DON'T DO IT. (No, I am not a fabric snob)

Women, you know who you are. Men, you're guilty too. You are out there spending tons of time on your creations and you are using subpar materials from big box stores that fade, bleed, come apart, and will not last or endure in the fine projects they are worked into.

Fabric companies make special runs for these stores, and so the quilt shop will get the same print on a better good, while this print for the big box store is done on a cheap base cloth. Didn't you ever wonder about the price variation?

I know this one quilter who is so defensive about using fabrics from a big box store. She defends this all the time, and quite frankly I respect her choice to use crappy fabrics and I don't argue with her. I just wonder, since she is such a good piecer, why she doesn't value herself and her work enough to use better materials, materials which will ensure that her wonderful quilts will outlive herself and her grandchildren. We are not talking about a woman who could not afford the slightly higher cost.
Why sacrifice excellence for a few dollars?

Now there are some times when using cheap fabric is applicable. For drafting patters, or making costumes or things that will get used once and don't need to last, and for the occasions when you find just the right print that is unique and cannot be found elsewhere.

Yet why risk using fabric that will bleed, possible ruining a quilt you have spent hours on? Now I know that even fabric (read batiks) from quilt shops can bleed, but in my experience that is very rare and any fabric shop of merit will take that fabric back no questions asked. Every purchase I have made of cotton quilting fabric from a big box store, I have been unable to stop color loss from. I have also been upset about the quality of it after it has been prewashed. So I just stopped purchasing it.

Why do I want to just scream at these women -
"YOU ARE WORTH USING GOOD MATERIALS!" This is your legacy, and what do you want that gift to be? Now people can argue cost difference with me, but my reply is a firm,
"Every good quilt shop or fabric store has a sale table of high quality goods, and quite frankly I would rather sew with first rate fabric that is on sale, than cheap fabric if they are giving it away."

I know that quilting is a tradition that evolved from taking the useful parts out of worn out garments and household items, and that this was the material that the original quilts came from. Utility in quilt making is a wonderful quality. However, most women today making creations quilting have to buy materials. They have a choice to make, a vote to cast with their dollar. The American consumer is choosing crap, time and time again, for what?

I plead of you, as a patriot, as a lover of fabric and quilts and all that is of textile-
if you are going to put your time into something, have the courage to use good materials. Pursue excellence in craftsmanship please, and this starts with the best materials that are available to the craftsman.

Have you ever wondered what our world would look like if everyone voted for cheap garish fabric with their dollars? Think about it. No innovative designers, no fabric companies pushing for quality and ingenuity. What are our quilts going to look like in fifty years? I for one, don't want whomever gets my quilts repairing holes or worse shoving them under the dog because all the fabrics have bleed into one another or they are so threadbare that they are useless.

I admit, I am a little firm in my view. Think twice about what you purchase for your art. Buy cheap toilet paper, whatever. But don't you dare buy cheap fabric for your quilts. You're worth more than that, my friend.