this is a 2007 post

It may be a 2007 post but I saw it!! Thanks ladies. I actually didn't buy any fabric on that trip but later that summer went to Maine again and discovered Mardens and what fun I had there! I was in NYC again in spring 2008 and went to Joanns on Staten Island and got lots there. I've just come back from another trip in January (I have a bit of a NYC obsession!!!) and this time I went to Purl Patchwork in Soho which was nice but pricey. I bought some lovely Amy Butler fabric.

Isn't Marden's great? It is hard to shop anywhere else when they carry quilt shop fabric for such low prices. I still do shop online and at local quilt shops, but love my Mardens. I also love that I can push a grocery cart there and just keep piling on the bolts of fabric!!!! Which Marden's did you go to?

you should just be walking up and down 7th avenue. there are shops of decorating and quilting and garment fabrics for blocks. and the cheapest of the cheap. give yourself some time though. you'll get lost in all those treasures!

they are all wholesale houses but they sell to 'off-the-street' traffic, too.
i spent my last incarnation as a ny girl and that was where i did all my fabric shopping from age 13 to age 25, when i moved to nj. i want to go home!

I'm visiting Manhattan in May; haven't been there since 1990, so I expect to see a long of changes. I'll look up The City Quilter and Purl Patchwork while I am there. I would really appreciate any other suggestions. This will be so exciting.

O beachlady, I dream of Mardens! I was in a few of them...starting off with Calais up near the Canadian border, then I was in the Ellesworth one, and finally the one in Bangor. O how I wish I could go back there for just one day! I filled a full big suitcase and another smaller one with fabric. I know what you mean when you say it's hard to shop elsewhere after being to Mardens, I still feel like that. I'm so envious of you being able to just drive there when you feel like it - you don't know how lucky you are.

Butterflywing, I just came back form New York so pity I didn't know about 7th Avenue before I went. Never mind, I'm sure I'll be there again....

how far afield do you go? ever get to PA?

Never been to PA but would love to.

I used to work for Delta in Dublin so got to a few places- St. Augustine, FL, Breckenridge, CO, San Francisco and all down the west coast (my honeymoon!), Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, Dayton OH (my Mam has a cousin there so I went with her), New Orleans, Boston lots of times, NYC lots of times, a college summer in NH, another college summer in NY in the Hamptons (and it was wasted on me then - how I'd love to go there now!!) and two family holidays in New England in 2006 and 2007. You could say I love the USA!!!

My next plan is to go to the Carolinas - I really regret not going when I was in Delta cos they're expensive to get to. Anyway it'll be a few years before I get there.

The Walmart in Newburgh, NY (about 60 miles north of NYC) has lots of fabric! There is also a Walmart in Monroe, NY (closer to NYC) but you would have to call them to see if they still carry fabric. Good luck!
-Pat :)

in PA, in the amish country , there is a store called sauders. 2x a year they have OMG! sales. they open up their entire stockrooms to the public and sell entire bolts for $25.00. people arrive in trucks! they carry off bolts by the carload! it is truly an amazing experience. they also sell off per-yard fabrics downstairs at very low everyday prices.

i'm certain they have website. i've been to their sales 2x.