Quilters know cotton! Quilters love cotton! Quilters buy cotton, almost exclusively!!! The renewed multi-million dollar quilting market has put quality cotton on the map. But there is a "perfect storm" that has come together affecting every consumer on the earth today, especially our quilting world.
In a recent article in the American Quilt Retailer, Jim Salinas, Sales Associate for Moda Fabrics, provides some interesting insight for retailers and consumers. Please read the entire article here.
Basically, there are three or four issues converging that will have a strong effect on our quilt world.
- Extreme weather conditions in the major cotton producing areas, including Texas, Pakistan and China.
- The weakening economic conditions of our US dollar plus the increasing value of currency in China and India.
- Increased prices on import tariffs, fuel and labor.
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Speculative markets that have such a strong influence on goods such as cotton (as well as cattle, grain, and other important necessities.)
We don't need a George Clooney movie to see what the convergence of these factors as well as several more (political issues) are doing to the cost of our beloved cotton.
http://beckisbobbins.com/textile_mills.php
While these conditions are going to increase the price for fabric, batting and thread, there are some good things to bear in mind. The price of printed fabric over the past 20 years has been held to a 44% increase as compared to the 284% rise in the cost of a loaf of bread or a nearly 400% increase for a gallon of gasoline. Another point, one that we quilters have taken a lot of heat for in recent years, is the fact that we are the original recyclers! We have built fabric stashes, including scraps that would make our ancestors proud and will certainly help us adjust to the increasing costs of creating our beautiful quilts. These stashes are seeds for more creativity and we love the challenge of incorporating fabric from your stash with new fabrics for your projects!
We also encourage you to read this article with statements from our fabric sources, so that you will have a better understanding of our position as a retailer.
nice source of money that is cotton!
Posted by: technical writer | 12/05/2011 at 08:39 AM