Canada, Australian and British quilters do y'all need some teabags to toss in your local harbors?

The prices you guys are quoting in that thread is mind boggling. Why on earth are you guys paying that much. I saw prices at 22-30 dollars a meter or something like that with the exchange rate. What are the prices for silk, or wool or linen(which are usually the higher priced fabrics). Australia should at least pay cheaper for Batiks as Bali is closer to y'all.

I'll send teabags!!

I don't know about Australia and UK but I know that just recently, the US dollar was right in line with the Canadian dollar. So other than the outrageous taxes they pay I can't imagine why it is SO much higher there. I'm a Stampin' Up demonstrator and the prices in the Canadian catalog are insane compared to the US prices.

When we were in Canada we ate at a McDonalds and for the 5 of us, it was over $30. In the US it's usually around $15-$17.

Australia produces very little cotton (too dry), we import a lot of fabric from Asia and America. We do have fabric produced here, but it is quite expensive...around $21 per metre would be the minimum. Most of the quilting fabric we have comes from America...I did score a bargain with some Norman Rockwell fabric - I found it at Textile Traders (where I met Litacats) that was on the $1 metre bargain table. Finding fabric that cheap is one of those once in a while serendipitous things...If we go to a smaller LQS, it gets pretty expensive. The cost of labour in Australia is huge...so most companies go offshore, which is a real shame, because the first thing to go when you do that is quality....and I won't bang on about ethics and buying local!

I have paid over £13-00 per metre which according to todays exchange rate equals about $20.00. So when I read of you picking up bargains at less than $5.00 - I'm a little green with envy.............can you forgive me?!!!

We pay these high prices because we still want to quilt. I shop around a lot, get what I can online - I can import fabric from the US, and even with shipping it's cheaper than my LQS.

I know that Ireland and the UK also apply customs charges on imported fabric. I don't get 'caught' all that often, but when I was in business in the UK and ordered some bolts from the US, the customs charges added another £1 per yard on to what I had already paid, and that was 15 years ago.

Of course we envy you the bargains you all seem to get, we are only human.

We pay these prices because we don't have any choice, generally quilt shops and shows are the only places to buy our fabric and they are few and far between. I never buy even a metre of fabric, it is fq or long quarters and you learn to make it go a long way, wasting little. Backing is a problem and so far I have used calico, which I believe you call muslin, which is cheaper.
I, like a lot of you have very little money to spare.
I guess import tax and v.a.t is the reason it cost so much, they are both high over here.
Never mind, I could not give up this hobby, just have to eat less.!!!! good way to slim.

Yes we pay far too much for fabric in Australia, yes we all understand about buying local and all that but I recently wanted to purchase some Robert Kaufmann Fusions from my local quilt shop and the price was $26 per metre
(which is 39 inches). So home I come and get on the ole puter and ordered what I wanted over the internet. Landed in Australia only cost me $11 per yard...
Most of us are on limited income or self funded retirees so we have to careful how much we spend on our addiction er sorry hobby :-)

Canada reporting in! I can go to my LQS and buy good quality quilting cotton for $12 - $16 a metre (batiks are more expensive). Or I can go to Wally World and buy crapola for $5.00 - $7.00 a metre, which is what they sell here. I feel that if I am going to make a quilt and spend all of that time and energy on it, I want the materials to be of high quality. So I use very good quality fabric, thread (Mettler's silk-finish 100% cotton), batting and backing. I don't mind paying the $$$$ for quality materials but, that being said, I don't make very many large quilts because it is cost-prohibitive.

I also order online quite a bit because I can get good prices, a much wider selection of good quality, brand name fabrics, and I have access to full collections of co-ordinating fabrics (Hancock's of Paducah and Over the Rainbow are my favourites). So I have that option available to me if I choose to use it.

I don't feel like I am being gouged or anything - that's just the way it is, with fabric as with anything else. Everything cost more here on the Eastern Edge than it does in the US (actually most things cost more here than in most other parts of Canada :cry: ).

So, no, don't send tea bags. I can buy them here ( for about $4.00 for a box of 72!) ;-)

I too am green with envy with the prices you pay for your fabric as well as the choice you have. My local shop charges $11 - £20 but it is for a metre - 39" approx.

I have also bought from the states and most of the time am lucky that I am not charged import duties - it depends on chance.

To increase my 'stash' (which is miniscule compared to some of the piccies I have seen on here) I haunt our local charity (thrift?) shop for cotton garments that are deemed not good enough for sale - their customers are very choosy.

So I have spent the last few days, taking apart some lovely plain and not so plain men's shirts to re-use the fabric. 4 shirts cost $1.55 or £1. Washed, and lightly starched they are great in scrappy quilts.

I also save up for the sales and then go on a shopping spree. The only problem is that the colour shown on my screen is not what arrives. Recently bought a lovely dark green floral and it was virtually black! This won't be used in my green quilt and will have to be left to another project.

To let the green complexion subside, I am now going to my tiny stash and plan my next project!