Yesterday I talked with a vendor about fabric prices/cotton prices and she said she's hearing that fabric will be going to over $12.50 a yard. At the outlet place I asked again and the woman told me that what they have in the store will not be raised but what comes in after the first of the year may be.
this is quoted from the following website:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/mp_cn206.txt
"...... in the seven designated markets averaged 142.53
cents per pound for the week ended Thursday, November 11, 2010. The weekly average was up from 129.54
cents reported last week and 63.14 cents reported the corresponding period a year ago. Daily average
quotations ranged from a low of 138.84 cents on Friday, November 5 to a high of 147.84 cents on Tuesday,
November 9. This was the highest daily average since records were established in 1917."
You might want to at least skim read the whole article.
Here's another site:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...g-may-ebb.html
It sounds at first, that the price "might not be so bad", until you continue reading....
If you don't have a stash, you may want to try to get enough fabric to make two or three quilts to 'keep you busy' during the next year :mrgreen:
I wouldn't think you'd have to go crazy trying to stash enough for the rest of your life, but as I told the vendor at the show yesterday - I won't pay $8.50 for a yard of fabric and I certainly won't pay $12.50"...
I do know that I've seen fabric in Joanns already for $12.99 - and even at 50% off it's too high priced.
It could be they are just manipulating prices, BUT, we live in the deep south and I can tell you that the cotton crop here has not been that good - the weather has been too dry.... factor in the horrendous flooding in Pakistan, etc etc and it doesn't sound promising.
Whether or not the quilting industry - and if you don't think quilting is big business think again - will continue to produce so many yards of so many lines by so many manufacturers remains to be seen.... it could be time for a big shake up and some will fall by the wayside - or collapse all together - if you can't afford to eat you can't afford to buy high priced fabric.
And it may be that the quilters will have to go back to the traditional ways of quilting - making do with what is available rather than using the latest/greatest high priced fabrics available.