I have the pattern, I thought I had the fabric. I have part of the fabric. So I started going through the various regular on line places and there are several places that the prices is excellent and others well, they know what they have and the price reflects it. So I went into the Fabric Shop place that has over 200 stores under it's umbrella. At the search, I typed in what I was looking for, exactly what I was looking for. within 15 seconds the screen belongs to ME. The only thing that comes up is the exact fabric I'm looking for only and the name of the shops. I went through all of the ones that carried the most of the fabric line. Then wrote the name of the shop and the PRICE of the fabric. I found about 12 shops before I called it a night that the pricing for the exact same fabric ran from $6.75 a yard up to $10.49 a yard. I use this particular website most of the time and I have a much better chance of being able to pay what I want as much as $3.00 a yard less... Works for me!!!!

What a great system :D:D:D

Nice!

Oh how I needed this tip! Never thought to search that way, but it'll be my go-to from here on; can you send a link to the site?

Jan in VA

What a great idea. Thank you.

http://www.quiltshops.com/ I typed exactly what I was looking for in the search area. And in less then 10 seconds it had rows of the identical information I was looking for with the name of the shop. But the neat thing about it is I will order tomorrow what I need and pay for it within the website and I do not have to track down that particular place, etc. The fabric I was looking for on the high end $10.49, $9.69, $8.49, $7.69, $6.72 and finally $6.12 and this one had the most fabric from within the grouping. Sounds like a plan to me. There are some other things that I have picked up and at a later time, I would be more then happy to list them and hopefully they will prove beneifical.

Blue

It's a great resource! I've been using it for several months. I've tried shops I may not have heard of otherwise. It helps alot if you are looking for a particular fabric. I usually enter the Mfg. & Collection name in the box and search for images, rather than the shop names. Then I can quickly glance thru until I see what I'm looking for.

Wow! Thanks for that info and the great resource!

Thanks for that - just hope they ship down here

thanks, I have a piece of material and have been trying to find the material that goes with it.
Scrapy Kate

This is much better than my system. I have been looking for one fabric for weeks! Here I pop ... and there it is. At the pricer end of the spectrum, but I have what I want!! Totally worth it ... THANK YOU in caps for narrowing it down!!

That is a super site that I use when I am searching for a particular fabric.

When I work at my LQS I am often helping our customers find a specific fabric that they are looking for on this site. I am known for being able to find their needed fabric. It is just another service we provide our customers... we know we can't carry it all.

isn't it kind of crazy the range in price for the same fabric? i know some of it has to do with region, some areas are just more expensive than others,
but here where i live we have one shop that pretty much prices everything at 7.95; batiks, 8.95...then you drive across town to the other shop and the same fabric is 9.50, batiks 10.95...
one is in business (for 30 years) to make good money at it...the other, a small shop opened in the first place to give common folk the opportunity to buy nice fabrics without breaking the bank, they make enough to keep the doors open, but are not really making a living at it (luckily the owners are retired)
it thrills me to find a new shop with reasonable prices, and when i enter the ones i feel are ridiculous i still look, some of them really are a treat to walk into, but usually do not give them my $$, unless they have a good sale corner and i find something.
the power of the internet has been such a wonderful resource for shopping! :)

Thanks for the great tip! I will certainly use it alot.

Wow great! THANKS for that link....I've spent LOTS of time searching for specific fabric and/or patterns before, this will be a great help!

Wow - thank you!

I didnt know you could do that! How utterly cool! You made my day.

Great website! Thanks for sharing. Now I will be spending even more time on the comp looking for a good deal ;)

A store not making a living will close faster than the place making a profit. I did it for four years. Made enough to pay the bills - most of the time. But it ruined my retirement savings and I had to close my shop. I tried to make the cost of fabric, classes - everything reasonable in order to get the sales. It never happened and I had to close and go back to working.

Now I look at those places whose prices are up there (and I will shop there first every time) and they have staff to pay and a nice environment with plenty of product - they are thriving.

In essence, I had it backward.

I'm sorry for your experience and I also thank you for your perspective. There's a lot more to running a business than meets the eye!

Those of you using www.quiltshops.com: it's a great tool, and it represents MANY shops, not just one. So some of the variation in price could well be due to the fact that a fabric might be on sale in a particular store at the moment, and might not be if you go back next week.

When you're looking for a particular fabric, do you all know that you can do a search at www.google.com on the manufacturer's name (and/or collection name) plus the pattern number (if you know it), and that is also a nice easy way to find what you're looking for? Google provides a "shopping results" section, with pictures and prices listed right there. You can sort those results by price, too.

While it's not absolutely necessary to have the pattern number, it's faster, and more focused, if you do! Most of the fabric manufacturers have websites where you can easily look up pattern numbers for recent collections.

I am checking it out right now. Downy for kids backing was a rv /trailer fabric which would love to make for our trailer. This will be a good way to find the fabric. Thanks :D

Thanks for the website!!!

OMG....You had to show me that site..... I will be there all day.... LOVE IT!!! Thanks so much.....
Ellen

Thanks for the great tip. I just found something I have been looking for all summer. Now I can start my project.

Thank you! I just used it and found exactly what I needed for the border of a quilt I'm working on. I had purchased fabric from one of the stores represented on this site in the past but didn't know about this resource to do comparison shopping. I don't have a quilt shop in town so this in invaluable.

I should have noted that I will continue to use a brick and morter store when I'm purchasing fabric for a new quilt--love to 'feel' the fabric and lay them next to each other. I also want the store to make a profit and stay open--but there times when these fabric sites make my day! :-)

This type of tip is EXACTLY what this board is all about - quilters helping quilters! :thumbup:
Thank you for a great tip - you have made more than one person very happy today!! :-D

I have used this site for quite a while. Love it. If you also put the word "SALE" after your description, it will only give you sites that have that item currently on sale. What a lifesaver. I have never had any trouble buying from these shops.

This is great information. Thank you.

What a great resource. I, too , found a fabric I've been looking for and there's a $3.00 difference from high-low. Thanks so much for sharing.

Thank you for the web site. I found a fabric I had been looking for. Only one place had it so I am happy I found it.

thank you for the tip and the website. it is sad to see the difference in the exact same fabric but i have seen it here at 2 of my lqs one had the fabric for $4.50/yrd and the other charged $9.50/yrd for the same fabric

Love that website! Thanks for sharing!

This is a great help. Thanks for sharing!

Oh good to know.

Thank you! I will use it also in the future.

YEA!!! I'd been looking online, unsuccessfully, for shops carrying P & B Textiles recent series "Nellie's Garden, but within 10 seconds of using your link I found there are three shops and one of them has the fabric on sale. I can't believe it was so easy! Thanks so much.

Got both the flame and the onyx for borders on the wolf. Now I can finish that sucker!

I am glad you were able to find your fabric. God bless.

Been using quiltshops.com for nearly ten years as fabric in Australia is usually $20+ a metre. There is also 'thousands of bolts' and there are some excellent sellers on ebay, you can get multiple yardage pieces for really good prices (take a peek at ockylocky for one - there are others) eg 2 yards for less than what we pay per metre here. Enjoy. CB