Hello to all my friends south of the border!
I have a Cdn friend that is living/vacationing in Phoenix all winter. She came across Hobby Lobby yesterday and told me about it. I was wondering if any of you have bought quilting fabric there or at Jo Ann's? Is the quality good? Do they carry name brand fabric or their own stock. Let me know what your experience is please.
Oops, I just had a message almost ready to go to you and I think I must have deleted it by accident. So here goes again.
ReplyDeleteHobby Lobby is a chain... I would not recommend buying quilt fabric there.
I have a friend who was a fabric buyer for years and years, and here is what she told me. (she jokingly calls herself a "fabric snob".)
"Most manufacturers make varying qualities of the same fabric. The print will look the same, but the 'greige' good (the base textile) is of varying quality The quilt shop quality is sold to quilt shops, and in most cases to the quilt shops only. They produce a lesser 'greige' good which is sold to chains.
Occasionally a quilt shop quality fabric is sold to a chain store, and generally it is for one of 3 reasons: Print problem, chemical irregularity or an overrun.
*If it is a print problem- say the birds eye falls on his tail- this is ok IF you can live with the print problem.
*If it is a chemical irregularity you can't see it, but you may be in big trouble when you wash the fabric.
*It may just be an overrun- like what happened with patriotic fabric after Desert Storm. But you have no way to know.
That problem is that at chain stores you just don't know. The bolt end may say a designers name, but that means nothing. The designer owns the print, not the fabric it is printed on.
To sum it all up, you get what you pay for. "
Greige (pronounced 'gray') quality is based on thread count and thread weight. Good quality shrinks less. You can find out more about this online.
There is a guy named Jeffy Gutcheon and he has written a lot about fabric quality. You might want to look him up.
So Lee, if you are making a baby quilt that is going to be burped on and washed a gazillion times and you don't expect it to last past the childs 3rd birthday ,you can make it out of any sort of fabric you want to. If you are making a heirloom quality, bed size quilt that you want to be able to pass on to your grandchildren some day, then spend the extra 20 bucks on that quilt and make it out of the quilt shop quality fabric.
I buy fabric to make quilts at quilt shops only. I guess I have become a "fabric snob" too.
Hope all this info helps.
Oops, I missed one. Joannes is a chain too. I would not buy fabric for a quilt there either. It's better to stick to the actual quilt shops.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fabric snob. I have bought Kona cotton at both stores washed it several time in quilts and don't see any difference.
ReplyDeleteI am particular about the fabric I buy and there is not a lot of good quality fabric at Joann's but I occassionally will find something good.
I buy 80% of my fabric at my local quilt shops but most of my kona cotton at Joann's
Would you love some comment on this from a Dutch girl...LOL?
ReplyDeleteMy husband bought me some quilt fabrics during his stay in Texas at Joanne’s in Houston. He bought wellknown brands and they look and are the same fabrics as at any other quiltshop. So when you stick to the well known manufacturers I guess nothing will go wrong.
Why not ask your friend to buy some fabrics now and have them send them to you. When you think they are OK, she can buy all other fabrics from the shop...LOL!
I have purchased fabrics from JoAnns and Hobby Lobby. Both carry name brands like Alexander Henry and others but not a wide variety. JoAnns also carries Kona Cottons but in limited colors. I think you can tell the quality of fabric by touching it too. I like good quality fabric and you can find some at both of these chain stores.
ReplyDeleteJoAnn's has good quality fabrics.
ReplyDeleteMy sister in Law bought some fabrics at JoAnn's and the fabrics were really nice and good.I assure you that!Good post.!
ReplyDeletevacationing in phoenix