Wow, I think that is cheap. At my fabric store good cotton material ranges from $10 to 13 a meter. Sometimes I'm lucky and can find it on sale for $4 or $5, but not very often. Luckily at Fabricland, I am a member and get 25% off so that is a big saving.

I have seen some in Joanns that is $9.99

Glad to see the comment about Batesville, AR. It's only about 5 hrs from me here in Cleveland, MS. I'll have to
make a road trip.

I agree 1000%. JoAnn's is getting closer to quilt shop prices but the quality is nowhere near quilt shop quality. I found our local quilt shop has a section in the back where fabric is $3.99 a yard with $1.00 fat quarters. They are fantastic, beautiful prints and it's like shopping 20 years ago. I spent an hour in there and got 20 fat quarters in all the luschious fall colors yesterday plus beautiful Moda dotted fabric for $3.99 a yard. That's the first thing I am going to ask for in every shop I go into...whether they have a section like this or not. In a few weeks, all Christmas fabric will be $3.99 and I'll start the Christmas challenge for next year.

WOW How can you ladies from the UK and Canada AND Australia even afford to quilt? If I didn't have so much stash, I would give it up myself. The key word is SALE! Shop Sales and let others pay the $12 per yard for fabric.......

Count your blessings. Last summer our JoAnn's closed down, one of our Walmart's quit carrying any fabric, the other one carries a limited amount. Now I have to go to the two local quilting shops and pay $8-9+/yd. I might have to make a run to Denver where they have JoAnns and Hancock.

Higher priced fabric goes right along with the higher priced food / same salary if you are lucky. If you can wait a few days for fabric, Thousands of Bolts has great prices and more quality. I swear by them.

Wow! Didn't know Eleanor Burns had fabric. Thanks! Now that I've learned from this site what people have to pay in other countries & feel less guilty for stocking up. Wouldn't be able to afford my favorite hobby/obsession at those prices.

I had heard that the flooding in Pakistan has caused the price of cotton to go up. Don't know if it's true or not. Any excuse will do when it comes to raising prices.

Yes, I have heard the price of cotton is on the rise! :cry:

You're welcome to come and shop here; we're about 45 minutes south of Niagara Falls. Right now most of our current lines are $8.40-$8.60 / yard, some of the future groups are going to have to be $8.80 but none of the 44"-wide goods are priced at more than that. We just don't want to cross that $9/yard boundary if there's any way around it. And we also have less expensive fabrics in the range of $5 - $7 / yard. We're only open weekdays 9-5 (that's the benefit to us workers, for being a mostly-online business - we get to have weekends off).

But you won't want to come shopping right now 'cause of the snow. Give us another day or two to get cleaned up! Thought I do see some blue sky... gee, that wasn't in the forecast!

:thumbup:

yep, we are all going to stock up on fabric before it gets too high.

Don't forget to sign up for your mail to home coupons, they have a 40% off a single item and that covers I cut of fabric. I also take the coupon down to staples or office max and make 4 or 5 color copies of the coupon and use then thru out the week to get all of my fabric for a project, also good on notions etc. The gig is you can only use one coupon per transaction so if you have multiple things and want to use another coupon you have to take your stuff to the car and come back and get your next cut of fabric or other items, but it is well worth it.

From what I've heard, the cost of cotton has gone up because of China buying as much as they can. The old supply & Demand thing.

I know from our experice buying fabric for the store, the cost of cotton fabric has increased 25 to 30% in the last several months, and it doesn't look like it is going to stable out either.

We still sell fabric at between $4.50 to $7.95 (batiks) but may be forced to raise it in the future.

We will hold the line as long as we can, but we have to repurchase fabric to replace what we sell.

I'm with you. Now I know why I built up that stash! Made 22 quilts for family members last year and didn't buy any fabric - all from my stash.

For those of you who have been building your stash over the years, you're very lucky. For those of us who are beginners and have no stash, it will be costly to continue quilting, especially for those of us who are retired and on a fixed income. I will try to buy fabric on sale in order to continue to quilt because I'm really enjoying learning. It will be a good idea to buy some Christmas fabric after the holidays when it goes on sale.

Just FYI - we went to the Ava MO Walmart yesterday, and was told that they were in line for a remodel in June. Of course I asked him if they were ripping out the fabric dept and he said that they originally WERE, but for "some reason" they were leaving it in with a new look..... do you think that "some reason" was maybe perhaps getting an overload of %$#@ complaints of eliminating that dept?? Good job ladies! - oops! men too!

I agree. That is why I only buy when it is at least 40% off!

Knew what you meant! LOL!

Surfergirl: You think like I do! Just pulled some Christmas fabric from my stash, and it is salvage dated 2004. I probably bought after the holiday, for less than $3/yd. I have sewn for such a long time, I was always buying fabric for one reason or another, but usually had more projects than time and energy!
My DD claims my stash will outlive me! Thinks I could sew full-time for the rest of my life just from my stash!
I'll give it a try! Penny

At Jo-Ann, you can use a Michael's coupon, an AC Moore coupon and all the Jo-Ann coupons as long as they look different. You just can't use two of the same coupons. You can only use the JoAnn coupons on fabric because AC and Michaels don't carry fabric so they won't honor their coupons on that item, but everything else is game. That means the newspaper, online and the ones they send can all be used at once, at least here in Rochester. Michaels and ACMoore only take one per day so I don't shop there unless I have to.

I've been known to take two different coats and go in more than once to the other two, LOL. They don't have a CLUE!!

Haven't got a spare head out there in the car? LOL!! MY JA staff know me too well to get away with that!!

Our big Joann here in Austin lets you use whatever variety of coupons you have in each pass through the checkout--you can use one 50% off, one 40% off, etc. Then you can just go around through the checkout again with more. The checkers don't care at all, as far as I can tell. Though I like the idea of keeping two coats in the car! Plus if you pay cash for the many transactions while changing to your various disguises, then so much the better! Clever!

Good grief! Fabric prices in Canada and Australia sound absolutely horrible! Do you have to pay duty for things sent to you when you order online?

Dana

Wow, excited to learn about Marshall's Dry Goods! wish I had the $$ to throw down on a bundle...to many choices overwhelm me...lol

I heard cotton went up in price.

I bought a piece of Debbie Mumm fabric last night at JoAnns that I paid $7.99 for two months ago ... it's now $9.99 per yard! I used my 50% off coupon but still felt the pinch! But it's an adorable teal background with brown paw prints on it. I hope to be making dog and cat items, especially bags, for sale sometime after the first of the year. (It was supposed to be in time for Christmas but my auto accident made that impossible.) BUT, I did get the name PawsitivelyPurrfect on etsy set aside. I wanted dog-gone cute designs but it was already taken!

Peggy in Chilly Fla

(it's warmed up into the 60's today but we've already had 3 days at 32 or lower and our 'normal' for December is 5. Next week is supposed to break that record!)

me too i pay £10 a meter for Moda in Northern Ireland which is about $15 to $16 a meter

I see unpicked cotton here in GA....................maybe could make my own fabric if they would let me have some cotton--LOL

Happy for you guys there! Here in GA no luck even though we complained a lot.

When I drove through the farm country near Bakersfield a few years ago, I passed a cotton field that had been picked clean except for some plants that had grown into a ditch, so I stopped and picked a few balls, and smoothed one out flat and incorporated it into a quilt as just a tiny way to remember the quilters in the past who had to use cotton this way, seeds and all, as batting. Wonder what they'd think about all the batting choices we have today?

Dana

I am shocked at the price of fabric around the world.... I will not longer balk at paying 10 dollars a yard for batiks at my local fabric store....

If you can wait, put off the quilt until after the holiday's. JoAnn's usually has a bang up sale after New Years.

Price of cotton HAS gone up - Use those coupons!

They just built a new walmart here and the "Fabric" department is 1 side of an isle with a wall mount rack with maybe 40 fat quarters and something called simple sides, may 2 1/2 yards packaged together with some coordinating colors. No bolts, no attendant. Wah, wah, wah, and yes I want some cheese with my wine. LOL
We all know that we will obtain fabric to keep doing what we love and doing it the best we can. It's called quilting
Robert

Girls I say use our stash ! AND go to thrift stores and buy skirts, shirts, etc and go from there !!!! Our dear grandmothers and great grandmothers sure did !!!! What say you all ?

The lady who owns the quilt shop in town here said it is illegal for them to raise the prices on fabric that they already have. How come JoAnn gets away with this?

Oh, I do feel sorry for the LQS owners. The shops carry so much stock and have just placed new orders in Houston this Fall. They have no choice price wise....and they must know that quilters are going to slack off in purchasing. There is risk for the small business owner....try to give them some business. They must pay qualified staff (we want to learn from them) reasonable salaries, rent, and run a line of credit to cover the costs of ordering.

I went to Joann's today too. Had a lot of coupons, but most everything was on sale anyway. Nothing new. Walked out without buy anything. 2nd time that's happen to me. Going to my local quilt shop too.

Ummm.... it may be unethical to raise the prices on stock that you already have, but it's hardly illegal.

Just think back to hurricane Katrina. All the gas stations in my area raised prices immediately... surely before they took delivery on any additional fuel... but nobody went to jail.

And we all knew what was going on, right?

I was at my local quilt shop today and the owner said she would NOT be raising the prices of material, but in June in may change.