What Are Big Box Fabrics Really Good For?
I, and can imagine most of you as well, have read or discussed among yourselves about the great Big Box Fabric Stores Vs. Local Quilt Shops debate over the years. I used to feel guilty that my income is rather limited. That means Big Box here I come. The local quilt shops have a nasty (to me) habit of chopping up all those nice end of bolt/remnants into those cute sounding bundles (layer cakes, jelly rolls etc. anyone?) that just don’t work for me. I rather cut them myself into what shape and size I want. Most of the time, the Big Box store don’t bother doing more cutting up than necessary. So I chop these up myself when I am ready for them. Then I began to move away from convenience to customization.
I now buy both with no guilt. While I do tend to believe the old adage “you get what you pay for” is mostly correct (with some exceptions), I think I am now at a place that can include both store and shop fabrics. In planning a quilt no matter how fancy “Sunday Best” or for plain “Everyday Use.” it will eventually be now begins it’s physical creation with Big Box fabrics. Some "quickie" utility everyday ones are sewn only or mostly with Big Box fabrics. The others are sewn this way:
I buy and use both not so hot and the best fabrics from both sources. These fabrics are never mixed together in the same exact quilt, but for similar supportive purposes separately. The block below is an example. It was sewn together a few days ago using 100% cotton fabric remnants all from my local Joann’s. The fabrics were not really all that great to work with. Very limp and cheesy. Although the pure cotton (even at this inferior level) did allow me to do some sewing effects that only soft pliable cottony fabrics would do so. Even not so hot fabrics still are close enough to give a good feel about the complexity of the chosen design, working out some weak sewing technique bugs, yardage estimation, and most of all if I whether or not want to proceed with this design to the final quilt.
I decided that I really do like this design for a future quilt. So with a few more practice "Big Box" blocks in the near future and drafting a final piecing sketch layout (on Google Drive-I don't have Illustrator or other sort of computer drawing programs here-and old fashioned drawing/coloring on paper), I will be ready to put many hours (even months) of work and money (only the best fabrics from LQS type of businesses) into this project.
That is where both of these supposed non related stores do come together!
Last edited by Iona D.; 07-10-2019 at 09:36 AM.