Just came from my LQS, the new fabric she is putting out today was $12.75 per yd. She showed me what it cost her and I almost fainted. She isn't making enough money to keep the shop going much longer. I noticed she has sales starting on the 20th of the month and she said that is how she pays her rent and utilities on the first. She figures this may be her last year in business after 17 years. So sad! She says customers give her a hard time about not having all fabrics in a group and she says she can only buy what will sell. She says batting will take a big jump year end.

tinned tomatoes too ,they say shortage this year ,but the trouble is when things return to normal the prices don't.
why is cotton in short supply---bad harvest?

The local quilt shops will go out of buisness!!!

If all fabric is printed and processed in China then we need to change that.

this

Don't they have harvesting machines that do the picking now? I know when I was driving around in MS, at about this time of year, I saw them harvesting it, using big ole trucks.

In the UK our once thriving textile industry went to the wall many years ago, along with the jobs that it created, because everything could be produced and made cheaply in third world countries. Now they have the upper hand and prices are rising. Greedy businessmen and the lust for bigger and bigger profits has caused this mayhem. Our governments had neither the foresight nor the will to prevent it. I do hope the US cotton farmers will bear this in mind, because imports will get more and more expensive, and so will shipping costs. Why kill the goose that lays the golden egg? I'm sure there are enough American quilters willing to pay that little extra to keep their industry alive.

Ah-HAH! Great reason to tell DH exactly WHY I just have to have so much more fabric!! :lol:

Everything is going up except our pay scale.

I am originally from an area that was at the heart of the British textile industry. My mother used to do the accounting at a mill that was less than a mile from our house and I used to help during my school holidays. One of my cousins and her husband were senior managers in the local textile industry for many years, but were eventually forced to move to Asia to find work in their field. The wonderful old mill buildings are an important part of our architectural heritage and you will still find the word mill in the names of many of these buildings.