thanks for posting on this. i have going craaaaazy doing my homework. please read my last post. aaaaargh!!!!!

I JUST SHIPED A BOX TO CANANDA. UPS WAS CHEAPEST. JUST MAKE SURE U SAY ITS A GIFT OR THEY HAVE TO PAY CUSTOMS . WHICH IS EXPENSIVE FOR THEM. I THINK FLAT RATE IS JUST FOR STATES.

the guy told me it was for all over and he gave me the customs forms to fill out and went over them with me. it's really ALL you can smush in there for a flat rate. they don't care what you put in there as long as it's not over 20 pounds. it would have to be lead to weigh that much. think of potatoes!

go to www.usps.com for any mailing information in the states or international it's the post office website

I never got to the post office to pick up the smaller box. However, I got the dimensions of the two boxes off the USPS site and, based on the information you provided about the large box, made the following calculations for the small box:

The small box would hold (theoretically, at least) 4.5 yards of fabric, which would be just a little over one lb. The weight limit on this box is 4 lbs, so there's no way you could overstuff it with fabric.

International postage for the small box is $12.95, so shipping cost per yard is $2.87. Although the shipping cost per yard is higher than for the large box, I'm thinking that customs is more likely to believe a gift of 4 yards of fabric over a gift of 33 yards of fabric. That much fabric, especially since it costs so much in the receiving country, would look more like a commercial venture.

I am wondering if we can set up some kind of buddy system for our quilters overseas who have difficulty finding reasonably priced fabric. I'm about an hour's drive away from a cut-your-own fabric warehouse. Most of the batiks there are Timeless Treasures, which has a slightly thinner hand than Bali/Hoffman/etc., but there must be a couple of hundred different ones and they are *gorgeous*. I bought 10 yards for myself last time I was there, and it would be fun to shop for someone else. The hardest part, I think, would be trying to specify colors and print types. I could cut off pieces of my yardage to send in an envelope for samples, but I couldn't send 200 samples!

i am near a fabric clearance center where you don't cut your own. but 2x a year they sell their stuff for $2.00 a yard. usually it's $.400. the way i figure it, the big box costs about $1.23 per yard to ship to new zealand (that's where i would be shipping). that includes the weight of the box. plus of course the cost of the fabric.

they have a lot of timeless treasures as well as the occasional red rooster, rj fabrics, etc. at the quilt show today, saturday, i saw cutesy fabric of half-naked construction workers for $9.95 that i saw two weeks ago for $4.00 reduced to $2.00. no ladies, i did not buy any. sorry.

so there is a big selection.

33 yards counts as a gift to a country where fabric is expensive. they don't know if this your sil, after all. how can they know what's a gift?

I have sent other merchandise to Canada via fedex and if I did not specify gift and the recipient did not pay the duty I was invoiced by fedex for the duty - which made the deal very not profitable.

fedex and ups are the most expensive way to sent internationally. they laughed at me in the post office. the package that you can send for $41.95 via usps costs $111.23 by fedex and $114.29 via ups. do you believe that? i couldn't either. also, canada is not overseas. once it crosses an ocean, forget it. :shock: :shock:

That's a lot better than the fabric warehouse here where it's normally $6.99 a yard. Sometimes they have a 20% off sale, but I can't always get out there during those sales. Sometimes the place is so packed during sales that it's not as much fun to shop too.

there's no free lunch, of course. when my place has it's semi-annual, the place is like a sardine can and you have to pick through. but patience is rewarded, and most of the sewers are not quilters, so they don't choose the same fabrics.