Yeahp!~A friend here who has a souvenier type place on I-95 needs pecans(they sell citrus,etc.) She can't get any!~China has bought up all the big crops here in GA and it was a bad year... So, it's other things too. People just don't think past a price tag or this month. It's been coming a long time and it's going to get worse. Good article.

Quick question............why would anyone ever bemoan the cost of good quality fabric, if you're going to back your quilt with a sheet? Does anyone really think that the fabric from cotton shirts or Goodwill, or any other place, is going to be compatible with "quality" fabric. I say..........buy whatever fabric you're happy with, Walmart or LQS, do a good job in constructing your quilt, and be happy. The enjoyment is in the making!

I too have noticed how high cottons at the LQS have gotten. I recently went to 4 quilts shops while on vacation and was floored. I found a charm pack that I know is at least 2 years old at all 4 shops. I originally paid $6 for a charm pack but have recently also paid $10.98 for a yard of the same collection and the same pack was anywhere from $9 to $10.50. Needless to say I'm going to try real hard to just use what I now have on hand. (But fabric is my addiction! Maybe I need a Tweleve Step Program for fabric addiction.)

Cotton prices have gone way up do to the flooding, sunamis, and storms throught the country. Hopefully things will come back to more sensible prices when this country gets back to what was once normal?

Good Luck
Suzy

I think you are right about that.

Today I just bought some yarn to make a shawl wrap for my daughter. She may like it or she may hate it (being 14, who knows?) but I figure I still have the entertainment value of the time I spend working on it. Cold winter nights with a cozy project... works for me!

I buy a lot of my fabrics at : www.thousandsofbolts.com

I do buy from the local quilt shops too. I don't want them to go out of business.

I thought that Fabri-quilt was still made in the U.S. Just got back to the motel from my first trip to Mary Jo's and had slight sticker shock. Oh, and severe traffic shock. But the selection is incredible. Online prices are often better, but you can't pet the fabric before your buy it LOL. Seriously, it is tough for me to buy fabric that I haven't really seen. But some of the batiks were $18.95. While I do believe that the people who make the fabric deserve to be fairly paid, that will reduce the amount that I can buy. And that isn't all bad. Do I think that there is an award for the person with the biggest unused stash?

Hi, I'm on a really tight budget and it keeps getting tighter. But when the times are a little better I buy a yard, here a yard there, fat quarters and so on. I also buy some fabric at thrift shops. So when it comes time to sit down and plan a new quilt I take some from my stash and buy those super wow pieces from the quilt shop. I usually spent a while making a quilt and it's always for a special person so I think it is worth it.

As to cotton fabrics, I believe Fabri-quilt does the quilting here in the US (as in layering one or two fabrics to batting and doing the stitching to make single- or double-faced quilted fabric)... but the fabrics themselves are printed overseas.

They do sell synthetics, too, but I don't know the country of origin of those as we don't carry them.

Bummer