Online Fabric Shops (and a review of two)

Since I'm not quite working on any projects yet, but prepping, I thought I'd give shout outs to a couple of fabric shops I just patronized.

When I was looking around for a reasonably priced yellow print that I could purchase to use in the upcoming mystery--in case the fabric I had purchased at my local quilt shop turned out to be too 'directional', I checked out the sale fabrics at Stash Fabrics. Stash is a purveyor of modern fabric, and they've got a great selection of bright, clean and crisp prints.  As expected, I bought a little more than the yellow I was on a quest for, but they're only half yard pieces (she says as a point of justification).

I just love these orange and yellow prints. I've got a stash of like prints that these will fit right in with.

 

This is the new 'non-directional' yellow (the directional yellow is on the bottom).

 

I think it will work and play nicely with the other prints I've lined up for the Bonnie Hunter Mystery.

What I liked about my Stash Fabrics shopping experience was that the selection was amazing, the prices were excellent, the shipping reasonable, and the fabric got to me lickety split...like in 2 days, lickety split.. I'll definitely shop with them again...I give them 4 out of 4 stars.  

So.....If you like fabrics like this:

you'll love what you'll find at Stash....www.stashfabrics.com. Check them out, you won't be sorry.

The second store I want to give props to was a totally new discovery for me. I found them through a very persistent web search for an old Hoffman Christmas fabric that my sister and I were on the prowl for. Their store didn't show up until about the 6th page of search results, and I am so glad I had the patience and persistence to find www.quiltedchristmas.com.

Order placed Tuesday morning. Order arrives in my mailbox Thursday afternoon. Honest. What I loved is that I opened the package and found my fabric bagged and sealed with a big gold seal. (I just love it when a seller displays a little TLC in their packaging.)

Inside the bag was an envelope that not only contained my packing list with a nice little thank you note inked on it, but it also held a totally unexpected, free fat quarter.

I think we can all agree that free fabric is nice--even nicer when it is an unexpected surprise. And  super fast, inexpensive shipping is also high on our list of things that make an online store stand out above the pack. Oh, and the prices at quiltedchristmas were very good (this particular fabric was $1-$3 less a yard than from the other sites I found it at).

I don't know about you, but I've been known to spend well over an hour perusing fabric on a site and filling out an order form, only to get through the check-out process to find out they want to charge me $12 to ship my $25 purchase to me. When that happens, I mouse up to that little red x at the top of my screen and say 'buh bye'.

I find that most online shops take advantage of the free packing materials that the USPS provides them to use their service. The USPS flat rate priority envelope costs $5.75 to mail and will hold about 6 yards of fabric. I feel taken advantage of when a seller wants to charge me twice to three times that amount for shipping and handling. There's a lot of fishes in that online sea of fabric, so I don't hesitate to cut the line and cast a new one.

I'm pleased to say that Stash charged $5.75 to ship my order (4.5 yards) and quiltedchristmas charged $5.95 (4 yards plus the free fat quarter). Yet another reason I will be making further purchases from both of these shops.

Do you have any favorite online shops that you'd recommend?

Now, before I invoke the wrath of the shop local purists,  I'd like to say that what makes our craft such a desirable one is that there are so many resources available to quilters. We've got our local quilt shops for the camaraderie, classes and instant gratification, and we've got a vast array of online purveyors of fine fabric where we can find anything our hearts desire (and fabrics that are long discontinued :) ).

There is an infinite variety of fabric out there, and no one shop (LQS or cyber) can carry it all. While I do condone supporting your local quilt shop (as well as the brick and mortar shops you may run across when you're traveling for business or pleasure, as I so often do), I am also a proponent of spreading  the wealth to include the online fabric shops--how can we not take advantage of the tens of thousands of fabric choices that are available to us through the variety of shops we have access to?

Imagine how our Guild quilt shows would look like if we all shopped at the same local shop and we all used the same dozen Kaffe Fassett prints,  the same 20 solid colors, the same 10 selections from  the latest Timeless Treasures release.....  Thankfully we don't have to worry about this because we now have an endless supply and constantly updating selection of fabric choices available to us between our local shops and our online shops.

Hang ten, baby!