Have a mega stash including bolts and bolts (my sister and I made small quilts for trunk shows and wholesale trade shows for a fabric manufacturer (like Benartex, Hoffman, etc.) We did not hoard the fabric for ourselves, much of it was used for charity quilts. Also bought bolts at a garage sale (Benartex) and the Goodwill-Moda and Marcus Bros, which we believe came from a lqs that went out of business. Probably the best buy from thrift store was a bundle of fabric for $25. Each bundle had 100+ yds in various sizes and only a few pieces were from JoAnn or Hancock. My sister bought 3 and I bought 2. I do buy from the one of the lqs in my home town (there are 3 there). However, my greatest coups were bolts of vintage fabric 3 from thrift stores and 1 from antique mall and on sale. The best thing with thrift stores is the hunt. You never know what you will find. Fabric has gotten really expensive and in 3 counties in Washington our sales tax is over 10% and license tabs and property taxes are higher also to pay for a transit system that many taxpayers will never get to use since it will take so long to construct.

I have to agree that fabric prices are "out of sight"! I spend a lot of time searching the web to find the best prices. I am a widow, and on a very limited income. I won't and can't pay $10 a yard for fabric My answer to this problem is I watch for sales. Recently, I bought batting at 70% off of by-the-yard batting. I've also shopped at Marshall's where I've gotten some very nice fabric at reasonable prices. The fabric may not have a "big name" brand on the fabric, but if it's quality fabric, I don't give a darn about the "big name". I do have a relatively small stash, but not enough fabric to construct quilts. I buy fabric for the project at hand -- that's the only way I can continue to make quilts, so I watch for sales -- and I buy fabric for the quilt top, excluding the borders. By the time I have the main top pieced, I will then purchase border fabric if the quilt is to have borders. Once the borders are completed and attached to the quilt top, it's time to purchase the batting and backing. During this whole process, I am watching for sales, coupons, etc. -- perhaps that's just my methodology, but it also keeps me within my budgetary limitations. But, I still won't and can't buy fabric at $10 a yard and above, it's just out of reach.

I have talked to so many girls lately and they are all using their stash or pulling out ufo's that were started years ago. It really has to be special for me to spend the money for quilt shop fabric. Expensive way to keep us off the street.

Joanne, my favorites are Missouri Star Quilt Company and fabric.com
There are others but those 2 are my favorites.

thousandsofbolts.com is an excellent place to get high quality/good price fabric.

I believe in recycling. Thrift shops offer a myriad of opportunities to recycle new or like new fabrics. I go once a week and find it an enjoyable way to feed my stash. I go to Saver's and focus on the fabric, bedding and decor area of the store. I can afford to keep quilting and that matters a great deal to me.

I agree. I love thrift stores for finding fabric. It is always a little like Christmas when I find some. Often it is vintage stuff that brings back memories from when my grown kids were young and I was just learning to sew. Sometimes it is newer stuff.

The one thing that makes me sad is when I find beautiful work that someone put heart and soul into, that was donated to a TS. My husband says I am a "rescuer" because I have to bring them home. I repurpose the items I find and that makes me happy again! lol

Several months ago I found two gorgeous wall hangings and several table runners that were very recently made, just guessing by the fabric used, and I bought them ALL for the ridiculous price of $8. The wall hangings are displayed proudly on my walls, and one table runner is in use, the other three I gifted to a young woman who was moving into her first apartment.

I celebrate the person who made them every time I look at them. They bring me much joy.

Wow. Quilt stores around here have fabric around $12 per yard.

I agree that I can never find fabric at thrift shops.

For those that don't get fabric yardage at your local thrift stores, talk to management. If they know you'd buy it if they put it out instead of lumping it with rags, they would probably start putting it on the shelves. After all, they are interested in making money. Just a thought.

New prices at Joann Fabrics are exorbitant! I was so pleased to see their advertisement that they were "the new quilt shop in the neighborhood" (or words to that effect), and that they'd added 1000+ new fabrics. I couldn't wait to take a look!

Alas, while many of the new fabrics are lovely, the prices have gone through the roof! Some quilting fabrics were priced at $14.99/yard. Yikes!

Here in CA we have Beverly's, which is a chain fabric/craft store but has LQS brand fabrics (Moda, Kona, Hoffman, etc.) for $2 or $3 less per yard than you'd pay in a smaller LQS. I shop there a lot, especially since they often have tables with bolts of fabric for $5/yard and sometimes less. Occasionally they'll have a $3/yard table, and it's good fabrics, just older lines or stuff that's off-season. Great if you don't mind stocking up on Halloween or Christmas fabrics in March. :)

I've said for years that quilting is not a cheap sport.

Last year, a quilt shop in our area had fabric for $15.99 a yard and up. This year it's down to $10.97 a yard. Supply and demand. Or greed.

As a longtime quilter, I can't say enough about how much I LOVE MY LQS!

They are experts and educators in the sewing/quilting field, are there to answer my questions including the difference in threads, help me in figuring yardage out, provide me w opportunities to get together w others for quilting, look into special orders, guide me on what I may/may not need for a project, and more. I can even take fabric there that I buy on vacation elsewhere, and they'll help me find coordinating ones to work w it. They carry beautiful fabrics, offer both full- and sale-priced, and I buy what I need.

I can't get any of this from the internet or big box chain. And even though there's a lot of info on the internet, there is a lot of wrong/incomplete information.

My LQS has worked on developing a relationship w me, and I trust/value them. They are running a business, and as costs of inventory, freight, etc. increase for them, they have to raise prices to be profitable and to remain in business. Personally, I feel like I am getting much more than just fabric when I buy from them, and I value it.

I am grateful they're around and I want to do my part to keep them in business. I would not feel right going to them expecting free guidance/help if I didn't buy from them.

I recently went on both cites and saw that they had good deals on fabric, since shops are having to compete with online sales you would think they would try to keep there prices low so we would buy more fabric from them.

At thrift stores, check in the linens section, near the sheets. Last week I found a yard of Moda fabric for $3. I use a lot of sheets in my quilting, both tops and backs. The white sheets are not see through like many quilting cottons and make excellent background fabrics. No piecing the back if the sheet is large enough. Shirts, skirts and men's pj bottoms have all been made into quilts here.

Business-wise, it costs significantly more to run a LQS than an online site. In most cases, the LQS would go out of business if it went head to head with online sites on pricing.

Connecting Threads, Thousands of Bolts, certain sellers on EBay (can give a list if needed), and Hancock's of Paducah. I always check the sale pages first and see if I can get what I need there. Just recently ordered a mixed pack of batik remnants and 1 yard of sale fabric from Hancock's. Got 40 cuts of batiks, most were 13"x18" for $20 and the yard of very nice designer fabric was on sale for $5/yard. The batiks were beautiful and I got a great assortment. Used a $25 gift card someone gifted me, so all I had to pay was the $4.95 shipping.

JoanneS, I see that you are in AZ at least part time. When in the Phoenix area, you should check out SAS fabric. There's a location in Phoenix and one in Tempe. I have only been to the Tempe shop, but they said the Phoenix one is even bigger. It is NOT your local LQS! more like a warehouse with all sorts of fabric and notions. They have several looooong tables piled high with quilting cottons. You have to pay attention to quality as it is a mixed bag. I look for the better name fabrics (Moda, RJR, Kaufman, etc). Prices are from $4/yd to $10/yd. I stick with the $4-$6 dollar range and have come home with very nice fabric for that price.

I like eQuilter, Missouri Star, Quilt Fabric Closeouts, Quilters' Paradise in Baldwin City, KS; Lil Red Hen in Paola, KS (both those LQS have customers from across the nation so don't write them off just because they are locals); and for batiks--my fav is Fabric Fanatics--all the carry is batik and you can find scads of them in the sale category--all big name suppliers.

I haven't bought from this shop yet but plan on it once we get moved. She has fabric on sale for $2.00 a yard!
http://www.needllove.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1919

I realize quilting is an expensive hobby but so is golf, sailing, drinking etc. :D

Yup! I had a coworker teasing me about how many vintage sewing machines I have, so I asked him how many vehicles he has. I know he has at least 3 or 4 vintage cars, a boat, a pair of jet skis, and a motorcycle. That shut him up pretty quickly! It's easy to think someone else's toys are "too expensive", or that someone else's passion is silly.

Well ladies don,t come up to Ontario Canada . The fabric here in North Bay starts at $19.00 Batik is $22.00 and up.
Went into the store the other day and the ladies at the store where asking me how come i,m never in .I just cant afford it. Have been ordering on line from down there even with the exchange i,m still way ahead,
Thread here for 800 yards is $8.99 plus tax.
Tom

Quilting cotton in our LQS range between $18 - $36/meter. I really do try to buy fabric locally but I can only afford to do that if it's on sale. I do a lot of on-line shopping at US quilting stores. Even with the dollar exchange & shipping it is less expensive. A few times I asked the managers of LQS why the prices are so high in Canada & the answer was freight & dollar exchange. I went to purchase minky & insulbrite at a chain fabric store (we only have 2 that have stores across Canada) and the minky was $36/meter, the insulbrite was $24/meter. Needless to say I came home & ordered from Joann's. It's a little inconvenient because they don't ship to Canada anymore but I have a friend in AZ who will mail it to me. Joann's delivers to her or she picks up in the store.

Tom, I love Canada- but I won't go quilt shop hunting. Ouch!! :D

I love touching fabric at LQS, fabric shops when traveling, estate sales, CL sales, guild sales and thrift stores. Dropped by Habit for Humanity Restore today to check on a desired item(and Tues. is 20% off) and at the end of the glassware section there were 3 large baskets with fabric in it. Cranston, Michael Miller, Northcott were just a few brands- nothing more than $2. Fortunately, I just restocked some supplies so none of today's bargains came home with me. If there had been more juvenile fabrics, I would have sprung for them as I belong to a group making charity quilts for kids.

I am in Tasmania, Australia. Lots of the LQSs here closed down. The one left in town (other than a sewing machine distributor with some fabric) charges about $26/metre. This shop usually has a container of FQs for 3 for $20 and I often shop from them. Otherwise FQs are about $6.50 each. I shop thrift shops and garage sales too, especially for cotton sheets I use for foundations for string blocks. It is worth talking to the management of the local thrift shop if you never find fabric - the one here the workers used to toss scraps because they thought no one would want them. I love to sew scrappy quilts, mostly for charity, and am happy every time I find some scraps to add variety.

Sorry, that should be 7 for $20 - 3 for $20 would hardly be a bargain here.

Hearing what you folks in Oz and Canada have to pay...all of a sudden my $12.99 a yard local prices don't seem so bad!

I have had a lot of luck getting bargains at the LQSes I visit as I travel. I always ask if there is anything on sale. Recently, in Maine, I got a Marcus fabric from a bin which they had put three year lengths for just $12. At $4/yard, that's my buying price! Many shops sell bolt ends (one shop had them up to 5 yards!) for a fraction of regular prices.

Earlier this month, I purchased 15 yards (!) of a Schumacher curtain fabric that is the perfect weight for quilting at a thrift shop on Long Island for $15. Just yesterday, I bought 18 yards of a similar fabric for $10 at a thrift shop in Maryland.

I cannot claim that any of these experiences is common -- it is just a rare set of lucky breaks. But I think it shows there are bargains on quality fabrics our there -- you just have to dig, dig, dig.