I apologize if this post is unnecessarily long however, certainly lets us know what we have to look forward to.

In the past 6-9 months now, purchasing fabrics for my quilting has and is becoming more and more disappointing and frustrating.

I've noticed the quality is not the same (or better) as 2-3 years ago but it definitely IS costing me more.

I believe declining thickness/weight/quality of quilting fabrics we are seeing now has a direct link to Textile Price Increases.

Here in Canada, we have a LQS called "Fabricland" which carries pretty well every conceivable type of fabric you could want - at generally very reasonable prices.

I received my monthly newsletter in the mail yesterday and they had an interesting (but unfortunately sad) report on their back page which was:

To Our Valued Members: An Important Message on Textile Price Increases

Hit by soaring raw material costs and rising wages, textile prices are poised to rise dramatically. This will affect the areas of textiles, bath and bedding and ready-to-wear apparel alike.
The main cause is a massive hike in the price of raw cotton. According to Textiles Intelligence Limited, in the 18 months between March 2009 and the end of September 2010 the price ofraw cotton rose by 127%, from 51 cents/lb to 116cents/lb. An a rise in the price of raw cotton directly affects synthetics also. Increased demand for alternate fires, along with rising oil prices, have boosted the cost of polyester. According to USA Today, the average price of polyester staple fibre in China raw by over 30% between January and mid-October of 2010. These hard facts have put us in the difficult position of having to raise prices on cotton and polyester fabrics. Some modest increases went in to effect January 17th. We will keep increases to a minimum when and where possible while monitoring the evolving Asian markets. For those interested, they provided this link: http://www.warmcompany.com/CottonInc.pdf

In researching this and other sites related to rising cotton prices many articles indicate specific, designated raw cotton crops in the USA, India and China are already "SOLD OUT" for the next two years therefore, retail cotton prices ARE and WILL CONTINUE to increase.

This in turn, I am assuming, is likely the reason why the quality of our quilting fabric is diminishing - lower thread count means thinner fabric.


:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

I sent my son totown get 1 yd 100% cotton.Black....nothing. he went 2 stores and decided I would have to makedue with 65-35.....heard on news they are adding some typ polyester to cottons...etc...heard on Friday news

This is all to true. However, fabric designs and printed inventories lag some 18 months behind in getting to the mags and stores. Prices will be creeping up steadily but will really hit us hard in last half of 2012 and 2013. Hopefully this year we will see a return to sanity and see more field sowed in edible and staple crops rather than seeds for oil. World famine is no joke. When cotton prices rise dramatically, so does grain and food prices.

I'm afraid this is true...many topics here on the board about the cost of fabric and diminishing quality. I am so thankful for my stash and still being able to find older collections and particular yardage from times past.

Lets try and give the fabric companies a break.

With the problems of cotton and most all base fabric is made overseas, the fabric companies have to buy what they can get within their guide lines for quality. And what if they order what they believe is their usual quality and a boat load (their allotment for the month) arrives and it is not exadtly what they ordered.......need I sway more.
I visited a company last week while in NYC and realize it is a huge problem.