advice and assistance required

Either that or a recommendation from a European person about a store overseas who are willing to write "gift" on the item in the first place! Morag

I have two places I like using and are good about price, postage and the green slip:

Big horn quilts

I have just emailed them both to ask if they can mark packages as gifts. Not strictly legal, but customs duty is a pain.

Morag (hoping nobody who reads the group works for HM Customs & Excise)

I would recommend Fabrics.com. They don't always post the manufacturer on the website, but the quality is always good. Their shipping rates are reasonable and they send coupons every so often.

Sales tax is charged if the store has a physical presence in your state. I pay tax if I order from JAF because there is a store in my state. You would not pay tax.

I got what I wanted from JAF, but I was not thrilled. It took over two weeks to be shipped and the shipping was high. My order from Fabrics took just 3 days from order to receipt. They were shipped from the same state.

L>Hi all,

I can vouch for Big Horn Quilts. Just email Julie and she emails back very quickly : ) She even gave us advice on what to expect for knee replacement before Mr Joe had his done : ) Don't know anything about The FQ Shop

Butterfly (You can tell her I sent you IF you want : )

If this is the Fabric.com that does the "Phoenix Yard" a.k.a. a metre, then the shipping to the UK is outrageous. I ordered once or twice, and the price of the fabric was good, but then I was gouged with shipping. One time it was a small order, that they could have easily put in a Global Priority Express envelop, but they didn't & didn't email to ask me, and the entire thing worked out far too expensive. That is why I give that place a miss now. Yes, I did email the owner and ask him why they didn't offer Global Priority Express to international orders... at that time they said they didn't think it was feasible. That was about 3 years ago. I don't know what they do now. I'd rather try and find the non-quilting fabrics in the UK and order the quilting fabrics from bighornquilts.com, craft.conn.com and others.

-- Jo in Scotland

Morag

I order much of my fabric from the states and Global Priority is the best way for shipping for me. Australia has max value for "duty free" parcels by post. Any packet with a value below $XXX is just processed as "for personal use" so as long as I don't get orders over that value I am OK. They figure the admin cost of collecting duty on a $50 parcel is just not worth it!

I got caught once with a bigger order from Keepsake and it cost me 35% of the value to pick it up!! I am not sure exactly what the limit is ATM so I just make sure everything from overseas is less than $200AUST. That has been OK for the past five years anyway.

Check and find out what your limit is and then just put in multiple orders if you have to. Using GP is usually as cheap or cheaper than repacking as a GIFT.

Hancocks of P have some great Web Specials, Fabric.Com is good, so is FabricBlowout. Joann's won't ship outside the US. Equilter is more "full price" but easy to search . . . . . . .there are dozens of places and most are good.

Hi Cheryl, Unfortunately our limit for duty-free imports is only £18 (about $31 US or $42 Aus) - over that you pay 17.5% sales tax for starters, plus a "handing fee" from the Post Office. last time I ordered fabric costing approx £30 and I paid £20 in duty. Such a rip off. Morag

Morag, Don't know about shipping but my very favorite place to buy stash builders is Quilters Quarter. It is all brand named and high quailty.

Mary in Washington

A Friend Is Like A Good Bra. Hard to Find, Supportive, Comfortable, And Always Close To Your Heart!

I have used equilter for a lot of fabrics and haven't been disappointed. and their variety is awesome

mim in Maine

of course, no one has yet mentioned that we could shop for you at our favorite quilt shops! That does mean though that you'd have to know generally what you're looking for. I volunteer!

Musicmaker

I have NOTHING against equilter and I am grateful for Paul R letting us know when he has something that one of us is looking for.

BUT

Just for the record: this shop gives a part of their profit to 'their favorite charity'. IF you do not like this charity........

Butterfly (Welcome back Mim--hope life is being good to you)

I've ordered from e-quilter quite a bit over the years. I've always been offered the chance to choose the charity that my little part of their profit is donated to. There is something for everyone on their list.

Monique in TX