captlynhall

I usually buy my fabrics for quilts at my LQS, partly because they carry beautiful, high quality fabrics, and partly because I want to help keep them in business. They also offer sewing classes and have knowledgeable ladies that can answer my questions (I'm kind of a newbie quilter and need a lot of hand holding). They sell sewing machines and have a repair technician on staff, so I appreciate that too.

Am not very impressed with quilt fabric selection at JoAnn's but did purchase some rather cute fabric to make pillow cases for the 1,000,000 pillow case challenge at Hobby Lobby. Didn't know until last week they even carried fabrics. I will be checking out the local Walmart soon to see what they have.

stefanib123

Until a year ago, Walmart was my ONLY option, besides online of course. I live in the boonies (2-3 hours from Joanns, LQS or anything like that) and was I a happy quilter when we got a quilt store!! My happiness was short lived, alas, as I can't afford to shop there much. Especially as my local WM is very "quilter friendly". The main lady there has been there for years, she's 72, and is amazing.She made all her children's clothes growing up, and she's probably made hundreds of quilts. She knows me well by now, LOL! The LQS is nice, too, but I don't have the relationship with them that I do with her. I wish I could shop there more, I like to support small local business's anyway. They do have layaway for big items, though, so when I can get an embroidery machine, I'm buying from her!

Now, there's something funny my Walmart does. They put their scraps, end cuts, etc in a basket for half price. they are usually a half yard to 3 yards. Well, with that half price you can take it to whoever is working in fabric and they will cut THAT price in half again! So, you get $4 a yard stuff for $1!!! They've done it for years and that's probably the majority of my stash. There's 2 more Walmarts in the next towns over, and one does it also but the other doesn't, so maybe it's a regional thing? They are all SuperWalmart's, so it's not that.

Either way, I LOVE it!!! Get lots of stash for very cheap!!

JanTx

I recently posted about a quilt that I made totally from WM fabrics. I washed the quilt before gifting it - usually I iron them to make them look new again after washing. But... I pulled this one out of the dryer, took it to the ironing board, had iron in hand and .... nothing to iron... that quilt looked just as new and fresh as when it went in the dryer. Love it!

LOVE my LQS and plan to spend there when I can and when the occasion warrants it, but ... this is a fantastic option for "utility" quilts.