'Cruising the Galaxy' for good deals on quilt fabrics...

Well, this week I've got 2 projects going, this one and a project that I am collaborating on with Jason's kindergarten class... I'll post that in a few days.  I have just finished up a new baby quilt to welcome my niece Lisa's baby Cole, due July 12th.  Turned out that this has been a very fun and creative project.  The search for Cole's fabric took me a long time as I started with the idea that I wanted a color that I had not used before, the bright orange fit the bill there.  I also had thought that I'd like to find a cartoon-y print of space ships... I was happy to find this fabric online as it was just what I wanted...

Just what I had in mind!  It's called 'Cruising the Galaxy' from a company called Wilmington Prints. Only trouble was... it was ridiculously expensive, $9.95 per yard.  Might not sound expensive, but then to think of several yards per individual fabric ordered, plus shipping.. the cost adds up.  So my next quest began, finding it at a bargain price.

Usually, when I need a bargain on something I shop around a bit, but don't really go out of my way.. if it's too expensive I don't buy it .. but driving around to find quilt shops that have this fabric would have been hard to do and there are plenty of places online.  So, it took me a few weeks, but I found a few on-line fabric shops that offered much better prices for the same fabric.  I've added these on-line places to my main blog list of on-line fabric shops.  I've also discovered that there are a few tricks to making sure you get the best deal;

> Know how much yardage you need and if you can get away with fat quarters for your project that can be a lot cheaper.  Some places have fat quarters cut in advance and yardage requires new cutting and might either require you buy more than you need or might charge a fee for cutting specific lengths.

> One place I found offered an additional discount percentage if you ordered 15 yards or more of fabric from them.  If you have several projects planned and can order that much yardage, the price for this fabric for example was $2.50 per yard.  That's close to 80% off the original price at the designer fabric online outlet.

> You may need to have your fabric shipped from more than one vendor.  I ordered 4 different fabrics that are part of this design and received them from 4 different discount fabric outlets.  This is because some of them offer a discounted price because they only have 1 or 2 of the lot.  

> Some stores, like Joanne Fabrics for example have a few different ways you can save money on nice fabric.  For my office window treatments, for example, I had waited for a sale on home decor fabrics.  These fabrics are usually $30 per yard.  When you make a large project, say several windows, that can be quite expensive.  However, I waited until they had a 50% off sale, which they do often.  I ended up choosing a fabric that had been previously marked own and got the 50% off that!! Super bargain!! Ended up getting $30 per yard fabric for $7.50 per yard!!

All in all I saved a lot on this fabric... it was a very fun project and hopefully baby Cole will love it!

More In-Progress Photos in Quilt Gallery 2