Are you loyal to your quilt shop or do you shop online?
12-20-2011, 03:14 PM
#31
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: brunssum, the netherlands
Posts: 457
I definitally buy online only.
As I live in the netherlands, quiltingfabrics prices are ridiculous high...about $22,00 a metre ( just a little more than a yard)
I have to stop quilting when I can't buy in america anymore.
Fortunately more and more quiltshops in america are having paypal so I don't need to get a creditcart.
And, as somebody else pointed out...now I'm helping a quiltshop in america ;-)
And.....the sellers in america are mostly much more friendly!!!!!!!!
As I live in the netherlands, quiltingfabrics prices are ridiculous high...about $22,00 a metre ( just a little more than a yard)
I have to stop quilting when I can't buy in america anymore.
Fortunately more and more quiltshops in america are having paypal so I don't need to get a creditcart.
And, as somebody else pointed out...now I'm helping a quiltshop in america ;-)
And.....the sellers in america are mostly much more friendly!!!!!!!!
12-20-2011, 03:42 PM
#32
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: metuchen,nj
Posts: 553
I might shop at a local quilt store, since I do patronize my local stores, but I don't have one! The only thing I have that even closely resembles a quilt store is JoAnns, and a crummy one at that. So most of my shopping is done online. Unfortunately that isn't likely to change soon, but I'd love to have a LQS.
12-20-2011, 03:53 PM
#34
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Southern Indiana
Posts: 5,052
Our LQS recently closed their brick and mortor shop, but they are still on-line. The only time I bought from other shops was when she did not have what I was looking for, or when my friends and I would take road trips (about once a year. She had over 7000 bolts of fabric, so we could just about always find what we wanted. The price of cotton going up has really hurt the Quilt Shops. I wonder how many will survive?
12-20-2011, 04:14 PM
#35
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Ohio
Posts: 2,968
I have no LQS so 99% of my purchases are online.......as is most of my non grocery shopping. I have to be real motivated to drive the 30 minutes to the nearest Joann's and it is a tiny store or the larger one 1 hr away. I know my UPS man very well, I help maintain his job security and he goes out of his way to deliver larger packages later if I am not home if the weather is bad so they are not sitting outside. I would shop locally if we had one here but till that happens online is my friend!!
12-20-2011, 04:15 PM
#36
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Maine-ly Florida
Posts: 3,920
A group of us (and many others) are not loyal to the quilt shop just minutes from us and she carries beautiful fabric. BUT it is not a friendly shop at all. Instead we travel 1hr and 15 min to another quilt shop where it is just so delightful to visit!! The owner is fabulous. She has her own fabric line - patterns - is in many magazines and she loves people and we all love her! We spend at least 2 hrs in her store each visit as she makes it so fun and she has the latest and greatest. We have never been in her store that we didn't get a "lesson" on something or at least a demonstration. She promotes her whole town - on her web site she encourages shopping at the town stores and eating lunch out at the local eateries. She has been voted Business Woman of the Year several times!! If groups let her know they are coming, they have a full day at the shop! We can't wait to go see all her new findings in January!
Thanks in advance.
12-20-2011, 04:18 PM
#37
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Lived in San Diego now retired in Eagar, AZ.
Posts: 887
i would love to be loyal to my local quilt shop, but they are not loyal to our neighbors... their prices are nowhere near what i can get online with a hundred times more selection, and their classes are not well organized nor competitively priced. a few weeks ago, one of the teachers was told, 'talk it up'... when asking how many people had registered for her class...the sample quilt was up, but there was no sign, no schedule, and no advertising of ANY TYPE in the store... people had to know to ask and that meant the teacher had to do it... they do NOT give a discount during breaks of the class (something I found to be almost universal in other shops) and they stock between 100 -- 150 bolts of fabric....I have more than that in my stash, so why should I pay more for fabric I can get online, on sale, from several different sources, any time of the day or night?
here are my faves:
http://www.fabric.com/Index.aspx always check out clearance and '$1.95' sections
http://www.marshalldrygoods.com/ best selection AND prices for extra wide 90--108" backings, solids, prints, batiks, tiedies.... approx $8.00/yd
http://www.missouriquiltco.com/ great for precuts (not me, but you might like them), good prices and great tutorials, many available....they demo lots of their special rulers/tools during these, but you don't need most of them unless you want them....great sales periodically
http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc...quilt%20fabric
http://sewtrue.com/ best prices i have found for thread and notions, in general....however....
http://www.thequiltedrose.com/ best ever selection of thread and great prices....
if anyone else has stores to add to this list, please put them in...i love to find new outlets...
here are my faves:
http://www.fabric.com/Index.aspx always check out clearance and '$1.95' sections
http://www.marshalldrygoods.com/ best selection AND prices for extra wide 90--108" backings, solids, prints, batiks, tiedies.... approx $8.00/yd
http://www.missouriquiltco.com/ great for precuts (not me, but you might like them), good prices and great tutorials, many available....they demo lots of their special rulers/tools during these, but you don't need most of them unless you want them....great sales periodically
http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc...quilt%20fabric
http://sewtrue.com/ best prices i have found for thread and notions, in general....however....
http://www.thequiltedrose.com/ best ever selection of thread and great prices....
if anyone else has stores to add to this list, please put them in...i love to find new outlets...
Last edited by deemail; 12-20-2011 at 04:21 PM.
12-20-2011, 04:20 PM
#38
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Maine-ly Florida
Posts: 3,920
I live in the same state as Ghostrider and she is right, we have a lot of great shops to pick from. I mostly buy in shops, sometimes online but lately, have been hearing some comments here at home about maybe shopping more upstairs fron my own stash. Funny, he's never done this before, hope he gets over this bug or whatever it is!
12-20-2011, 04:43 PM
#40
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Western Nevada
Posts: 2,520
Shopping online is easier in some ways than shopping at brick and mortar stores, and more difficult in some ways. It's easier in the sense that you have lots of selection, and comparison shopping is as simple as clicking your mouse. You can shop in your jammies from the comfort of your couch, order and in a couple of days a package arrives at your doorstep. You also save a lot of gasoline, since you don't have to go driving long distances to shop.
On the other side of the equation, unless you've seen the fabric, you don't know what it feels like until you get it, and due to monitor and picture differences, you aren't actually sure of the colors.
That's why good online shops will try their best to give you good color information, and will send you small samples if you ask. I'd rather send you a sample than have you return something that doesn't work for you. Additionally, a lot of online shops will match fabrics for you if you ask them to and will give color advice. You can send them a sample and ask them to match it for you with blenders or other fabrics.
One other point needs to be made -- the issue of "keeping your money in the community" is pretty much a non-issue. Someone posted earlier that if you spend your money locally, some enormous percentage stays there. That's just not true anymore, unless the fabric is made right in the community, and it's not. First, over half of what you spend on fabric goes to pay for the fabric, more if it's on sale. Then there's heat, lights and utilities for the store -- in most communities that money goes someplace else. Advertising and printing of catalogs and flyers takes a share -- those are most likely done in another community. And so it goes. No matter if you shop online, or at your local store, a big majority of the money you spend is going to be sent away, either way.
And as Nan said earlier, most online shops, with the exception of the biggies like fabric.com (a subsidiary of Amazon) are small mom and pop shops just like your local quilt shop probably is.
On the other side of the equation, unless you've seen the fabric, you don't know what it feels like until you get it, and due to monitor and picture differences, you aren't actually sure of the colors.
That's why good online shops will try their best to give you good color information, and will send you small samples if you ask. I'd rather send you a sample than have you return something that doesn't work for you. Additionally, a lot of online shops will match fabrics for you if you ask them to and will give color advice. You can send them a sample and ask them to match it for you with blenders or other fabrics.
One other point needs to be made -- the issue of "keeping your money in the community" is pretty much a non-issue. Someone posted earlier that if you spend your money locally, some enormous percentage stays there. That's just not true anymore, unless the fabric is made right in the community, and it's not. First, over half of what you spend on fabric goes to pay for the fabric, more if it's on sale. Then there's heat, lights and utilities for the store -- in most communities that money goes someplace else. Advertising and printing of catalogs and flyers takes a share -- those are most likely done in another community. And so it goes. No matter if you shop online, or at your local store, a big majority of the money you spend is going to be sent away, either way.
And as Nan said earlier, most online shops, with the exception of the biggies like fabric.com (a subsidiary of Amazon) are small mom and pop shops just like your local quilt shop probably is.
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