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Hi,
I am new to the United States. I am from Ireland and believe it or not we do not have proper quilting shops/fabric there. I will be going home in about a year so I want to start picking up fabric before I go home. I notice that some quilting shops are more pricey than others. I am in AZ. Do many of you buy online?
Thanks.
Hi Grace and welcome, where are you in Arizona???? I lived in Apache Junction, just east of Phoenix and there was a wonderful shop out there reasonable and I used to get a lot there. Now I'm in rural Mississippi and most of what I have comes either from the Wal-mart which is not going to be handeling fabric much longer or right here at Missouri quilt!!! Actually if I do daily deals it isn't bad and they deliver it to me!!! Since I'm pretty much homebound now it really works for me. Hope you find somewhere you just love to go!!!
The one shop in my local area is rather high in price and other are a drive away. I have epilepsy and florescent lights that flicker cause me to be dizzy, so I am careful where I go. Most of my shopping is done on-line. I have been able to find quilt shop quality fabric for as little as $4/yard so unfortunately I have too much fabric at the moment. The daily deals here are great and their shipping cost and speed are very good also.
I either buy my fabric at Joann's or here with the Daily Deals. I buy all my precuts from MSQC. There are wonderful quilt shops about 25 miles away but I never manage to get to them. When I get to Lancaster, hubby is always with me and he HATES to shop. He doesn't mind looking at quilts but shopping . .. . forget it. Now if Lowe's sold fabric. . . . . . .
I buy my pre-cuts from MSQC or on Ebay. I live in Texas and we have wonderful quilt shops here so I buy from them too.
Often there are items with marked down prices on MSQC and of course the Daily Deals are awesome. Another good quality and reasonable prices on-line is the site "Thousands of Bolts". There are several shops around here in NH, one of which is known across the country, called Keepsake Quilting. They do a lot on-line too and it also has a relationship with Fons and Porter. I have also ordered from Connecting Threads, but so far found I like their thread/notions better than fabric. Do you get any quilting magazines? There are always ads in them....that might be another resource. Good luck, Grace. Welcome and Happy Quiliting!
Cynthia
What an idea!!! I'm going to start stuffing their suggestion box!!!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by llm161
most of mine comes from Joanns. There is a little fabric shop here in town i go to, but most of her fabric is out of my price range. Our local Walmart has a fairly nice fabric dept. i have found some cute prints there, too.
a couple times a year i head out to the Amish community near here and shop at some of the places there. you have to watch cause some are geared for the tourist trade but if you know where to go you can get nice fabric at a reasonable price.
I get mine from MQSC, Fabric.com and when I have a coupon I buy the batiks and premium quilter's prints that JoAnn's carries. I have purchased fabric from my LQS but I find I can get better prices online and most of my LQS don't carry any pre-cuts which irks me. I want more precuts!
OMG! I am still laughing! If our Lowes or HomeDepot weren't built to stand alone, I'd rent a space right next door and open a quilt & yarn shop!Quote:
Now if Lowes sold fabric....
There are a few quilt shops I check out, but pretty much only the "Clearance/Sale" shelves. At $10/yd (no coupons either) that gets pretty pricey. Sometimes there is fabric I have seen online and I am interested in purchasing it. I'll pop in and check out the actual colors before I buy the fabric online. Sometimes the colors don't come across the screen quite right. Had what I thought was a coral/salmon color turn out to be orange once.
I shop at Joann's especially with their discount coupons. I also buy my batting there when it goes on sale. I noticed that their prices are rising too. Our Walmarts here don't carry fabric anymore. If you watched what you bought there, they did carry some decent stuff. Great prices on the super-wide muslin for backing.
When I order online I shop from MSQC, and Fabric.com. I have been pleased with their prices, and I think Fabric.com has one of the lowest minimums for free shipping at $35. I like MSQC's $5 shipping policy for the states, and it sounds like they are working on some flat rate options for international customers. Both places have good quality fabrics, and are not short on their yardage cuts. Fabric.com sometimes is a bit ragged, but never short on a cut.
Happy stash building!
Thanks for your suggestions. I will just have to start buying!!!!!!
We need to support the LQS or they won't be there the next time you want some nice fabric, otherwise. The on line stores are probably fine but they don't pay rent or pay employees to help you when you are stuck with matching a color, etc.
I am able to tell quite a bit of difference in the quality of the fabrics between Joanne, Hancocks and LQS fabric.
I have also been somewhat disappointed in what I bought on e-bay, pictures can be so deceiving.
I do plan on ordering from MSQ when the right things come up.
Hi Grace, I'm in the UK but I still buy most of my fabric from America. Even including the extra shipping it still generally works out much cheaper and there is a far greater selection. I like shopping here because you can't beat the daily deal and I like the fact that you can search by colour. I tend to search around for sales, sign up for a million newsletters and pounce when the prices drop.
I shop here or at Joannes.....also at my local quilt shop; but they are pricey, however they carry the prepackaged jelly rolls and batiks that I love......am looking forward to my first purchase from here
I do support the LQS, but I find it hard to pay double for the SAME fabric. Our Joann's is carrying Kona Cotton Solids and Kona wide bleached muslin. They also have high thread-count Egyptian cotton solids, that are nice. If I use my % off coupon that takes it below half of the LQS. I have to watch the quilting budget, and the most yards for the least $ is my goal.
As far as quality; I am critical of all of the fabrics I buy, no matter how much I pay for them. If they don't look and feel right, I don't care what a bargain they are, they won't go in to a quilt.
Happy fabric hunting & don't forget to check the sale shelves!
We have two LQS's that have a clearance room in the back of the store, I try to only buy fabric that is marked down by 1/2. I also go to Hancocks and get my Kona solids when they are on sale. I prefer Joann's, but Hancocks is just down the road from me. I get my pre-cuts from Missouri Quilt.
I'm in the same boat. My budget does dictate where I shop for fabric and I do the same thing - buy the highest quality I can afford. If that means JoAnn's selection of Kona cottons or premium quilters prints, so be it. I like their batiks too. Just can't always swing $10+ per yard at the LQS.Quote:
Originally Posted by toggpine
I buy my fabric from MSQC and my batting and supplies from JoAnn's, occasionally a novelty fabric from J's but usually not. I have one LQS but it's not a pretty or fun shop, particularly, and of course she has higher prices. I do try to purchase from her when I can, but my quilting budget is small and my stash is bigger than I'll ever use up, so I don't buy much anywhere of late.
I usually buy most of my fabric and supplies on line. Believ it or not it's way cheaper for me even after duty and exchange. Most of my online purchases are from the US. We have quilt shops here but charm packs are on average ten dollars and yardage is around fourteen to fifteen a yard...
Niamh
Lowes and the 'farm' stores such as Rural King and Tractor Supply have missed the boat by not having fabric! I'm on board!
Unfortunately the price of cotton just keeps going up and up - making it hard to find 'low' prices for us quilters. I agree with all of the above comments - MSQ's daily deals are awesome, Joann's is great when you use those coupons, and here I have a Hancocks Fabric 5 minutes away - (much too close according to DH). Good luck - I'm sure you will find some great stuff to take back home with you!
Our Hancocks went out of business several years ago. The LQS are expensive, but we have two of them in town now. Excellent help is cheaper than taking a class ;)
Clearance is great in the stores -- and same with Charm Packs. They are about the same as online, so I aim for them for thread, needles, and some CPacks. I do use sales at JoAnns for some Premium fabric (on sale here this week) and the batting at 40-50% off. Yeah, I'm a shopping slut. I get around -- but when you are looking for deals and a specific item (had to even use ebay and etsy a couple of times) -- shopping around is the only way to make a good quilt without blowing hundreds of dollars. I hate how some CPacks get dropped so quickly by companies and then they are killer hard to find!! :icon_angry: We can see examples of quilts with beautiful fabrics and can't hardly find them because the line has been replaced by a new one!!!
Anyway, I've used connectingthreads.com and contemporary cloth store and used the fabshophop in order to find a few new ones online. I am a newer quilter and had only fabric for clothes -- not for quilting -- so had to build my stash. It can be stressful trying to be cheap!
Ok, enough from me....
Holy cow! I'd have to quit quilting! Wellll, as soon as I used up my stash.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alana