bearisgray

Do think some fabric with polyester in it may have gotten included?

Lockeb

Hi there....

I usually go by the feel of the fabric..the texture..you can get an good handfeel at the store.......I've been working in the fabric business sine 1985 so I have a bit of fabric experience :-).... - which is a plus......25 years in fabric had better have taught me something...:-)

I also enjoy finding great buys when I can but that's not an easy thing here in Canada......but at lot of people on the forum talk about getting fabrics for $2.00 and very low prices...I'm not sure that you can buy a $2.00/Yd fabric and have a $8-12 yard quality.....but here a good fabric can be $15-18..but in the U.S., that would perhaps be half of that or even less...because the prices here are just higher - I guess with customs and shipping, etc.

That being said, I am sure that there are a lot of good lower price fabric out there because we can see that a lot of companies put on good sales in the U.S...and some of my friends on here have sent me sites that sell on line...unfortunately they don't all ship to Canada - and when they do the cost of shipping can put the fabric up to local prices....so it is then a non-win situation :-)

I also do know though that you can have the "same" fabric at different prices at different stores..but they are not all the same run on the same fabric..some are seconds and may have certain errors or faults - and these seconds will be sold off to clearance centers..but not advertised as such......but the First Quality goods will be at the LQS...so be careful if you see the same fabric somewhere else for a lot less..it may come from the same company and have the same name - but it may not be the same fabric by a long shot :-)

Just be careful as you shop - and if you are not sure about a particular fabric - before you buy yardage - buy a FQ and test it out and see how it works for you.....

Happy Quilting everyone!!!!!

Bill

BellaBoo

I go by thread count to determine the quality. You can buy a fabric thread counter online.

Most quilt shop quality fabric is made with a thread count of 75 and a thread weight of 30 or 34.

Good quilting fabric has a thread count of at least 60 threads per inch. Kona cotton has a thread count of 60.

Batik has a thread count of 200.

BellaBoo

I have this one, also the one sold at Hobby Lobby in the embroidery section.
http://www.colonialneedle.com/html/r...rose_info.html

Favorite Fabrics

You'll find, as others have said, that as time goes on you come to prefer a particular brand (or several).

For "beefier" (thicker) fabrics that are forgiving to work with, I like Alexander Henry, Michael Miller, Timeless Treasures, and Kaufman.

For quality of printing (fine details) right now Elizabeth's Studio does the best. They do mostly novelties. If you remember Shamash from several years back, their best designer moved on to Elizabeth's Studio so you'll see some similarities in the style of some of their designs.

Wilmington and South Sea Imports are both divisions of MMFab, and I would say that in terms of quality they are indistinguishable from each other.

Cranston Village has two brands, Quilting Treasures and VIP. The QT brand was always sold exclusively to quilt shops. Now they are going to be doing several lines under the VIP brand, that will be printed on the same goods and with the same quality as the QT line. I'm not sure why they're doing this, except that the VIP name has been better known than the QT name, probably because of all the VIP fabrics that Wal-Mart and the other chains have carried over the years. Of the VIP fabrics that the chain stores carry, you should be aware that there are three different greige goods (base fabrics) that they print on, and two finish styles that I'm aware of. So there is considerable variation in their fabrics.

bearspaws

[quote=PatriceJ

i'm slowly building a list of brands that perform consistently well for me and of those that don't.[/quote]

I'd love to see that list of brands!! :)