shopping ?

Karen, welcome to rctq!

Many of us shop online for some or all of our quilting supplies- not just fabric. I like fabric.com; bighornquilting.com; eBay; Hancock's of Paducah and a bunch of others I can't think of offhand.

BTW I live about 100 miles from a real quilt shop AND Joann! VBG

Leslie & The Furbabies in very rural MO.

Do you mean bighornquilts.com? That's the one I'm familiar with, though it looks like there is also bighornquilting.com

Julia > Karen, welcome to rctq!

I buy online all the time. It's a great alternative for me, who is 20 miles from anywhere. I've not been really disappointed so far in the fabric or shipping. Virginia Quilter, Hancocks/Paducah, Keepsake, fabric.com, Hingely Road, Connecting Threads and several more. A couple of sellers on e-bay, too.

It's actually *too* easy. :-)

Sherry

You got me. I also get materialpleasures.com (the wrong one) and materialpleasure.com mixed up every time I post their link.

Sorry.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Erica's is a great shop, too! They are quick and always include a little freebie with my orders!!!

Wow, thank you Kate; this one looks promising!

(Like I need another online shop. Honestly. I get so carried away shopping online, far worse than I do in the shops. It's late at night, I'm all mellowed out and relaxed, and have literally thousands of bolts to choose from. And somehow it doesn't feel like real money when you're spending it on the internet. :-) Sometimes I have "morning after" shopper's remorse, but it disappears as soon as I get the lovely package in the mail!

Sherry

If you are just starting quilting, Karen - welcome to the greatest world, and the bestest newsgroup. However, I do want to offer a word or two about online shopping. As the others have said it is great fun and a really good way of doing your fabric buying. You will get good suggestions about sites which are reliable etc. BUT, if you don't know your fabric *first*, you won't know which is the right one for you. I believe you really must get the feel of fabric right at the start. You will find that fabrics vary enormously in quality - it doesn't just depend on price. They vary in 'feel'. The colours vary on the screen according to your computer - we've all found that.

Maybe it would be a good idea to ask the question 'which fabric makers have you never been disappointed in?' Then you can look for these 'brands' in the online shops.

I am not in the US, and brands I like here are probably not available. However, I will start you off with Moda, the whole range of Fossil Fern (I forget the brand, sorry), and Hoffman. You'll get many more ideas I know. This will give you a starting point. .

In message , Karen Z writes

Welcome, Karen! I used to live 120 miles from the closest quilt shop, so I'll bet you can guess what my answer is. I still do some online shopping, when my LQS doesn't have what I want/need. :)

Another good one is Jinny Beyer -- she has nice fabric and GREAT blenders (tone - on - tones) in almost every color you can imagine!

If you are just starting out -- you **MIGHT** want to consider sticking to one fabric line for your first couple of quilts -- all of the fabrics in one line are designed to go together. Just be careful - they sometimes come in multiple colorways (a colorway is like a common thread of colors ) so a fabric line and all the various designs of fabrics might come in blues and greens and golds.... Although even when you cross colorways -- often the colors work together just fine!

does that make sense?

Besides all the great sites that the others have posted, I've bought lots of my fabric on eBay and have never been disappointed. I think I have close to 15 sellers bookmarked that are trustworthy and fast. I stick with good brand fabrics like Moda and have gotten some amazing bargains, less than half price most of the time. I live near a big city but the choices here are slim to none, so it's online shopping for me too. Donna

Yes, I've bought fabric online. Keepsake Quilting is a little pricey, but the fabric is good quality. I've also been pleased with Fabric Depot and Fabric.com. I've even bought from Joann's and the piece of fabric I ordered was fine (along with the batting).

The only problem I've ever had, was that if I'm looking for a very specific shade sometimes the colors seen via the computer monitor are not totally true. Ordered a piece of fabric that looked like a green shade of turquoise, and when I received it the fabric, it was actually more green than turquoise. It was a tricky shade. However, for every other color I've ordered the shades have been pretty close, if not exact.

Best regards, Michelle in Nevada

thanks for the welcome and the sites. i will be searching for sure. karen(kz) northern ca.

thanks for the sites. i really appreciate it. karen(kz)

thanks for the site

thanks for the info. i will keep that in mind. i have always been a sewer but now want to quilt. karen(kz)

thanks and i thought i lived far from town lolol. but you sure don't now if you live in Henderson. karen(kz)

oopps i am so sorry i forgot to take my pic. off of the last posts. will try not to do that again. karen(kz)

yes that makes sense and thanks for the tip. karen(kz)