Dh and I went to a fabric warehouse yesterday in Houston. As we wandered through the place, we found fabric for everything from upholstery to tapestry to outdoor items to quilting. Basically anything fabric can be used for was in the warehouse.

We came across the fabric for quilting and the solids were anywhere from $1.99/yd to $4/yd by the bolt. The bolts were anywhere from 10 yards to 17 yards. On the small selection of the prints, the cost ranged from $5/yd up to $7/yd per bolt. Bolts had anywhere from 15 yards to 20 yards.

With all this said, dh and I were talking about buying our solid colors, batting and fusible webbing from there and our prints from our lqs.

Do you think this is a good or bad idea? We are open to suggestions since this is new to us in buying from a warehouse. You all have such a good insight that I told dh that I would ask my quilting friends.

Thanks.

I have looked at their website and their prices are wonderful. I just cannot get my head around 10-20 yards of the same fabric. It makes sense for batting and webbing (if you have the room to store and cut it up) but not so sure about the fabric.

Make sure and look it over really good. I'm not saying it's not good quality but some are off grain alittle to alot. I bought a bolt of white and it started off fine but the farther I got into the bolt the more off grain it was. All the pulling in the world didn't help.

Quality is some times the issue with cheap bolt fabrics as bjeriann said. It is sad to put alot of work into a quilt and then not look right because of poor quality of fabric. I have bought bolts from Marshall's Dry Goods and it is not what you would call quilt shop quality, but wal mart quality.

I can see buying a bolt of fabric that you know you are going to use. I would buy a couple of bolts in neutral colour (tan, white-on-white etc.) for backings. I would maybe buy a bolt of black if that had Kona cotton or something similar. I can't see buying a bolt of regular quilting cotton unless you intended to re-do your bedroom? If you did a quilt, bedskirt, pillows etc. you could sure use up a bolt quickly. You could also work out an agreement with a friend to split a bolt?

Thanks for your advice. Dh and I have been discussing all of your suggestions. To check the quality of their fabric, we are going to buy one bolt of a solid color that we will both use.

Tartan - Since dh started quilting during 4th of July weekend, I have a quilting buddy at home to help split the bolt. His style is very different from mine which is great.

We did buy a yard a yard of fabric for dh that was the same design but in 3 different colors. He wants to do a fussy cut quilt. The fabric quality of these 3 yards (they were on a roll) are very good. We did the test hand test, the pulling test and the feel test.

Unfortunately, for the bolts that are already packaged, we do not have the luxury of checking the quality.

Btw - the fabric warehouse is called Glick Textiles and can be found online at glicktextiles.com

Thanks to all of you for letting us know what we need look for in the quality.

Can you see the name of the mill on the end of the bolt? If it's a known name, you can feel a bit more confident.

I know a couple of the prints were designed by Michael Miller. I do not know what you mean by mill. As for the fabric that dh bought, it says "An Original Bloomcraft Screen Print P-463.

Is the mill same as the designer? I am ignorant regarding mills, designers, lines, manufacturers. I just go by what catching my eye.

Am I hopeless?

I buy bolts of fabric when I need it for the background and then use the rest for the backing.

I just did the same thing .. I bought a bolt of a fossil fern ( they are on 10 yd bolts) and will use it for some of the top and the backing.