My small but growing stash of fabric

Okay beyond all the foot pain I'm currently experiencing...I'm looking at my small but growing stash of fabric. I told myself that I'd only get enough fabric to work one project at a time. But before I was done with my 1st quilting project (which was/is a table runner that I've yet to finish). I then bought enough fabric to work a second project before the first was finished (and as I said before, it's still not finished- it ended up being way beyond my skill level). While I was still working on my first quilt, I had finished my second quilt and made two more quilt tops. I've now got 2 quilts completed, binding sewn on and everything!

I've come to realize that my worst fears have come to life...I've turned into a fabric junkie! At first I was happy with buying Fat Quarters at my local quilt shop, so why I am now buying fabric in 1½ to 6 yard increments? LOL! Is it because I think they're PRETTY? For the most part I have to say Yes of course I'm buying it because I think it's pretty, but mainly it's because I realized that I can make my own Fat Quarters and save myself a great deal of money in the process. Lets do the math...4 fat quarters make a yard, but when you buy the fat quarters at $2.50 each and a yard of fabric is anywhere from $2.00 to $9.00 a yard...that's quite the mark up. It makes a fabric that started off as $2 per yard suddenly a $10 a yard purchase, yikes! So I started buying in bulk, especially the background fabrics.

I discovered something else during my adventures in fabric purchasing...stores such as Wal-Mart and Ben Franklin, Hobby Lobby, Hancock Fabrics and of course my favorite Quilting Stores downtown all sell the same white on white, ecru on ecru and off white on off white background fabrics (no joke they all have the exact same background prints) but all of them selling at VERY different prices. I realize that the local home-grown business do not have the bulk buying power that the chain stores/ big box stores have. I do find it outrageous that I can find those same fabrics at such a great price range...one store sells it for $2 per yard while another can sell it for as much as $10 or more a yard (no joke). I enjoy the process of shopping around and have learned these lessons (though I hate to admit it) through making a purchase or two. Early on as I was just getting started in quilting (sheesh, look at me- I talk as if I've been quilting for ages), I had actually made 2 separate but over priced purchases one of 2½ and another of 3½ yards background fabric at the whopping price of $10 a yard. Those purchases took place a few weeks before I knew that I could get it for $2 a yard. I come to look at that as a VERY valuable lesson. So where I spent $60 - if I had only taken my time and shopped around I could have saved myself a good sized chuck of change and only spent $12. I now no longer go on what the person at the quilt shop tells me about quality, I'm looking it all up on line. I reading up on what quilters around the USA are saying about the products they use and the brands of fabrics they're buying.

In the end...I've learned some valuable lessons and I know all to well that I need to shop around. But how is one to know about such things if the quilt shop owners go on and on about how the chain stores (wal-mart, hobby lobby, etc.) don't get the same kind of quality fabrics that they do? Again, it is a lesson that will need to be learned by all of us that start the wonderful hobby of quilting. I now refuse to blindly give all of my business to just one store, there's too much fabric out there, too many patterns to choose from- to settle on just one place to buy everything you need or want to have for a quilting project is simply foolish! Sandie's Floral Garden Lap Quilt (I'm giving this to my Mom for Mother's Day). And here's my Cheese and Crackers Quilt- it's a much larger "lap quilt" than the floral garden quilt. I dedicate this one to my husband...who by all means loves Cheese and Crackers!