Dee Dee

You know, you are right! Why can Connecting Threads lower their prices while others raise theirs? Perhaps Connecting Threads' sales are up and with greater volume, comes lower pricing.

mrs. fitz

Two weeks ago on vacation in Vermont I discovered two way-above-average quilt/fabric shops. It would have been rude not to pull into their driveways, wouldn't it, so I gave each a good checking out. And HAD to buy a souveneir in each also. The first, WATERWHEEL HOUSE QUILT SHOP (Route 100, Londenderry VT) had some new fabrics priced at $11 and $11.25/yard. Beautiful fabrics, things I'd never seen before. It was a quick stop so didn't explore too much and don't know how prices were in general. A few days later I passed QUILTED TREASURES (Route 11, Chester VT), also a very worthwhile stop. Rooms and rooms of fabric. Again it was quick and I purchased some cheater panels and things I saw on display, no yardage, so don't know how the prices were.

A third quilt shop visit was to old standby NORTON HOUSE in Wilmington, VT, still a good place for a quilter.

Looks like prices are indeed going up so like everyone else, unless it's a special purchase like a vacation take-home, I'll be much more careful with my $.

fabric_fancy

i would stock up.

when the prices went up the last time here the LQS raised the prices on every bolt in the store even though some of those bolts are from lines that came out 6 years ago.

the prices are now $8.99 for kona cotton, $11.99 for prints (Moda, Benartex, Hoffman, etc), and $14.99 for batiks.

zennia

Thank goodness for stash. Think I might finally use some.

Favorite Fabrics

Just 'cause a line came out 6 years ago, if the shop re-orders it (such as Kona cottons) you can be sure that they will be paying *today's* price for it, not what they used to pay for it 6 years ago.

That said... to go back to the original question, yes prices are going up, but no it isn't 30%! It been on the order of 10% or less, this year. The increases may not be over, but on the wholesale level we're talking increments of 25 cents per yard or less.

So don't anybody panic... at least, not yet!

davis2se

In my area (right now the Bradenton, FL area) fabric prices at JoAnn's are going up much more, and much quicker, then they are at the LQSs I frequent. I can get beautiful batiks at several shops in the area for $9.75 - 10.75. JoAnne's is charging 12.00 per yard for batiks of much lower quality. I still have not seen a significant increase in LQS prices compared to the chain stores.

Favorite Fabrics

JoAnns plays games with their prices a LOT lately.

For instance... I recently saw a fabric on their calico wall. They have the retail price set at 9.99 / yard. Being in the business, I know what the wholesale price is: $3.55 / yard. And that's the price for an independent store; I'm sure the chains are able to negotiate a better deal.

So even when JoAnn's runs that fabric at 30% off, it's not really a deal, 'cause you're just paying the fair full retail price!

Dee Dee

I noticed the prices on batiks at Joann's is really high! According to one post, their batiks really badly fade.