Hi Rob... what is HOAQ?

sewbizgirl,

It's Husband of a Quilter. Before I was married I would have been SOAQ, or son of a quilter. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/boy.gif

Julias ......I chuckled when I read your reference to “an old quilting friend”. Several years I referred to a friend that way and she quickly told me to henceforth referred to her as “a friend of long standing”.

And the lesson here is if you really, really love a fabric, buy as much of it as you can afford.

While there's truth in that, it's also how I end up with fabric that I forget I have or forget what I wanted to use it for. It's a shame you have to hurry up and get anything you like or risk not being able to get it later.

I didn't know this place existed, thanks for the link!

If you know the name of the fabric, you can just google it if it was fairly popular. That will bring up the most potential shops across Etsy, eBay, and online quilt shops. If it was popular, you may have to pay quite a bit for new, unwashed fabric in various yardage and precut sizes. eBay can be a little sketchier than other sites but is often the least expensive route.

You can also type it in google and do an image search. I include for sale in my search so I don't wind up at blogs that include the fabric designer/line in posts. Finally, if you know the designer and they have a shop online, blog, or brick and mortar store, you can send an email. Sometimes they are willing to part with a little fabric for a fan. I hope this helps.

Years ago I fabrid for a quilt and a long time passed before I actually started turning it into a quilt.

When I started working on it, I realized that I did not have enough fabriic and could not find the fabric anywhere. So, I set the quilt aside. As luck would have it, 11 years later, I saw that fabric in a quilt store. So, I bought some. It was the exact same fabric, but the background color was a shade darker. I used it anyhow and dispersed the fabric around the top. When I finished the quilt and stepped back and looked at it, I loved how the slight change in color added more motion to it and gave it more life. I not longer feel that I need an exact match and close enough is not a bad thing.

I think it is very rare that fabrics are produed a second time and I was probably just lucky, However, I'm not any longer an exact color but avoid colors that clash and consider those that will blend in sort of well.

That's the reason so many Quilters like scrap quilts. If you only have enough of this blue fabric to make three blocks, who cares? You dig through the stash and find a similar blue or two or three and you go on to make your quilt.

Good suggestions everyone! Thanks.