finimom

I am in Germany, where one meter of good fabric costs around 18 Euro. You are still lucky in the U.S. with your (fabric) prices. On the other hand, we pay less for groceries here. When I visit the States I am often just shocked at how much prices have increased. I hope that your incomes have increased as well!

mcdaniel023

I buy what I like wherever I find it. I went to a garage sale that had a stack of moda for $1.00 a yard. Bought $15.00 worth. I have bought from Connecting Threads, Favorite Fabrics and a couple of online stores that were going out of business. I bought some blenders from Walmart that I liked the color and feel that were on clearance for $2.00 a yd.
Yesterday, I took a few hours away from my beach vacation to go to the lqs Quilting by the Bay. I found some beautiful fabric and spent $138.00 on a fq bundle (12) 3 fqs, 6 yards of fabric.
I have not bought fabric from Joann's lately. I just haven't found anything I had to have.

quiltqueen61

$8 is my limit but I am lucky we have a selvage store here that has a wonderful fabric department which sells their fabric for 4.49/yd.

maryellen2u

All I can say is that I am very glad I built up a stock pile over the years when fabric was lower. I have plenty now to stitch up although I do have to purchase a bit to complete or compliment what I have. Fabric around here run from $9.50-$15.00. Yes it has increased dramatically. It's like the cost of gas! So I am really careful about shopping sales, do some online shopping with free shipping and clip coupons. I am retired so my income is fixed and I really miss just picking up a new beautiful fabric that catches my eye.

leighway

I buy most of my fabric online at places like Hancocks-Paducah, Glorious Color, Fabric.com. My average is around $7 per yard, but I buy on sale and I watch for specific designers like Kaffe Fassett. Fabric.com has some very reasonable pricing. I won't buy from my LQS because it's just too much money. It's not their fault. The fabric manufacturers have gone up in price and the LQS has to pay more for what they order.

LynnVT

Boy, you are getting some amazing market research here for free! Not many businesses can get this much info without major cost. I believe in my LQS and have three of them within 10 miles of me, one only a mile away. They are all so good about helping me, and are there when I need them. There is another a little farther away, and a discount store where the owner buys out shops that close down and other overstocks, so his prices are pretty good. Now and then we take a road trip of an hour or two to a fun shop, including Keepsake. Prices here are $10-12 in shops, but most have discount fabs too. Occasionally I use JoAnn or WalMart for batting or notions, rarely buy fabric there. I do know good fabric when I see/feel it, so I'm pretty picky about that, even though my funds are way low now that I've retired. Rarely buy online for the same reasons others have said. Don't know quality, hate shipping costs, and won't overbuy for "free shipping." I followed your link and see that you have some nice fabrics. But you aren't there to help me pick out the best fabric for my backing when I have a finished top to bring in. Local shop owners are not getting rich on their businesses, they are just passionate about quilting. They pay local taxes which are good for our local economy. I'm sure you are good folks, too, and I wish you well in your business too. I feel bad for people who don't have a shop near them to choose from. Sorry to be so wordy here!!

Favorite Fabrics

You're not too wordy, LynnVT. Lots of good comments have been posted by you and the others who have chimed in.

I like posting open-ended questions here, because generally a lot of varied ideas get posted and that's a good thing.

The reason I asked the question now is that we're over a year out from the major price increases that took the wholesale prices of cotton fabrics up by $1 over a single year. We knew that was due to a shortage of cotton on the market at the time. And we also now know that the prices never went back down, and I'm seeing that the wholesale prices are starting to creep up again. And it's discouraging!

Nobody likes paying shipping fees, but when I think that a half-hour trip across town burns a gallon of gas each way (which costs about $7 in my area), that is approximately the shipping cost for a lot of purchases. And some things you either can't find locally, or it's not worth the time you would spend trying to track them down. Like 29x32 dress pants for my still-skinny son.

I guess it's because I am "of a certain age" that I have to keep reminding myself how much it costs to get where I want to go. When gas was 30 cents / gallon the cost was small. Oh, SHOOT, now it's over ten times that much, WHY did I have to do this calculation? Groan. Guess I really have gotten old!

No, an online shop can't help you match fabrics to the quilt top that you've just completed. But the smaller online stores do have staff that's actually seen and handled the fabrics, as opposed to the fabrics being in a warehouse separate from where the customer service phone staff is. We often get calls or e-mails from people who ask us about several fabrics, and whether they go well together. If they don't, we'll suggest some alternative choices. That seems to work out pretty well, and it's nice to get an e-mail from the customer who is pleased when they open their package and see the fabrics that we've helped them choose.

I really wish we could see the finished products, though! That's one thing that we miss out on.

YukonViv

I pay $18.99/metre (Canadian $). I don't have to even try to figure out the average as we have one source here in the Yukon and it's $18.99/metre.

We haven't had an increase and I've been quilting 4 years now.

Quite honestly, I've ordered from the US as I was amazed at the prices...throw in exchange rates, custom duties, shipping....it pretty much was close to the $18/metre by the time I got it and I wasn't thrilled with my purchases. At our local shop I'm able to touch and feel the fabric, see the true colour, see how it relates to my stash, etc. So I buy local.

bearisgray

Back when gas was $0.30 a gallon, a decent house could be built for $15,000 or less, a first class stamp was $0.03 and wages were about $1.00 an hour.

Knitette

Same here - The average price of a metre (39”) of 44/45” wide cotton fabric from a quilt shop is around £11/12, which is currently $17/19 – batiks are more expensive at about $22! The Amy Butler I’ve got my eye on for my daughter is $27! No surprise I use eBay US quite a lot to buy fabric, as there is wider choice and MUCH less expensive, even if I have to pay Customs.