profit than there European counter parts which means that they try to sell things for as high price as possible instead of trying to get a good turnaround. It's almost impossible to get rich in Sweden on your paycheck so I guess that this is the result... There's almost no differentiation in income... I have a masters in engineering, I work in international projects and have people reporting to me. I earn perhaps 20-30 percent more than an unskilled worker in the manufacturing industry. But then, I also pay a larger percentage in tax... so the worker who might pay 33% taxes... mine are somewhere above 40%. It has become a little bit better in the last 8 years... but this year is election year. And there are silly, silly commercials from the unions on youtube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqgMIRF7acw

I'll get off my soap box now.