Having had a couple of small businesses in my working life (before retirement) trying to dig out a living against large chains was very tough. So, I do buy occasionally from chains, but most of my purchases (not only fabric) comes from small business owners . Remember, our country was built on their shoulders. I hate seeing our little business pushed out. Having traveled our country while working, it was heart breaking how chains put so many small businesses out of business with their lower prices and gimicks and then up their prices when the little guy was gone and the downtown of small towns turned into "Ghost Towns". Support you "Local Sheriff" whenever you can.

THanks for the interesting article

Thanks for the interesting article. I support my local quilt shops because even though the price is a tiny bit higher the quality is so much better. I have to drive at least 50 miles to get to a Joanns and quilt shops since they are in the same area. If I am driving that far I would rather support the quilt shops than Joanns for fabric but I like to buy my notions at Joanns when I have a coupon.

Our small town quilt shop is awesome - The Cedar Chest Quilt Shoppe in El Campo, TX. Every month there is something exciting going on - a shop hop in February, a mystery quilt starting in March... The very knowledgeable staff is friendly and makes a point of greeting everyone who walks in the door. There are only 4 on staff including the owner and her mother, but always at least 2 working - depending on the day of the week or what event is happening. They have others who are enlisted when they know the shop will be busy. They'll cut anything you want, cut their end-of-bolts in 2.5" strip bags for a good price, have $3.99 and $5.99/yard sale shelves ... can't say enough good about them. We have a Farmer's Wife Sampler club that meets once a month and have great deals on those days. This month it was buy one thing and get 40% off one item. I got a yard of sale fabric then got 40% off a quilt kit I've been wanting for months.

Our Wal-mart has fabric and wonderful people - when you can find them. I've started calling the customer service desk from my cell phone as soon as I step into the department. Byt the time I'm ready there is usually someone there to cut for me. (I've also been tempted to cut it myself!)

Joann's is an hour drive away and I save it for notions with their coupons. I've been disappointed in fabric I've bought there - except for fleece. They are well-organized and very ready for sales - people at the door with copies of the ad and help directing you where you need to go. Most of us know the secret there is to grab a number for cutting before you start to shop.

Hobby Lobby - an hour away - seems to have better fabric than what I find at Joanns. The staff there is nice, but never seems to know where anything is.

I do order online - Joann's for Best Press was my most recent order. Even with shipping the coupon makes this the most reasonable price I can find. BUT I just got an email cancelling my Best Press order - out of the scent I wanted. Didn't ask if I'd accept a different scent, but send the rest of the order - cheap notions - without applying the coupon! I'm not happy and have written to see if they can change that.

I guess I agree with the lady who said she buys fabric wherever they sell it.

Very good. Our Walmart does sell a nice line of fabrics though nothing like the LQS for selection. However, I have a problem with them not staffing it properly!!! One day a man from the sporting goods dept. had to come over to cut the fabric and had NO idea how to do it! STUPID STUPID STUPID on Walmart's part. I complained to the manager. Nor should they expect an expert on fabric to sell a gun!!!! Unfortunately, that hurts the new quilter...........they NEED the guidance!

I DO NOT understand all of the uproar about cotton prices being up, as you know the majority of fabric we use is printed or woven in china, they get the majority of their cotton base fabric fron Egypt, because the USA has lower cotton yeilds do not apply to other countrys, I believe we are being RIPPED OF by the media hipe.

I've been told that just because a designer puts their name on a product, that doesn't necessarily mean the product is good. Designers sell their "designs, patterns call it what you will but the same print can be put on any type of weave. The thread count is what's important. So, just because the big box stores are selling a fabric with a designers name on it, that doesn't mean that they are selling the same quality fabric.

Great article with lots to think about and consider. Thanks for sharing it.

It is important for me to support all of the LQS wherever I go!!!!

thanks for sharing. Good article

When I first started quilting, all I bought was Wal Mart fabric, was great for learning and prices were good so no big panic attacks when I screwed something up! Since then I've discovered the LQS. Although the population here is only 17,000, we are lucky to have 2 shops. Both are wonderful, but do prefer one over the other. Both shops know me by name, and are helpful. My favorite has a gathering on the first Thursday evening of every month, where we have dinner, door prizes, show and tell, usually a demo by one of the customers on a new technique or projec, and she usually has a selection of fabric for 20% off that night. There is a guild here, but found the LQS more fun. Not that there was anything bad with the guild, I just found the Scrappy Girls at the LQS more to my liking! The owner will be the first to tell you that you can buy the notions cheaper at Joann's and therefore only stocks the basics in that area.

Just looked at some Walmart fabric on Wednesday. When I checked the label many of the $1.50-$3.00 per yard fabrics said "undertermined content". I passed on them.

I shop at locally owned stores as much as possible for everything I buy. The local merchants are the backbones of our small towns. I want to keep small towns alive.
I keep reading on this site "take it to your LQS, ask them for advice", or " I asked my LQS and they suggested...", and "my LQS has the best classes". If we do not shop at our LQS, they will be forced out of business. Ask for advice at Wal-Mart, after you spend 15 minutes waiting for the employeed to shop up to cut the fabric (and you tell them how to measure it). Jo-Ann's is sketchy, sometimes good, sometime not, but my LQS is ALWAYS good!

I found the article informative. It gives the basis of their advertising stradegy for the different stores.
I am over served as a quilter and can go wherever I please and when I please to shop.
I have about 4 Walmarts within a 30 mile ~ radius. Only 2 have fabrics. Of those, one is a hit and miss on getting the fabric cut, one is fair and friendly with knowledgable staff who may not quilt but at least sew or craft.
I have 2 JoAnn's within 50 miles ~ radius and they vary alot. And vary from one time to the next in service and attitude.
I have 2 Hobby Lobby's within the same radius as the JoAnn's. Their fabric section is small by comparison, but is well organized. They will honor and match other store's coupons.
I have a Hancock's about 50 miles away. It is stocked to the hilt and I've always had good service.
Add in the LQS's within this same area, and I have 7 of those. If I want to drive 2 hours in any direction, I can add in 6+ more, and it goes on from there. While I relish the idea of buying whatever I want without much difficulty, I can't help but wonder what happens to all this excess fabric. I know that all of if doesn't get purchased. There are other areas even in our own country that could use this stock for the greater good.

As many are saying, it depends on the store. I guess I am lucky as my Walmart (I am on a limited budget) has some lovely nice quality fabric, a nice lady to cut and a nice bright new store. JoAnns has some really nice ladies on the cutting table and the coupons along with the gift card my son gave me lets me buy nice batting and muslin. I have a friend who is going to take me down town Mt Vernon to a quilt shop to look around. Other than up to Bellingham, which is a bit of a drive, it is the only one of two I know of. Local little shop is nice and so is lady, but a lot of the fabric is a bit out of my price range. I do try to stop in now and then for some small items. We shop where we can and I happy for those who can afford the higher prices. Just remember, not all the big stores are bad. some are really cool......

I will confess that I purchase most of my fabric at JoAnns and use a coupon every chance I get. The LQSs are all at least 20 miles from me. Most of the quilts I make are for Linus, about 20 a month. I couldn't afford to make them if I had to pay quilt shop prices. I recently visited a LQS with a friend and was able to get some fabric on clearance, $5-$6 a yard that I will use on Linus quilts. I have also shopped at a Walmart that carries fabric and gotten some good buys.
I recently won a raffle quilt made by a local guild. They admitted to me that it had at least $400 worth of fabric from a LQS is in it plus a donated backing and batting. You can imagine how many raffle tickets they had to sell just to break even before they made any money. I am trying to sell the quilt as it is to big for my bed and doesn't fit any colorscheme in my home. Even quilters who are well aware of what the fabric costs are not willing to give me what it is worth even without the labor costs included. Even quilt snobs can be stingy when it comes to paying. I know that some of you think I am mean to ask what it is really worth for it if I sell it. Remember if we sell our work for less than it is worth or even cost us to make it we devalue quilts and quilters.

The three Wal-Mart stores in my area have fabric BUT NO ONE TO CUT IT. They will probably stop offering fabric because of "low or no sales" regardless of the fact it is their fault for not having dedicated staff for the department. I have waited in the fabric area for help and even asked other employees to assist either by cutting or getting someone who would and every time I have waited around and finally left the store without my purchase. I rather pay more and go to the quilt store or even better, buy on line.

That was a very interesting article and informative too. The comments by quilters show how the customers value friendly special attention. Our area (the San Francisco Bay area) has a good selection of both many local stores, and several bright newly improved Jo-Ann's and Hancocks so I have too many choices, but feel for those who must go 50 miles for fabrics. You must be really dedicated to quilting to go so far. Wow.

Our WM told us to just keep on comming in & checking, they would soon have material & sporting goods items. Well we
waited a long time, and then were told they changes their mind. Now we are asking around to see if we can`t get a LQS
to take pity on this half of the county and try get us one closer to us. It may take a while, we do like our local Joanns, but
seldom get there. I just started looking at the on line material and so far it all has been good, and I`m getting use buying
this way.

I have visited quilt shops in a lot of places and I have never been to one where the employees were unfriendly. The small town quilt shops tend to be the most friendly. Our 2 lqs are very friendly and helpful. I try to buy from lqs whenever I can. The small businesses have a difficult time competing with national chains. The "big boys" can buy merchandise cheaper because of the sheer volume of their purchases. If we don't support the small lqs we might not have any choice but to buy chain store quality fabric. Chain stores have some good quality fabric, but not all of their fabric falls into that category.

I noticed in JoAnn's the other day that they have brought back the bell on the cutting table...They may not have a lot of employee's in the store, but when I rang the bell just once...the employee called out from stocking shelves that she was on her way...much better than in the past.
I don't have a decent LQS within 30 minutes...so, when I go I tend to want to browse alot. I usually tell them when I walk in that I will be awhile, so that they aren't hanging around the cutting area waiting for me.
I shop on line lately, at a couple of favorite shops...but, I do support the local LQS.

Thanks for the article. JoAnn's service has gotten better, but I still prefer the LQS for fabric. I use JoAnn's for some notions, magazines, and some storage items, and ott lamps.

So many places are closing down these days, I just hope we can all keep getting fabric from somewhere. I know we all like wherever we shop for fabric to be treated with respect. It is also nice for there to be someone there who can help us with things we are not sure about. Things are just changing so fast it seems. I hope it all works out. Hope everyone has fun sewing this weekend.

The majority of greige goods (the base woven goods that fabric is printed upon) are woven in China. If you get your fabric from Wal-mart or Joannes or other outlets selling cheap fabrics, they are also mostly printed in China.

If you are buying from your LQS, or from your small online retailers most of the fabric is printed in Korea, with the best fabrics being printed in Korea and Japan. I personally will not carry fabrics printed in China, the quality just isn't there for the most part.

Cotton is grown in over 90 different countries. The largest producers are China, India and the USA followed by Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Brazil. These 6 countries produce over 83% of the worlds supply of cotton. Egypt does grow some fine cotton, but it is a limited crop there.

China is also the largest consumer of cotton, as well as the largest importer. The largest exporter of cotton is the USA. China's share of cotton consumption has grown exponentially as their population has exploded both in terms of size and in terms of affluence, while the rest of the world's consumption has remained pretty steady over the years.

There is no media hype here -- just good old supply and demand. As production has remained rather flat and demand has gone up, mainly due to increased demand from China, prices have risen. It's just that simple. And when the worlds largest supplier of raw cotton, the USA, has a bad year, the prices go up even more.

This is very true. Top fabric designers, however, usually work with one manufacturer and they work together to determine the quality of goods the fabric will be printed upon. Higher-quality fabrics will also have a lot of quality control on how the finishing is done. It will be interesting to see how successful, in the long run, designers are that allow their names to be put on cheap, poor quality fabrics.

Thread count is somewhat important, but just because you have a high thread count, it doesn't necessarily mean you have a high quality fabric, or a fabric that is desirable for quilting. You can have a very high thread-count fabric made with extremely thin or cheap thread and you probably won't like it very much for quilting. Take for instance, 800 thread-count bed sheeting. It's nice to sleep on provided it is made from high-quality threads, but you wouldn't want to use it for quilting.

Most higher-quality quilting fabric is made from fairly thick threads and is a 60 square fabric (60 threads per square inch). Some higher-quality fabric is printed on 75 square using a slightly finer thread, which gives it a finer feel. Batiks and hand-dyes are often on much higher thread count fabric but use thinner threads in the weave. The better Indonesian batiks and hand-dyes have a higher thread count than the better printed quilting fabrics, but actually weigh quite a bit less since they are a lot thinner. The high thread count in batiks is required because of the dyeing process they use in producing those fabrics. The higher thread count is what makes batiks more difficult to hand quilt.

There are a lot of other factors that determine the difference between cheap fabric and fine fabric, including the quality of the designs and original engravings, the quality of the dyes and printing processes, and the quality of the finishing.

Most of the highest quality quilting fabrics are produced in limited quantities and are reserved for sale by LQS's and small online stores. Some of the quilt fabric manufacturers have been really good about working to ensure that shops and small online stores have a fighting chance against the big box stores and the online giants, but it's still tough to compete against them when they have such huge advantages in purchasing power and in preferential shipping rates.

My LQS is absolutely THE BEST for fabric, sewing, classes, and just "hanging out" with other quilters. They have big tables in a well lit area of the store that anyone can come and quilt/do work.

I've bought fabric in North Little Rock, AR for the past10 years at JoAnn's and they've always been friendly and given good service, but until recently the fabric quality wasn't very good. But I bought there anyway because the LQS was not friendly and would make racist remarks and give political opinions. I don't think any business helps themselves when they try to engage customers with that. They were also the pfaff dealer which I have , so I was forced to go in occasionally, but I always dreaded it. I know live 2 hours away and have 1 hancocks and 1 hobby lobby. So far everyone has been nice and friendly.

I try my best to keep my business at my LQS they have sales and clearance fabric, not coupons. If i had more money I would buy more of their more expensive fabric to. I sometimes buy some blenders or solids in Joannne's but thats it. I want LQS their service so I have to support them. I really stay away from ebay for fabric. I don't know if I'm getting bed bugs with my fabric and I have to think about that to.

I avoid Wally World, so buying fabric there isn't something I would do. My local JoAnns is a mile from my house, very small, but has some good staff and I can usually find what I need there. A larger Joanns a few miles away is completely different - colder and less personal Sure the selection is bigger, but more doesnt always mean better.

I am getting back into quilting after a break of several years (doing mending, some home sewing and enjoying other pursuits) so I stopped in the LQS (about 3 miles from home) just to see what they had. My first visit wasn't great - the staff wasn't unfriendly, but they weren't exactly bubbly either. I wasn't sure I would return, until I realized I loved one of the fabrics I had purchased and wanted more of it, so back I went. It was a completely different experience. The staff (different people) and other customers were delightful, helpful and welcoming. It changed my impression.

So for me the bottom line is that you should shop where you feel comfortable. If you like what you see, but not WHO you see, try another time of day or a different day of the week. You might find somone you can "click" with. I'll continue to stop in at JoAnns for some things, and yes, their coupons are great. But I'll also visit the LQS. I'll just avoid the people I wasn't crazy about! I am fortunate to have a few options so close to my house!

The "local" Walmart and LQS, are both about 35 miles each way...so, a good 70 mile round trip. Walmart is in a less crowded city...so, I usually go there...unless there is something new I want to try...rulers, etc...then I make a special trip to my LQS.

When I want quality I shop my LQS, when I want a deal I use a coupon at Joann's. There are some Joann employees that are really helpful and others need to just stock shelves. In the Horseheads, NY Joann Fabrics, I saw an employee help an elderly lady selecting fabric. She stuck with the lady about 1 minute, then walked away saying " I guess you'll just have to go thru all the fabric" ! I couldn't believe the employee did this ! The elderly lady then turned to me and I did try and give her some ideas.

I've been frustrated w/ the quality of fabric at JoAnn's - and the people working at my local JAF don't know anything - they sadly don't even cut fabric accurately..I have to watch them like a hawk. I needed about 10 yds for a project and couldn't get it in one piece. Could use 2 pieces, but wow, the 2 pieces on the same bolt were so different in quality that it wasn't even funny. I would have been afraid to order more of the "same" - I'm not sure it would have been the "same"

It's interesting how different stores operate. We have Jo Anns and Hobby Lobby here. I've been very happy with the service at each. They always ask what I'm making and we talk about it. I'm taking an embroidery class Tuesday at a lqs and this will be my first experience with them. It will be interesting to compare.

I agree. LQS are set up to deal with quilting questions and advice. They are quilters and love fabric. The owners have so much invested in their shop that they will offer what customers want where ever possible. They will offer classes suited to their customers.

I have for so long discussed on this board that if each of us that have LQS near us we should once a month purchase something from them. No less than $10 and the sky is the limit. By doing that it will give the LQS a steady source of income and hopefully not become one of these many stores that cannot keep their doors open. Financially if you have to go to the big stores, at least take a class or buy a yard of fabric occasionally at the LQS. You will love the atmosphere there.

fabric
 

Well, here I go:: I have seen LQS owners buy fabric on sale at WalMart then sell it higher in their shop. I have found good and bad fabric in all fabric shops, hi and low prices also. But , the chain store does not order 1 bolt of fabric and make a quilt out of it and then display the quilt and not have any of that fabric to sell. If a new quilter sees a quilt and want to make it, there is no option on how to put the colors together, being new, and no one to help coridinate the color schem. Chain store offer patterns and the fabrics to go with the pattern, whereas LQS use the fabric they order and none left but leftovers for the pattern that was seen. I my self have looked for certain fabrics advertized in the Quilting Magazines and could only find maybe one or two in a quilt shop because the owner has taken all the fabric and used it and did not reorder any at all or the manufacturer only made one bolt of each??? Not really sure but it gets to be very discouraging.....then especially for a new quilter. (I have been quilting for 30 yrs.). This is the worst I have seen for suppy.

My LQS has very knowledgable people that are passionate about quilting. I went to the states to a Walmart and the guy told me that he knew nothing about fabric he is just there to cut and price. Such a let down and the fabric was not great either.

LQS will cut whatever I need, however I have waited up to 30 minutes or more just to pay for my items. Have come close to just laying down the fabric and walking out. Classes are offered during the day, so if you work you're just SOL. I no longer support my LQS

The closest LQS is in a room in an Amish home. At least second generation as the store was formerly down the road in Grandmother's front parlor. Brother works the main farm and his family has a road-side stand in season. My DDIL purchased beautiful flowers for her September wedding from the cutting garden they grew. Our LQS is a treat, a pleasure, an experience.
Can you get free-range eggs at your LQS? I can. [ATTACH=CONFIG]306727[/ATTACH]

Good article. I'm like many of you - no lqs here in town so use the chain stores but do shop in lqs when I travel.

Actually, come to think of it, yes, I can, at one of my LQSes! rofl!!!