Just When I Get to Know You It's Time For You to Leave

In my last blog I brought up the subject of out of print fabrics.  Seems that I frequently fall in love with a fabric at the end of its print life.  Before I started designing quilting patterns I had no idea how fast fabric patterns were turned around.
Now, this isn't true for all fabric manufacturers, but the majority follow this scenario:  Fabric is introduced in the spring and fall and is available for 6 months to a year.  That isn't to say that when it's introduced it's available.  I've ordered fabric in January that wasn't actually printed and available until July.  It takes a lot of planning ahead.  First you have to figure how much of each fabric pattern you need for the kits you plan to make and then you have to guess on how popular the kits are going to be to determine how much fabric  you'll need overall.  Sometimes I get the bare minimum I need and once I find that I've hit on something popular I'll go back to the manufacturer and see how long it's available or buy up all they have.  Some manufacturers will keep printing the fabric pattern as long as it's popular, while others will print a set amount and when it's gone it's gone.  Some will do a reprint for you if you order ...get this...800 to 3000 yards of it....gulp!
If I can no longer purchase fabric that is exactly the same as my pattern samples I try to find something similar, hence the disclaimer on the backs of the kits that states "Fabric may vary from pattern photo or sample".  I had one woman ask me why I didn't just make a new sample.  Well, as you can imagine, I would be making new samples every 6 months or so and that's not cost effective material or time wise.
Sometimes I get sooo frustrated because I'll create a new pattern, find THE perfect fabric and then discover that the manufacturer has 10 yards of it left ...total.  So back to the search.  But the search is the fun part!  It takes me all over the internet and to parts of the country I haven't been to.  Sometimes I start out looking for fabric and end up finding another nice surprise....guess I have my topic for my next blog!