quilting is a very expensive art form.
i am a very frugal quilter - we live in an expensive part of the country so i have to cut corners where i can.
i shop for deals on fabric (whittles, thousands of bolts, quiltfabriccloseouts) and i have DH build things for me instead of buying them (quilting table, design board).
the most money saving things i've done was
1) learning to do the actual quilting myself
2) dyeing/painting my own fabic. it costs me about $2-3 to make a yard of fabric.