juliasb

When I buy fabrics, including high quality brands, I always buy closeout or on sale to save $$. I have a very large stash that I only paid pennies a yard for when I purchased part of someone's who passed away. I will occasionally pick up a few new pieces here and there, as I just did. I am also gifted fabrics often enough to make it worth mentioning. This is one way I keep the cost lower.
Good thread is one of my more expensive cost.
I also look for quality, but less expensive backing fabrics. There are many good shops online that meet my needs.
I still hand quilt or have been recently LA'ing some of my quilts. I have a mid arm machine that is out of service right now and greatly missed. I also use my DSM to quilt with when ever I can.
Yes, it can get quite costly which is why I am very selective on who I gift my quilts to.
I am working on 2 quilts right now. One is bogging me down a bit but I will get it finished. The other one is coming along very nicely. I hope to have them both done by spring.
I am not a rich woman with a lot of $$ to throw around but if I have to have a hobby that is fulfilling then quilting it is.

pennyhal2

Yes! I've been horrified at the cost of fabric nowadays. Like others, quilting and sheep herding with my corgis is what I spend money on. We don't travel now that we are older. I guess we spend more money than most on food as I cook everything fresh to control how much salt my elderly husband gets. However, most of the quilting stores have gone out of business. I hate buying fabric online because it never looks like it does on my monitor. I've been so disappointed in precut fabrics that I buy online that haven't used any of it yet...a lot of duplicates in layer cakes, fabrics that don't blend well together etc. I planned for my retirement well and saved a lot when I was working so that I wouldn't have to cut back drastically, But, I sure regret the price of fabric! It really keeps younger people from wanting to learn this skill and keeps me from purchasing fabric that does not fit well in my stash. Where I used to buy an unsual color or something unique to experiment with, I just can't expand my stash more with fabric that does play will with others already

sewingpup

when I was working, I discovered it was far easier to buy fabric then actually use so developed quite a stash, I felt guilty once I retired and had time to organize it and see how much I had. I have been retired 11 years and now I think that fabric stash I acquired when I was working was one of the best retirement savings plans, I could have! What I paid $5-6 dollars a yard for then is now going to be 11-12! Also, I have noticed that my older fabric actually has a better feel to it than some of the newer, thinner, yet quilt shop fabric that is available today. I also have developed quite a fabric, rotary cutter blades, cutting mats, patterns, books Stash as well. So, my hobby has not cost much these last few years although I did splurge and got a couple of new machines as my old ones just were getting clunky and outdated.

Onebyone

I remember when I could buy name brand fabric at Marshall's for less then $ 3 yard. If I liked a fabric I bought the whole bolt for about $30. Buying the bolt was cheaper per yard. I have bolts of vintage Robert Kauffman, Andover, Free Spirit of Tula Pink, Kaffe, and others. Lots of Hoffman Batiks. I am so glad I did. Fabric is expensive now but in ten years time it could possibly triple in price. Newer quilters should be buying all the sale fabric they can now.

toverly

It can be expensive when making one from a new line of fabric with a decorative fabric back. I think the most expensive one I ever made used the little license plates from row by row. But oh, how much fun I had shop hopping and collecting those little plates. I keep costs down by purchasing when on sale, using a plain back, and purchasing my batting by the roll. I love scrappy which helps and I rarely purchase at full price, I wait for a sale.

petthefabric

Today I bought fabric. It was 30% off for holiday sale. I was very selective about what I really wanted and what I needed. My purchase was $.89 for 1/8 yd solid black.

Another way I've saved is to get my quilting fix, 1 block at a time on the BOOM 27. Lots of creative juice for each block.

Quiltah Mama

I am by no means rich. DH and I are very much like mentioned previously in this thread, homebodies. We don't eat out, we don't go on expensive vacations, and we too are driving vehicles that don't have payments. We each have our hobbies that we enjoy, and we stay home and do them. And I am thrifty about it. I watch for sales, use coupons, and I make and sell items to help support my hobby. And I wouldn't change a thing, because quilting/sewing makes me happy.

Schill93

I am really enjoying all of your stories. Many hit home with me. My biggest regret is my purchasing habit. I too have mostly just bought fabrics on sale. However, the downside of that is only buying the ones I really liked which resulted in buying one or two fabrics from a line, as a limited number were available. So now I struggle with trying to coordinate my fabric, and despite my very large stash, sometimes I have a problem pulling it all together. I'm not as big a fan of scrappy, although I still think some scrappy quilts are pretty.

Also the available yardage on sale has really dried up in the past two years, making purchasing individual yardage at a more reasonable cost is becoming more difficult. I do very much agree with the sentiment about this hobby bringing you joy. Besides sewing, a fun time for me is sitting down and just looking at my fabric, and visualizing what I will make with it. I have made so many quilts in my head.

SusieQOH

I just gifted by sister-in-law a quilt that she loved. It had a pieced binding and she thought it was amazing. I love pieced bindings mainly for the look but it also uses up scraps.

L'il Chickadee

My most recent quilts were made from kits, usually on sale. A kit gives me a selection of coordinated fabrics in amounts that I can design a quilt around. I'll also buy quilt backs. A yard of a 108" backing is three yards of fabric that amounts to about $5.00 a yard.