My Walmart no longer carries fabric. Leaves JoAnns and the local quilt shops. You have to be extremely careful at JoAnns; a lot of the Keepsake they carry comes from Asia (mostly China) and is not very good, although I do buy some of the more expensive fabrics from other suppliers when they go on sale. I have purchased fabrics from Connecting Threads and so far have been happy with them, plus you can buy from fat quarter up and no fabric is more than $5.96/yd. They say all their fabric is US grown and it does have a nice feel and a very close weave. Problem is I like to see my fabrics in hand before I buy. So that leaves the local quilt shops; I check their sale racks - have gotten Jinny Byer at half price and fat quarters at bargain prices. Plus the women who work there are fantastic when it comes to questions and they use rotary cutters and a cutting board to cut the fabric. So I would say if you can, stick to a local shop; all your hard work will not have been in vain.

Yes I would like to know what online stores to buy fabric are good. I hate paying the extra for shipping!!! Thanks.

I do buy what sheets I need for some quilts right at Walmart they are usually on sale and hold up great and sewup so nicely on the quilts........I do alot of hand quilting and they work great.\

Donna

I tried to find these sites but couldn't. Do you have the exact web addresses. I sure would appriciate it. Our two lqs's sell for 12.99 a yard. Joanns is an hour away and Walmart just shut down our only local sewing shop. I don't know where I,m going to get buttons and elastic etc., just when I wantd to start making 18 in. doll clothes. Bummer

Since we only have one LQS, I buy a lot online. My favorites are The Fat Quarter Shop, Virginia Quilters, eQuilters.com, Hancocks of Paducah, and Keepsake Quilting. I stick to the major brands. If I am buying from an onlline shop I am not familiar with, or a brand I have not used before, I buy just one or two small pieces, just to see how I like it. The shipping cost doesn't bother me anymore. I live about 60 miles from Hancocks of Paducah, but I would rather sit at the computer and shop than make the drive, unless I plan on buying a lot of fabric that I need to see all at once to know that it will work for what I have planned. Our Walmart doesn't carry fabric anymore, but I rarely bought fabric there. I will buy some fabric from Joann's quilter lines, but not very often. I like to buy several fabrics from the line, and they don't carry enough variety in one line to suit me. My LQS carries beautiful fabrics from major lines, and I buy there first, but they just don't have the variety you can get online.

www.fabric.com

I ALWAYS check the sale/clearance pages, and have found some things for less than $3/yd. They even have a $1.95 section!

There are others out there, and I have shopped a few, but I do spend a fair amount at fabric.com. (And if you're a good customer, they send you e-mail coupons to keep you coming back. And those coupons can even be used on the sale fabrics. win-win-win! :thumbup: )

Hi! I'm new at this quilting & love it!!!! Would any of you ladies have links to the online fabric stores mentioned? I'm not sure how to tell good vs bad and want to start out right. Tks

As to the quality of fabrics..Walmart and Joanne's are at the bottom of the scale, then Hobby Lobby and then quilt shop material. It depends what a person is making. If it is a baby quilt for charity (something that won't be used much by the recipient, then Walmart or Joanne's would probably be sufficient). If it is for a gift and the quilter does alot of machine quilting or pays for longarm quilting, then I wouldn't use anything other than quilt shop material.
Walmart and Joanne's fabric would be ok for placemats, table runners..etc. Eiltq.

I have lots of Wal Mart fabrics and have found Identical to it at Jo Anns. I figure it will out live me and that makes it okay. I have bought some on-line also, it is hard to match fabrics that way and I do like matchy matchy. It is a very personal choice as to the kind you want to use.

In the middle of a week of snowstorms, I decided my stitches would show too much on a solid color backing. So I bought a paisley print at JoAnn's rather than driving out of town. Now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the shrinkage is compatible with the top fabrics from the LQS. I use Warm and Natural and like the old fashioned look so am keeping my fingers crossed.