Finding Jo Morton Fabrics

Most of my American fabric orders have come from quilters looking for older lines of Jo Morton fabrics that are no longer available in quilt shops closer to home. Of course, now that the Canadian dollar is on the rise, I am not expecting to have as many of those orders as in the past...LOL. I often have had older lines in stock because I have often reordered fabrics that I particularly liked or found a bolt or two still in the distributor's warehouse that I had received queries about.

Recently, though, I have had a few queries for fabric that I expected had to still be available for purchase in the States. So, to satisfy my own curiosity I did my own Google search and the results have left me scratching my head. I am just not getting the depth of search I had expected and, frankly, I have noticed this a lot with google searches in the last six months. I then recalled reading a recent article about Google tweaking its search engine and did another Google search to find that article and here it is. I am wondering if these changes are burying smaller online quilt shops in the search results?

I did manage to find a shop in Marysville, Ohio that is carrying a good supply of Jo Morton's Ravenwood, Indigo Berries and Cocoa Express as well as some more recent lines. That shop is Lonestar Quilting.

My search today brought a real surprise - Bonnie Blue Quilts has stopped carrying fabrics! You can read the reasons behind this decision on their webpage here. That is one less source for reproduction fabrics in the American marketplace. I can appreciate the reasons they give for this move, but I also can't help but wonder if the cost of cotton isn't also behind their decision. I am sure many shops both online and brick and mortar have been rethinking their business plans.

Hancocks of Paducah did that some time ago and began to only carry what my distributor called "A" lines of fabrics - those in greatest demand in the market place (i.e. Moda ...lots and lots of Moda). Gone from there are Andover fabrics which includes Jo Morton's lines. Leave it to me to buck the trend...LOL.

The Cost of Cotton

The cost of fabric has always been higher here in Canada and the reasons have been many with the most important being import duties, the exchange rate and the fact Canadian shops have had to purchase their fabrics through fabric distributors. I explained this situation in a November, 2009 blog post - was it that long ago...yikes!

That November, I paid a visit to my fabric distributor in Vancouver, BC not knowing it would turn out to be my last. The company owner was quite excited because the Canadian government was contemplating removing duties on fabric coming over the border from the States which is the source for the majority of our quilting and sewing fabric.

Where are the ducks?

Three Ducks on a Roof has been very quiet over the last half year and will continue to be so until the fall. For many who have followed and visited my site, you know that I moved east to Ontario in mid-July and I have had some big adjustments to make as a result.

I began my little internet business back in 2004 selling a few lines of fabric and Electric Quilt software. At that time, I was living in small British Columbia coastal village and was looking for a creative way to tide me over the long winter months. Employment in the village always came in the summer months during the tourist season, but in winter the village returned to its year-round inhabitants which numbered about 100. Quiet indeed - just us and the bald eagles chatting to each other in the cedar trees...LOL.