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I recently went to my LQS for fabric for a quilt and the owner helped me choose some according to colors I wanted. Some were "Kaffe Fassett". Foolish me, I didn't feel those fabrics, I just liked the patterns. When I got home I was appalled by not only their thin feel, but the fact that they weren't even 44 inches wide!!

I recently noticed it with some of Moda's lines. I wasn't thrilled. I've also never really been a fan of the quality of CT.

So I take it that you don't believe in capitalism? Are you willing to pay even more for your fabrics, which you will need to, if they're produced domestically, particularly if our government somehow forces companies to remain within our borders?

Quote:

Originally Posted by carolynjo

Blame the government who allowed all the fabric manufacturers to move overseas so the owners could make huge profits. The Chinese are manufacturing almost all the fabric we get in the US now and of course it is cheaper. Remember when they started selling cheap quilts and undercutting real quilt artists who had worked years to establish themselves; the Chinese quilts cut the heart out of their businesses! We knew that the fabric industry would suffer greatly when the plants all left the US. I know of thousands of jobs in SC lost and hundreds of plant buildings standing empty because their work was sent overseas. It seems there is nothing we can do about it; big business has us by the throat and doesn't seem to care about us, the consumer. PROFIT drives the world now, not service and decent products! (That's all for now; my rant is over!)

Have you noticed that most of the fabrics are made overseas? Twenty years ago, fabrics were made by manufacturers in the US. Now I have come across some fabrics that are made in the US of imported materials. Just like anything else, the fabrics are imported.

I am darn well willing to pay higher dollar for quality fabrics if it means they were made in the US. I am anti- Walmart for many reasons. I only shop for something there if I cannot find it anywhere else. It happens about once every 2-3 months.

Government forcing companies to stay here yet raising taxes on them so much that they have to raise prices to make any type of profit which is due their stockholders who invest their money and which lots of our pension and PS plans are invested in and which are losing money. It's a vicious cycle. And people with jobs demanding more money and benefits while thousands are out of jobs and willing to work for most any decent price. ok, enough of my rant, too. :) :) :)

My state was one of the biggest cotton producing states in the USA; now it seems we've been co-opted for soybeans. I haven't studied all the economics but I do remember as a little girl my grandfather growing acres and acres of cotton for market.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattee

Quote:

Originally Posted by carolynjo

Yes I have to agree with you all, I tried to load the backing to a queen size quilt on my HQ 16 frame and couldn't get it to roll even for the life of me, Sooooo off to the better quilt shop to buy another 6 yards of better fabric so I can get this quilt completed.

The quality of all fabric has declined. Are there any manufacturers left in the US? Not only fabric we use for sewing, but the quality of cloth in clothes is very poor plus the manufacturing is terrible too. When you can hold it up to the light and see thru it something is terribly wrong. I now buy only what I need, not what I like.

Nope, you're not nuts... you're quite right. I have some fabric I purchased at JoAnn's 10-12 years ago - not expensive fabric, just middling - but when compared to some rather expensive fabric I recently bought, it's obviously better quality. I think fabric has fallen victim to the same dynamics everything else has. And what makes it even worse, where there used to be quality inspections, there are none. That goes for the things they spray on fabric, too - there's no control, no way to tell if it's dangerous or even toxic. That is what off-shoring has gained us (besides significant job losses).

I too, have had that type of difference in my fabrics. But let's face it ladies and gents...15-20 years ago our fabrics were made in North and South Carolina mills. Now they are mostly made in China and are of the same poor quality that everything else is that we get from there. It is even worse than the fabrics we used to get from Indonesia and at that time thought was poor quality but now is good quality compared to what we get from China. Even ABC is trying to document how many jobs are lost to other countries but you don't have to ask ABC...just ask the board members from any state but especially NC or SC about how many family members are no longer employed and especially in the mills that are no longer in their states. Some of them were most certainly in the textile industry which hits us all...all who love fabrics and colors and sewing. I have no connection with anyone in the fabric industry...then or now. I sure would like to see cotton grown in the USA turned into fabrics here in the USA. Anyone agree????