Will My Fabric Arrive - Holding My Breathe
 

I found a quilt in a December/January 2013 issue of a magazine that I want to make and I want to use the same fabric. I thought certainly the fabric would still be available since it appeared in a new magazine but I was surprised to find out that the fabric had been out for over a year. To make a long story short, I searched the internet and was able to get all the fabric I needed from three different websites. Holding my breathe hoping none of the companies email and say, sorry - no longer available. Sitting on pins and needles!!! (Not really).

Why do fabrics go off the market so quickly? I can't afford to buy the fabric each time I see a quilt I want to make in a magazine - especially if I want to make it out the same fabric! My bucket list is long and if I had all the fabric already, I would have to move out of my house.

I know what you mean..lol I found a beautiful Christmas wall quilt with snowmen and cant find the fabric anywhere because its no longer in print. The magazine was from 2006. Ive searched everywhere for this print fabric. Your lucky you were able to even find one of your fabrics..lol

That is the only thing that stinks about designer fabric...it often is only available for a few months! :(

I know how you feel. Everytime I order fabric it takes me back to my childhood and Christmas Eve, the longest 24 hour period of my entire life! Until I became a quilter waiting for my fabric order lol

From what I've learned from being in the fabric business for many years, there are several reasons why the fabrics come and go so quickly.

The fabric companies' sales reps always point out that when we (shoppers) walk into a store, we want to always see something new. I suppose this is true no matter what kind of store we're talking about! So the new fabric lines keep coming and coming.

That said... the fabric manufacturers can't keep everything in stock forever then, can they? So they sometimes re-print the most popular fabrics in a line a time (maybe two)... and then they drop the whole collection.

Did you know that most of the fabric companies show their lines to stores six months or more before the fabrics are actually available? They take pre-orders, and that way they know how much of each design to print. They would like it if, as soon as the fabrics arrive in their warehouse from the overseas mills, they immediately ship to stores. It's good for their cash flow if the fabric is all spoken for... so they don't print much more than what they've taken pre-orders for.

And if a magazine is printing a pattern using a given line of fabrics, they sometimes make that information available to stores ahead of time, and sometimes the fabric company will print more because they know the magazine will drive their sales too. Still... they're probably only going to do one extra printing to accommodate the demand.

Very good information, Nan. Like everyone, I've often had the problem of finding fabrics I want. Case in point, I fell in LOVE with a Northcott Aphrodite quilt I saw in McCall's magazine. Put it off too long and had a dickens of a time finding all the fabric. Now I probably have enough to make 3 quilts. Wasn't going to take a chance this time. That's a quilter for ya. lol.

Good luck!!! Hope all goes well!!

I found two places that will have some, but not all older fabric. The old Country Store from Intercourse, PA has it in their on-line store. 1000 bolts and only one but has older fabric at great prices as well. If both of those fail, I go to that website that searches many LQS at the same time. I think it is called Quilt Shops. Good luck!
Just recently I found two lines of fabric I though were extinct in each of the stores and followed my husband's advice and bought all they had - 17 yards from one and 24 yards from the other. I know, that's a lot of fabric, but the prices were more than excellent and I know I will use up this fabric within the next two years and then pine for more :)

The most annoying problem with short shelf life is if you run out or make a mistake..

Well, all three stores have notified me that my fabric is on its way! Yeah!!!

Thanks for all the good info and other possible stores to find off the shelf fabrics.

I hope I don't make any mistakes!! I am also glad I am not the only one who feels this pain

Happy quilting!