Wow, do you really pay so little for fabric?
I have one shop near me that is $9 to $12 per metre(39").
It's a little old fashioned fabric shop. All the LQS charge $24 to $30 per metre. I thinnk it's time for a move.

I have to admit as a handquilter the feel of the fabric is the most important thing to me. I am less particular about the fabrics I use for chairity quilts as those I machine sew and quilt. Durring the quilting process I will be touching the fabric constantly. After I find a fabric I like the look of it has to pass the feel test.

And to answer yuor question, yes I would pay the extra $ for the right blender, regardless of it being a charity quilt or one I'm keeping, or giving as a gift.

I'm not a typical customer, so I doubt my opinion will have any influence on your stocking plan, but I'll toss it out there anyway. I don't buy focus fabrics. I treat fabric in a quilt as a painter treats paint. For me, color is critical, the print is not important other than that there is a variety of them in the work I make.

I seldom buy anything other than tone-on-tones, blenders, solids, hand-dyes, or batiks, and even those are TOT batiks. I prefer to buy in person because color varies so much between dye lots and no colors are true except in person. I will pay just as much for blenders as I pay for any other cottons at a quality shop, $10 to $12 a yard, I will drive for hours to get them, and I buy a lot.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :lol:

When I had a 40 hour per week job, I could afford to buy what I liked even if it was pricey. Now that I work 14 hours per week, I look for sales and don't buy anything I don't need. I love to support the LQS but that is a luxury right now. I guess what I'm saying is, yes, price is important now even with blenders

I go for the fabric match and feel. I'll pay more for that. I think a fair LQS price would be $8, I'm sure I've paid more though for a blender (i'm thinking of a black that I used on a memory quilt that was $9, but I have a hard time finding black fabrics that I like).

Probably would not need to go pricey for blenders. So many out there, it's likely I would be able to find very nice ones at lower price.

For me its not neccessarliy the price , it more is it the best choice for my quilt... it does not matter blender or focus. If I see a fabric that will "go"perfectly I really don't go looking for a cheaper option while picking out the fabrics for a project. SO if there are several blenders that may"go" ... the last consideration is if it is .75 more per yard.... because in the long run... if I am buying 2 or 3 yards of something the $1.50 -$2.25 is not going to sway me from my best choice. I would always be thinking there was a better choice , and regret Ihad not spent extra $1.50 -$2.25 .

BellaBoo, there must have been some details that she didn't tell you! 'Cause what she did, doesn't make sense. If she took the first-run fabrics that she paid full price for, and then sold it half off, she's probably making nothing at all. Now, there are always lots of discontinued fabrics that a shop can buy for about 40% off the original price. But... IMHO those are the ugly leftovers of lines that didn't sell well in the first place. I check out all the "clearance" suppliers regularly but rarely buy anything from them. Now, a shop could bring in those clearance fabrics and then say that they'd been marked down and sell them at half-off what would have been the original full price, I suppose... and of course it would be easier to sell a $5 / yard fabric than one that's priced at closer to $10 / yard. Maybe that's what she meant?

This isn't something I've really given much thought to, but it does seem that blenders, solids, and near solids should cost a little less. I would think they would be cheaper to produce due to less design time, ink changes -- whatever. A dollar - a dollar and a half less than more patterned fabric seems reasonable to me.