Comparision Shopping
It’s an apples to apples thing. My friend is a long-time quilter and I’ve been looking at quilt fabrics a lot recently. Together we went to the Quilt Patch in Fairfax, VA over the weekend.
I had recently been shopping withMrs. Micah at G Street Fabrics. We also walked over to a nearby JoAnn’s Fabrics. I invited Mrs. Micah out to G Street because they were having a 30% off sale on fabrics and notions. There was a lot of fabulous stuff there. It was hard to resist, but I walked out only with some quilt batts for a quilt for my nephew and some spares.
There’s a couple of things that I’ve noticed.
1. Fire retardant batts are really expensive. Like twice as expensive. This is important for children’s stuff, but not so much for adults. Next time I make a quilt that’s not for a kid, I’m going to stay away from the batts that cost twice as much. (One $100 of materials, that can be as much as a 15% savings.)
2. Just because JoAnn’s has it cheaper, doesn’t mean it’s the same thing. I didn’t even know there was a JoAnn’s Fabrics behind the G Street store. The quilt fabrics are about $7 a yard. G Street is usually $10. The Quilt Patch, about $8-9. Now here’s the catch, the fabrics may not be the same. They LOOKED the same, or so I thought. My quilter friend advised me to be careful because the fabric might be from the same manufacturer, but ‘diluted’. The print may have one less color, or less saturated dyes, or be of slightly different weight fabric, i.e. thinner. Have you ever bought something thinking it was exactly the same thing? I am slightly wary of generics at the supermarket for this reason. The quality might not be there on something when it really counts. (I find generic cereals just aren’t that good.)
3. I like independent stores better than chains, but let me tell you, I felt pretty bad when Mrs. Micah picked up a spool of serger thread at JoAnn’s and it was cheaper. But JoAnn’s didn’t have the colors she needed anyway, so whew! There are things for which you shouldn’t pay a premium for. Because the thread was packaged and from the same manufacturer, shopping for the best price made a lot of sense. The crazy thing is, the totally independent, single store quilt shop had the uber fancy quilting thread for just under $9, whereas G Street had it for $10. (FWIW, JoAnn’s didn’t have it at all. It’s the King Tut variagated thread.)
So I got sucked into a new hobby if you can’t tell. I’m trying to keep myself from building up lots of extra stash with this hobby. I might even have to buy an iron and ironing board for this one. Maybe sell off the motorcycle to buy a new sewing machine. Who knows where this path to crafting hell will lead me? But so far so good:
This quilt was for my friend who got married in Puerto Rico. I made it for her baby born this spring. She told me the nursery was going to be jungle themed.
Stephanie wrote:
I think it’s so cool that you and Mrs. Micah hang out!
Posted on 16-Jul-08 at 8:34 am | Permalink
Twiggers wrote:
That quilt is gorgeous!!!!
Posted on 16-Jul-08 at 8:40 am | Permalink
Revanche wrote:
I keep trying to convince Best Friend’s mom that she wants to go on another quilting frenzy so she can teach me how to quilt. She makes some really fantastic designs using mostly scrap materials.
Posted on 16-Jul-08 at 11:52 am | Permalink
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Posted on 16-Jul-08 at 5:40 pm | Permalink
L@spillingbuckets wrote:
Cool! The jungle quilt is really pretty!
My aunt loves quilting, she has a whole room devoted to it upstairs, and makes some beautiful things. I don’t have the space/time/money now but I’d like to get into it later.
Posted on 17-Jul-08 at 6:54 am | Permalink
Mrs. Micah wrote:
That’s perfect for the jungle theme. Very vivid (and handily unisex).
The only real trouble I’ve found with Joann fabrics quilting fabric is that different printings of the same print sometimes show up lighter or darker. But as long as I get what I need first, it doesn’t bother me. I guess I’m ok with lighter quilting fabric.
Posted on 17-Jul-08 at 7:36 am | Permalink