Canada reporting in! I can go to my LQS and buy good quality quilting cotton for $12 - $16 a metre (batiks are more expensive). Or I can go to Wally World and buy crapola for $5.00 - $7.00 a metre, which is what they sell here. I feel that if I am going to make a quilt and spend all of that time and energy on it, I want the materials to be of high quality. So I use very good quality fabric, thread (Mettler's silk-finish 100% cotton), batting and backing. I don't mind paying the $$$$ for quality materials but, that being said, I don't make very many large quilts because it is cost-prohibitive.
I also order online quite a bit because I can get good prices, a much wider selection of good quality, brand name fabrics, and I have access to full collections of co-ordinating fabrics (Hancock's of Paducah and Over the Rainbow are my favourites). So I have that option available to me if I choose to use it.
I don't feel like I am being gouged or anything - that's just the way it is, with fabric as with anything else. Everything cost more here on the Eastern Edge than it does in the US (actually most things cost more here than in most other parts of Canada :cry: ).
So, no, don't send tea bags. I can buy them here ( for about $4.00 for a box of 72!) ;-)