PRINTED FABRIC!

I've been absent for a while but I got inspired today!  Its fall in Florida which means we are still wearing flip flops and shorts but its cooler.  Not so sticky hot as in summer, the best time of year on the Gulf Coast.  I stumbled onto a You Tube video about printed fabric production which I will share here.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuR2x0lorLg   Its 17 minutes but if you are a quilter or a designer and you love fabrics, you might want to spend the time viewing this video.  It makes sense as to why fabrics cost so much.  

But let me digress a bit.  When I was attending Elon College in North Carolina in the late 60's, I was taking Home Economics classes.  That is what they called it back then, not interior design.  Just Home Economics.  Our instructor took the class to a fabric mill in Burlington NC.  It was so similar to this mill in the video, which is located in Asia.  It was hot in NC and no air and noisy!  The machines made so much noise, clacking back and forth and fibers of cotton floated everywhere.  Health challenges such as loss of hearing and lung disease were probably prevalent.  Remember the movie, Norma Rae?  Or Officer and a Gentlemen where Debra Winger worked in a mill?  

Since that time, mills have closed in most states and fabric production has moved to Asia.  Viewing this video it makes me realize maybe that was a good thing.  Fabric would be so expensive in the USA because mills would have to confirm to stringent safety requirements.  We wouldn't be able to afford it.  

Quilting Treasures is an employee owned fabric company and you can read about it here.  http://www.qtfabrics.com/  Mike Flynn is our area sales manager and he regularly visits the quilt shops to talk to us and showcase the fabrics.  He told us that most quilt fabrics, at least with their company, are made in South Korea.  Mike will come wearing a shirt he made himself with QT fabrics.  Right now, one of our local shops has short bolts of fabric from QT for $5.99 yd.  You have to buy the whole bolt but some are 2 yds on up.  Beautiful fabrics that I perused yesterday and kept myself from buying.  Maybe I'll go back today.  I hope you have enjoyed this information about fabric production!  I sure did!