I do think the economy has hurt a lot of quilt stores. Over the past 3 yrs I have been shopping more & more out of my own stash and it feels so good to do that. It actually makes you think a bit more because you might need to substitute other fabrics now & again. From what I heard there was a bad cotton crop overseas last yr so that is why the cost of fabrics & batting have gone up. At the 1st of the yr I added up all the quilts that I had purchased the pattern & fabric for, but had never started & all I should need to buy is backing, batting and thread for quite some time.