lindy-2

here in canada $12 per yard is realy good for lqs fabric my favorit shop here in town is only at 12 for all the new stuff and batiks but any other shops ive gone to are sharging 14-20 per meter. its crazy makes me whant to take a trip down south to get fabric but then the gas prices would kill me

plainpat

You've said it better than I can.How can any local business make it,when prices are more than ppl can pay?
We've always lived on a budget & with DH retired, the buget has to come first.DH says "it means not living past our means".That has to go for everything, quilting included.
The higher prices go, the more I'll order on line.Not my first choice, but could be my only choice! JMO

Painiacs

So sad as I love my LQS, she is just trying to make a living! Unfortunately all. Prices are going up! Gas , food everything!

Doreen

Wow! $12 a yd. I'm now doing amost all of my shopping online. I also look for free shipping. Everything is going up except for the income!!

susiequilt

It will be real interesting to see if we have a bumper crop of cotton this year, will the prices come down to last years rate or only come down a little if at all!!!

Mattee

It's not just about cotton prices; it's also about fuel to ship the product. Prices are also affected by expectations of cost, so I doubt we'll see lower prices, at least for a while.

Missi

My LQS warned us last fall we would see a lot higher prices on the new stuff. She has seen her prices soar as well as her shipping prices. The other day UPS dropped a bolt of fabric and the invoice has shipping at $10. That is a dollar per yard she has to pass on to us to just cover her shipping costs.

The manufacturers are also becoming more and more difficult to deal with. If you don't preorder a line don't count on getting it. We did the Thimbleberries BOM last year and were short a bolt of one of the fabrics. It kept showing up as backordered and when she finally called they said oh sorry we aren't reprinting that. What I preordred fabric for 15 kits she says and didn't get that. It was a mess to say the least.

ckcowl

kind of sad how some shop owners behave like gas station owners behave...a rumor goes around and they run around raising all their prices....
it makes no sense for a shop to raise the prices of the fabrics already on their shelves- they did not pay the higher prices for it- the higher prices should only be effecting new fabrics that are coming in at a higher price. funny how some gas stations hear- "oh-oh oil went up today" and respond with- we better go raise our prices---
IT IS PRICE GOUGING PEOPLE- and i would not frequent a shop who was doing this- really seems un-ethical---and to lower themselves to the standards of (oil barons) is really sad. i am so happy the 3 shops close to me are not behaving so poorly

QKO

You're not going to see prices come down, no matter what size the crop is. A bumper crop might slow down the rate of price increases, but prices will continue to increase, for several reasons; The demand for cotton goods is far outstripping the worldwide supply, and will be for the foreseeable future. Remember, quilting cotton is a very small fraction of the total cotton market. And -- there are a lot of other costs involved in cloth production and distribution, not the least of which are dramatically rising transportation costs and the costs of oil-based chemicals and dyes used in the production process.

Sourcing high-quality base goods is really getting problematic these days for manufacturers. The manufacturers of fine cotton quilting fabric have just a few choices now -- they can dramatically raise their prices and keep quality standards high, they can lower their quality standards and slow down price increases, they can print fewer and smaller lines, or they can start moving into other product lines. We've seen various manufacturers taking different of these choices. There are several threads on this board about some manufacturers lowering the quality of their products.

Stores of all types, B&M shops, online shops and giant corporate stores like WM and Joannes have the same choices; raise prices to match rising costs, maintain lower prices by offering lower quality goods, diversify offerings if possible, or move out of the fabric business.

As consumers we'll have the same type of choices; pay dramatically higher prices for quality goods, pay increasingly higher prices for WM-quality stuff, pay more for less choice, accept lower quality in return for more slowly increasing prices, or explore different fabrics and materials for our sewing needs. I guess the other option is to quit sewing.

As more and more stores close, you'll be able to buy closeout goods at reasonable prices if you shop around, but this won't last forever -- eventually those sources will be exhausted and you'll have fewer and fewer choices on where to buy. Some shops that deal in the highest quality goods and that maintain their standards will survive but only if they have loyal customer bases with clients that have the money to pay higher prices.

Another thing to remember is that the prices you're seeing in stores for new goods now reflect the wholesale prices locked in 6-12 months ago by the retailer -- there have been dramatic price increases since then in the goods we're receiving now, and again for the goods we're ordering for delivery in the next 6-12 months. Those prices, on the highest quality goods, are at least a dollar/yd higher than what we paid last year at this time.

It's getting ugly...

PiecesinMn

I understand why the price increase in fabric. Why would that change the price in notions????