misspriss

Don't pass up those bed skirts. There is a lot of fabric in them.

Lavada

glad there is no quilt police at my house I buy sheets at thrift stores to use as backs and to piece do whatever makes you happy its your quilt

Skittl1321

I use sheets too, I am no quilt police. But if someone is learning to quilt, they ARE harder to quilt (not piece). Driving yourself crazy isn't worth it.

toverly

Check out a Bonnie Hunter book or her website. She uses shirts and old clothes for some wonderful scrappy quilts. When I started out, I became a wonderful coupon person. I rarely let a coupon go by and even signed my husband up for the ads to be mailed in his name. As long as the coupons don't have the same number along the bottom, you can use as many as you want at J's. Of course now, I am totally spoiled for quilt store fabric and use their sales to supplement my stash.

binkister

This week I bought a pkg 7 of fat quarters for $2.99 at Tuesday Mornings. They had several pkgs, but they were all the same , if you were looking for them to be different. But these would be great for cheap quilting.

jcrow

Connecting Threads Is the best place to buy fabric and kits. Very, very reasonable. I would check them out instead of clothes or estate sales. Estate sales are a hit or miss and can take a long, long time to find one that has fabric. I wouldn't use sheets, personally. Go to www.connectingthreads.com.

mattie washington

I am on my third or fourth quilt,, and now you are realizing what I thought about some quilts can be expensive.All of the above are great ideas especially the thirty shops garage sells.

shasta5718

Check out your local thrift stores for sheets to practice on. Sometimes you can get good ones for a fair price.

mamagrande

If your mother is not in a hurry, she could look at sales...I know that JoAnn's has some nice quilt quality fabric on sale for 50% off. I also know that most local Quilt Stores have a section of fabrics on sale. I don't use sheets for backings because my machine does not like them....
You must also decide on a pattern that does not take too many fabrics because there is were sometimes it becomes difficult to match and arrange colors. Scrappy is sometimes the best.

Mariah

Don't think anyone above has mentioned Ebay. I have seen fabric listed there for not much. I know what you mean about fabric being very high-priced. I saw some in a catalog yesterday that was $16.00/yd. That is "too rich for my blood!" Mariah