KS quilter

I try to be loyal to the one in our town,only 8 blocks from me. She bought the invenory from a shop about 35 miles
away, last February and has been adding new fabrics right long. Most of her quilting fabric
is $5.97 a yd. It is good fabric and well stocked shop. We are fortunate to have her here.
I do frequent another great shop 12 miles away and she also has about everything but her
name brand fabrics are priced about like what you all are paying at your LQS, There is
another about 50 miles West and I usually go there once a year. All 3 are very friendly and
helpful, I really like to see and touch what I am buying....however last week I ordered two
pieces (9 yds each) for backing from Connecting Threads. It came today and it is so nice
and is exactly what I had been looking for. It was on sale at $2.96 a yard. How can you
beat that?

Grandma58

We have 4 shops, one I have never been in, it has a new owner now so I will be checking it out. One is too far and not friendly, but has great fabric so in 5 years I have been there 3 times. My use to be favorite I rarely shop at any more for a number of reasons, they don't sell 6" of fabric only 4 1/2" or 9" a pain for me, they can't hold fabric while I am waiting for conformation from a customer, and they do not return my phone calls. Our local Ben Franklin has a terrific selection and I love them.
I don't shop on line for fabric because I like to feel it, I do buy other sewing related stuff.
Since I have a few tons of fabric I do not buy it at all unless I have a specific project to finish or a special order.
I use to be very loyal to the shop I very rarely go in any more but loyalty is a two way street.
All of you have such interesting opinions, seems like the one thing we all agree on is we LOVE fabric.

quilt3311

I shop the LQS first, if they do not have what I am looking for I either travel about an hour or look online, some fabric lines are always good quality, so have never been burned by bad fabric. LQS runs some fantastic bargains regularly though and stock some good quality flat folds for backings. Try to keep $$ going locally when I can.

clsurz

I buy my fabric where ever I find it if I like it from Goodwill's, local LQS, and online or anywhere else I find good deals. My loyalty is to me first and if I'm satisfied buying fabric with whoever they get some of my money.

Maybe1day

I am relatively loyal to my local quilt shop. I do buy fabric from the two other shops in town which have quilting needs but mostly from the LQS even though she is dearer. Her fabric is better quality and the service is both friendly and informative if I have a problem. The other two places, just sell fabric and are not so good at answering questions. I don't buy online as a rule because I like to see and touch the fabric. The two times that I have bought any fabric online I have been disappointed with it as it doesn't look as nice as the photo did. Saying this I have seen the odd thing on line and will say - maybe I will buy some of that and try again although so far I have resisted, maybe if I find something I really must have I will do so, who knows?

probles

I do both. I love the feeling of going into our LQS, but the cost of fabric is just going up too fast. Because on-line shops do not have the overhead, they can and often do list their fabrics much cheaper. As long as I am purchasing brand name fabric, I have no fear of what I will receive.

alwayslearning

This shop is in Deland, isn't it? She is great

AnnaF

I do a lot of shopping for fabric online. I love batiks but I do not see myself paying upwards of $12.00+ per yd for them when I can buy at half that price online with the added bonus of free shipping a lot of the time.
We also have a local salvage store that sells quilt shop quality fabrics at a fraction of what a quilt shop charges. I would like to support local quilt shops but my pocketbook is the deciding factor.
FYI TodaysQuilting.com offers great sales on fabric. Very nice service and the fabrics are just as represented. 5 star online shop.

ORSunshineQuilter

There was only one shop that carried the fabric that appealed to me and it closed last year. There is one other here but I don't like the people that work there much. It is more of a basics quilt shop. So, my only option is to buy online. I have found 4 or 5 shops online from around the country that I really love. I feel bad for the local shops but if they can't carry what I am looking for, what am I to do? I try to buy locally as much as I can.

sew1096

I am lucky to have 4 LQS's in town besides JoAnn's, Hancocks, Ben Franklin & Mill End Fabrics. I shop all of them regularly except one. They are all friendly but the one is more into pushing sales than the others.

My BFF and I also regularly shop several other QS's within about a 250 mile radius of us. We make day trips or sometimes have an overnight stay and have fun just being out of town.

I do a little online shopping sometimes too but I like to mostly frequent my local shops if at all possible.