The average for good quality fabric in one of the shops I go to in Belfast is around £9.50 which is almost $15 I think. I found a great shop in Wales who sell through the internet and even with postage the fabric is cheaper. I'm gathering up good quality cotton shirts just now, just £1 each... Also when Ikea has nice duvet covers on sale I have started to buy the odd one , they are just the right size for backing a quilt and I can use the other side as extra fabric for something else.

Most of the new batiks I see online are $11 - $13 per yard. If there is a new batik I love, I'll pay it but I'm still using what I shipped here from Bali. I pay that much for M & S Textiles Aboriginal fabric because it's so hard to find and I'll pay that for Kaffe Fassett fabric if I have to!

hi there, newbie here from Arkansas, love all of the chat and information, pictures, etc.

Buying fabric is addicting!! I found a Wal Mart in Jackson that still has fabric by the yard woohoo. I jumped for joy. The highest price was 9.99 for upholstery fabric.

I agree that fabric in Canada is way to expensive so I buy most of my fabric online. If you are careful about where you buy it from and watch the amount you buy you can reduce the shipping costs per yard. I have a company in California who puts 9 yards in a flat rate envelope so I always wait and buy the full 9 yards at one time. Her prices are very good and with only a little over a dollar per yard extra for shipping I still save over half what I would have to pay in Canada for similar fabric. Batiks around here average $18 to $22 metre (39") and the quality is no better than what I can buy online.

I don't pay anymore than I have to. Check out Connecting Threads, some very good prices there, fabric is 100% cotton and very good quality.

I am living on a fixed income and never pay full price for fabric. I just can't afford to. I live in an area populated by quilter's who buy fabric, then change their minds and sell it at garage sales, thank the lord. If I could afford to spend more on fabric I would, I am just very grateful not to have to. My name is Kelly, and I am a fabriholic....LOL!

i have never paid that much but one day i wondered in a local quilt shop and her prices were outrageous 10 dollars and up on fabric , i looked and drooled at the fabric but could not justify the price, about 3 months later i saw an add in the paper , a local quilt shop had closed up and the owner was having a sale of the left over material at a warehouse, i went and omg it was the same quilt shop i visited her material was now on sale for 30% off i looked and still didnt want to spend that much she had rooms of fabric leftover, couple weeks later there was another sale in the paper , i went and sure enough it was the same lady, rooms of fabric $2.00 a yard omg i was in hog heaven i bought yard and yards of it .

I stared out using cheaper fabric from Joanns but I soon discovered that most of the time you get what you pay for. Now I shop quilt shops and quilt shows. My stash grows more slowly but the color and feel of the fabric is so much better. The only exception to this rule is batik, fleece, flannel, and oilcloth. The better fabrics are so much easier to work with and they produce a much nicer quilt.:)

No, I shop around and use coupons whenever possible, look for new material at thrift stores or garage sales. You be surprised what you can find in this places. All the material, that I have bought in this places has been put to good use.

I'm lucky enough to live within a 2 hour ride to Lancaster County where all the quilt shops there are in the $6 range. I do however try to buy something every month to keep my LQS in business. I will not buy online unless I have previously seen the fabric and am familiar with the colors as every computer monitor is different.

Just my 2 cents, but wm fabric is not anywhere near as good as LQS fabric.

I was surprised to find that JoAnns Fabric has fabric that is nearly as expensive as Quilt Store Fabric. I always watch for sales on the fabrics I love at Quilt Shops.

No. I do not pay top of the line prices for fabric. Someday, there may be a special quilt that I do shop top of the line for. I enjoy learning. It doesn't break my heart to make a mistake on my quilt if the fabric was a lower price. I have to learn. I need to enjoy learning. It is not supposed to be stressful.
No. I do not. I love my quilting.

Same down here in Oz, most of my fabric is between $22/26 a metre. I sometimes buy from $2/8 a metre as well but then only if I am happy with the quality of the fabric. Some of the cheaper fabrics are quite thin to the extent you can see through them and if I am going to all this time and effort to make something that will last the distance then I want to start off with quality in the first place.

Am so envious of all your different themed fabrics over there, the animals and winter ones are wonderful and of course the price looks good :lol: Just saw the Thomas Kincade village fabric which is on sale and am so tempted to see if they will ship international.

I digress, getting back to what you were talking about - my friend seldom buys anything unless it is less than $10 a metre so your not alone.

Maybe1day

I try to find it on sale especially for backs but, yes, I have paid over $9.00 a yard. Even over $10 on one occasion.

If I have a very specific project in mind, I might. I generally wait until the seasonal sales at my favourite shop, though, and stock up. :)

No I always wait for sales etc. Don't like to pay that much unless it is absolutely the greatest fabric I have ever seen.

No I have never or will ever pay that much for material. & I go in to quilt shops all the time I wait till material goes on sale & it will

I love batiks, which are often $10 or more, even at the "cheaper" stores. I try to find good quality fabric on sale, by having online sources and watching for sales at quilt stores in my area. I also buy fabric on sale at non-quilt shops when I can feel it and check its quality.

I used to always buy only inexpensive or sale fabric, but now I don't want to spend a lot of time working on something that might always be wrinkled, frayed, see-through, faded, or falling apart. I honor my work with quality supplies.

I LOVE your line "I honor my work with quality supplies". Yeah!!

I have paid 15.00, but that was for a special dress. Otherwise I buy online and at Joaans, on sale.

I pretty much just shop at Hancocks or online. I wait for Hancocks to go on sale for 40% or50% off. I find that 1,000s of bolts is pretty reasonable also Conecting Threads.

All the quilt shops/fabric stores in my area have on average $8 - $10.00 a yard fabric. JoAnn's has cheaper fabric but you can tell a difference in quality. Connecting Threads on line has great fabric. They just lowered their regular price on prints to $4.96 a yard and solids to $3.96 a yard. They have a new line of batiks and they are priced at %5.96 a yard.

I have ordered fabrics from this company and there were fabulous!

Depends where you live. It costs $21 - $26 on average in Australia, with the occasional cheapie or when on sale, and I've seen it at $75 in the 'speciality' quilt shops...

Absolutely NOT! I'd just as soon wait until it goes on sale for $3.50-4.95/yd. Since I prefer mostly scrappy quilts, having the "latest" fabric means little to me. One time I bought a yard of a Halloween fabric I had been looking for, which was $7.95, and even that was really irksome. <G> We're not stingy... we're what the Scots call "mingy" - somewhere between frugal and stingy. <G> That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. :)

I was excited to see Connecting Threads batiks and ordered half yards of a whole selection. I found the fabrics quite beautiful, but much thinner than usual batik fabrics. This would be good if all the fabrics in a quilt are from Connecting Threads, since quilting would be easier. But, they would not mix well with fabrics from other sources. At the same time, I ordered batiks on sale from three other sources. I found that the colors on Connecting Threads website did not match the real fabrics. I would have blamed my monitor, but the fabrics I ordered from three other sources matched the online colors perfectly.The threads I ordered were considerably darker than they appeared on the screen.

My daughter had purchased fabric earlier from Connecting Threads and found very different surface smoothness in several fabrics from the same line of prints.

I'm not sure whether I'll buy from them in the future.

I rarely pay so much for fabric. It's too easy to find sales, mark-downs, specials & those 40-50% off coupons really help. Usually find something I like if I shop around. Maybe if I were to want a special fabric I might buy, say a yard at $9.00, but no more than that.

How do those of you who live in Canada, England, Australia, etc. manage to purchase fabric at all? I'd have to go back to using old clothing, etc. if I had to pay those prices for fabric. I've seen some of those fabrics though, and they are exquisite. social Security retirement just doesn't make allowances for my fabric stash.

When I was working I bought up bolt ends and remnents.. So I have a big stash.. of course it doesn't have much of anything over a yard or two... so I mostly make scrap quilts and try to make due with what I have... I have made dozens of quilts, kept some, given many.. I'll use the fabric I have and the patterns I have and then I guess I'll be done. How many quilts away from being done am I?? pretty far.. Seems like no matter how much sewing I do I still have a ton of fabric.. so I try to spend nothing at all.. backings are the biggest problem.. I've seen lots of people just sew pieces of fabric together until it's big enough for the back.. but somehow that doesn't appeal to me... so I am still buying backings..

I don't want to put a damper on things, but I sure hope those who do not buy at your LQS never go and ask advise of the owner or their employees.

As Aussie Quilter and jitkaau said between $20 & $30 here in Australia. I don't pay that much as I give my quilts away.I have bought a lot of fabric from the States and it averages out to $8 per yard. That includes postage.
I do check out Spotlight sales and have picked up some bargains at time. I prefer to buy from U.S.A though as there is a wider range of kids fabric to be had. As most of my quilts go to kids charity I like to use bright prints. In fact the brighter the better.

I have if I really like it. I certianly try to get it on sale. Just started seeing fabric for $10.00 to $10.50 recently at a Quilt Store...The owner said it will go up again pretty soon. So sorry to hear that!!

Nope very rarely like everyone else. http//www.5bucksayard.com and http/www.thousandsofblots.com

And Missouri Star Quilt Company (my favorite) shipping only 5 bucks!

Nope, not ever, no way!! I think the most I have ever paid is $5.00 a yard, and then only for small amounts of something very special. I'm a thrift store, clearance sale, yard sale, etc. shopper. I start collecting fabrics for a project way ahead of time and work on other things until I have enough collected to do the next one. Most of my projects are scrappy for this reason.
I don't mind tho, I see it as a fun challenge finding the fabrics I want/need for a certain project. It is also a challenge to my creativity when I have to make do with what I have been able to find.

amen sista gul! wm is my main place to buy fabric too!

Yes. I have learned the hard way that cheap fabric fades, shrinks funny and the weave is loose.

I can't and won't pay 9.00 a yard for material. I have never seen any that I thought was that pretty too pay that price. Poor folks can't pay 5.00 a yard much less 9.00 a yard. I really can't see why material would have too be that high priced anyway.

I'm Canadian as well, and I agree - the prices here are out of this world. I often order online. But then, the other day I ordered some fabric from an American website (Oregon) that came out to $55.98. The shipping was an additional $16.56. So I assumed my final price was $72.54. They sent it by UPS, and when the UPS guy came to the door, he told me I would have to pay him $41.07!!!!! for the UPS brokerage fee. (That's on top of the $72.54 I had already paid!) So it turned out to be VERY expensive fabric.

I called the fabric company in Oregon, to suggest to them that they might consider sending fabric by express post envelopes, rather than UPS when sending to Canada.

www.thousandsofbolts.com has great prices for fabric and its all quilt shop quality.

I haven't been to the quilt shop in months, can't drive yet since I'm still in a boot splint for a broken ankle. All healed.
I've got a huge stash, so I don't buy fabric very often.

I learned that the hard way too gaillynne. I bought a very nice fabric for quilt backing from the $2 section at Wal-Mart
long ago and the first washing was okay, but when I washed the finished quilt; I was horrified to see white spots everywhere. The dye had come off. I wanted to cry, I'd put so much work into the top too.