Originally Posted by Favorite Fabrics
Originally Posted by bonniebusybee
QUILTERS, UNITE! Stop building your stash just because you like a piece of fabric. Buy what you need for the project you're working on. If there is a tremendous backlash to this price increase, the price will come down!
While I agree that it's wise to buy what you need for a project, as opposed to endless stash-building (like the lady who died with the huge hoard of fabrics), it is NOT true that if quilters stop buying, the price will come down. Quilting fabric is such a teeny tiny portion of the global market for cotton, we would likely have no impact at all on the prices. What would happen is that a number of fabric manufacturers would likely go out of business, or they would reduce the quality of the goods to get back to a price point that people would tolerate. (Think chain store quality.)
Somehow I just don't think that is the outcome we want.
To frame it differently: who do you think has more economic power, quilters worldwide, or the large numbers of people in China, who with their growing economy, desire to have more consumer goods (probably including clothing, towels, and sheets)?
I agree completely ... remember in the 70's when there where very few quilters , the selection of "quilters cottons" was very very poor. There was no local quilt shop , the only selection was at stores that carried a variety of all types of fabrics. The local quilt shop came into existance because of demand. If there is a falling demand there will be a domino effect encompassing manufactures to the local quiltshop and beyond.