oooooh - thank you judith - but i'm not allowed to look...
though i try not to ship stuff too often - i have a habit of having orders sent to our office in miami - then they give the stuff to anyone travelling between the offices - but... i just purchased a camera- and lens-bag combo which is being transported to dusseldorf for me next month - so.... i have to save up before my next shopping spree can't trust myself to just look and drool on a website absolute no willpower this girl

Judith thank you for letting us know. We have the same problem in Ireland. If the package is more than €25 inclusive of postage we have to pay importation tax which seems to almost double the package for some reason. I have stopped buying from the USA because of this and also because the postage from the USA has skyrocketed in the past couple of years, or so it seems to me. I am now finding that fabric is mostly cheaper here than in the UK or Europe but still not as cheap as the USA. There's only one thing for it - a trip to America with an empty suitcase! I'm going to go have a look at the Connecting Threads website now anyway, just to drool over some fabric and notions if nothing else.

And what really gets my goat is the fact that we have to pay for the privilege of paying the import tax! Which is why I, so far, have only bought fabric from British traders.

Thanks Judith but it's the tax that gets put on at time of import that puts me off buying. Mind you if there's no shipping that'll offset it. Cheers I'm off for a look

I have read in the Forum that international shipping from the US can be very costly.
I received an email today from Connecting Threads saying they now offer free shipping to Canada, the United Kingdom and to Australia for web orders over $75. They sell fabric, thread, batting, books and quilting supplies. www.connectingthreads.com
I hope this helps our international quilting friends.

Judith Austin