Hello All,

I’m sure there will be a variety of opinions on this topic, and I’m not trying to stir up any hot topics... ...but...

Does anyone in BC ever purchase fabric offline and if so... how do you know a reliable web source from a funky one? Other then ordering and taking that leap of faith? I was once told just because a fabric has a recognizable designer name on the salvage doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a quality piece of fabric.

So... if any of you folks do order from online sources would you be so kind as to tell me which ones? As an 87% rule I always use our local quilt shops first, but when I’m on the hunt for a specific piece of fabric (and my local shops don’t have it) it’s much cheaper to let my fingers do the walking then run $3.67 gallon gas through my truck.

Thanks in advance!

Felicia

Felicia, this is a very good question.

I agree that supporting your local quilt shop is important...otherwise you could lose it!

But, there are times when you are looking for a particular fabric and the lqs does not have it. Time to look online.

Knock on wood, but I've never been disappointed with any of the online shops that I've patronized over the years. Here is a short list of shops I've ordered from:

Fat Quarter Shop - http://www.fatquartershop.com

Hancock's of Paducah - http://www.hancocks-paducah.com (The selection is huge and the site is very easy to use.)

Keepsake Quilting - http://www.keepsakequilting.com (I like the way that they've arranged coordinating fabrics together.)

Just my short list...there are others and I'll add them as I remember them.

Hello Kim!

Thank you for responding so quickly! I LOVE the ladies at my quilt shops, but... if they don't have what I need/want the next quilt store is about 50 minutes away. I often pump up my stash by cruising their “50% off” corners first thing, but....then I managed to always make it out to the new stuff too.

I had been in search of this gorgeous oriental crane fabric. Originally one of our local quilt stores got some in, but NOT in the color I needed. After striking out at the local 2 stores... I then made the 50 min trek to the other quilt store...and came back empty handed. CORRECTION.. I came back with a bag of fabric...just NOT the crane fabric! That was about 2 months ago. JUST LAST WEEK I was sniffing internet fabric and there WAS the fabric I was looking for! I bought it...it came and it was beautiful! I am soooo happy!

I know there’s always a risk...but... kind of like that "Dave’s Garden Watch Dog" link. If there is a really poor transaction with a garden (or seed) catalog they actually have a GRADING standard that people can go ck out (as well as vent on) to see how high a particular store rates & its customer satisfaction is running.

Thanks x 10! Can’t wait go sniff these out! Better go get a cup of coffee and my slippers. I might camp here for awhile..hehe Life is good!!!

Huggers....

Poof*

I've purchased fabric from several places - always with good results, so far. Many places have great sales if you get on their emailing list.

I've used: eBay, Over the Rainbow, The Quilt Asylum, Hancock's of Paducah, This n That Fabrics, and a couple others I can't remember right off. I know a lot of people shop at eQuilter.com.

Thanks Linda!!!

Over the Rainbow is up your way - in Camano Island, Washington. www.overrainbow.com She does a LOT of online selling and has a shop at her farm.

I have purchased from Ladybuttonfabrics.com among others. service is always fantastic....and they seem to have the latest a nd greatest in stock at all times.

Felicia,

This link has been posted before elsewhere on the boards, but in case you missed it, the following is a good search engine for online quilt shops that I use all the time:

http://www.quiltshops.com/search.htm

Even if you just post a theme and not an actual fabric line, you will get many ideas.

If you post a particular fabric line and even color you will get a precise hit. For example, last fall I ran out of red fabric from a particular Moda line ...the reds and darker solids in Moda lines are usually the first ones to be gone... and needed to find enough to finish the border on a quilt and I just typed in red, moda and the line name and found just what I needed on sale and I had the fabric in less than a week and finished the top. I have had the same thing happen recently with a dark blue print. The LQS where I originally purchased the fabric was out of this bolt and not getting anymore so I went right away to this online source and found just what I needed. Many of these shops ship priority mail without your requesting it and at no extra charge and you have your fabric in a matter of days.

I have ordered from a few of these shops over the last three years and almost all of my experiences have been very positive. Only once I felt I had to contact a shop to see what was holding up my order. The fabric was good and just what I'd expected, but the service was slow.

Shops I have ordered from as a repeat customer from Quiltshops.com are:

Over the Rainbow,
Quilting Bee in AZ,
Tennesee Quilts,
Fabric Shack,
Wish Upon a Quilt (changing owners at the moment)

Not on this search engine, but shops I have ordered from frequently are:

Fat Quarter Shop (link in Kim's post above),
Main Street Cotton Shop, http://www.mainstreetcottonshop.com/ (they seem to be making many changes today on their website format ... new page looks nice ... this should be very temporary)
Hancock's of Paducah (also linked by Kim above)
and
The Thrifty Needle, http://www.thethriftyneedle.com/

Happy online quilt shop hopping, Pat

This is just wonderful information! TY TY so much!

I used to work late shift and did MUCHO surfing at night when I got home. I have seen a zillion fabric links online, but was leary of them. I wondered if there were any web vendors I REALLY needed to be educated about...(good AND bad).

The “crane” fabric that I had been on the “lust hunt” for I found at Fabric.com. It’s the ONLY time I’ve ever ordered fabric from the web (other then nabbing a few novelty pieces off of eBay for a silly print). I was amazed at how fast the Fabric.com order came. When I opened it up and handled the goods it really WAS as nice and rich looking as the bolts in my local store... ONLY.. it was in the softer peach/salmon color I had searched high and low for! Geezzzz... I felt like such a “traitor” when I purchased it...lol

So...IS there a way (or a test) to judge the quality of fabric? Since I got my "gray goods" education in a quilting class early on I've never bought big box store fabric again. Howeeeeeeeever...there have been a couple times (not many 1 or 2) that SOME of the fabric I got from a good quilt store felt rather inferior after washing (thin...and a bit flimsy). Is that a sign of inferior fabric or is it more the dying/printing process?

Another question I have is about “Klutz Gloves”. Does anyone in here use one? I was standing in a quilt store awhile back and got to visiting with someone in line (imagine that.. ...lol).. .and... she showed me two of her fingers which were malformed. The fingers looked like she’d stuck them in a blender. She went on to tell me she had had a wicked accident. She was working with a few layers of fabric cutting sashes (late one night.. .)and her rotary cutter caught the template, jumped the edge...and took the tip off of her index finger and stuck deep in the bone on her middle finger. The carnage was substantial I’m here to tell you and she said it happened in the blink of an eye! This was a few years ago, and she has yet to regain the feeling in the tips of the two fingers. She told me she has since swapped out all of her good mats for some type of “more tacky” mats, AND she never handles her rotary cutter without using a “Klutz Glove” on the off hand. It sounds like a good safety idea, but now I notice our local quilt stores have those suction cups handles to handle their templates. So.. I was just wondering how you folks do it. When this woman ck’d out and left...... the gal working at the store told me the woman was a VERY accomplished quilter...and those kinds of accidents are more common then I might think. I spent 5 years working around an ER for our lab...and I know about freak accidents. I had had a couple RN’s make comments to me about the dangers of rotary cutters, but had never actually seen any disasters from them first hand. It was an eye opener.

Opinions?

Over the Rainbow has some of the best customer service. I love them.

Bugfabric.com is another one that has alot of unusual and themed fabrics. They are heavily used by the chinese adoptive community so they usually have a good variety of asian prints as well.

Good luck on your search I'd love to see what you're looking for. I've got a thing for asian prints (hence my BOM fabrics)