All this talk about "stash".....I am beginning to feel woefully inadequate. While I do have about 12 different pieces of 2-3-4 yards each, and many about a yard or less, as well as lots of FQ's, it definitely does not compare to what the rest of you have!!! One of my favorite things to do, as many of us have, is to just 'feel' and 'touch' fabric as we walk past and drool - trying not to get the fabric wet in the process!

hahaha...curator of texitle collection....I didn't know I have a title...thanks for sharing. I will pass this on

hahahahaha

DH came into my sewing room and stated that I would have a lot more room to sew if I got rid of all the tubs of junk I had collected in there. Those tubs of junk are fabric. Man clearly doesn't know what he is talking about.

Gee - where's all the cotton going that is grown in California and Alabama??

I have a big enuf stash to quilt till I'm 100 years old. That's how long I expect to live. I'm lucky. Everything is in good shape for now. Very little arthritis, eyes are good and God knows, the spirit is willin'.

I have enough fabric to keep me going for a while. When I run out I will admire all the beautiful quilts here.

Hi, I'm in Kentucky, too. Where is Pauls?

Yes, I think we're all "collectors". I just want to comment that I was at the Houston Quilt Show and visited quite a few shops in the area and all of the fabric we saw was $9.90 or $10.50 a yard. Know it will take a little getting used to but maybe we'll just be more particular about what we buy.

Just told my DH what everyone was writing about and he agreed with the $1,000. Just shook his head at the price of cotton. Oh, Well. Who's the boss over the quilt stash? :lol:

It pretty much all goes to China, where it is woven into greige goods, the base stocks for printing fabrics. Then it is marketed back out to the mills for printing and finishing. Some weaving is also done in other countries, but China pretty much has a monopoly on greige goods, and they're now raising prices after artificially holding them down for years. Crop failures are also contributing to the worldwide shortage of cotton greige goods.

We just went on a short buying trip yesterday, and all the fabrics are up at least .25/yd for next quarter at the wholesale level. We've been trying to absorb a lot of the price increases so far, but we're at the point where we're going to have to pass those increases along, or go out of business. It's as simple as that.

Someone else remarked that If you get a .25 increase at the wholesale level, you get a .50 increase at the retail level. In some shops that may be true, but so far most people I know have just been passing along their increases, or absorbing part of them, i.e. sharing the increases with their customers.