Where do you buy fabric in the greater Houston area? Who has the best deals? Do you know a place I should check out?

I can't stand buying fabric online. I'm one of those people that needs to touch the material as well as see the color. I've ordered fabric online a few times but have been dissapointed every time by the color or texture.

Here are my favorite places to buy in or around Houston:

High Fashion Fabrics  www.highfashionfabrics.com  located at 3101 Louisiana St, Houston Tx 77006   713-528-7299
HFF is the best place to find really beautiful hand beaded and embroidered (very expensive!) fabrics and has a great selection of just about everything else. From cotton prints to hand painted silks as well as fabulous trims, buttons feathers and rhinestones. The customer service there sucks but the fabrics are worth the hassle of tracking down someone to cut for you. I've never tried to get a swatch but I hear that they are very stingy with them so its best if you know what you want.

I have not checked out the High Fashion Home store across the street but it sounds pretty awesome too. High Fashion Fabrics does have a mailing list and they sometimes send out coupons and sales fliers but not very often.

Glick Textiles www.glicktextiles.com  located at 2327 SW Freeway, Houston Tx 77098  713-942-8585
If  I need silk dupioni I go to Glick. $10 a yard for 45 " wide in a huge range of colors. They carry some garment fabrics but mostly home decorator stuff. The prices are good but most of the garment weight fabrics are by the bolt only. Fine with me since I like to stock up on certain often used things. They also have a really good selection of heavy braided and beaded trims (mostly for home dec. uses but I like some of them for wearable stuff). Glick has a mailing list for sales.

Jo-Anns www.joanns.com multiple locations around Houston but I usually go to the store at 3616 Hwy 6, Sugar Land Tx 77478  281-908-8688
Joann's has some really great sales and if you sign up for their mailing list they send out sales fliers with 40% off coupons pretty often. The sales on patterns are excellent (99 cents for Simplicity and Vogues for $3.99). They carry all the basics and have a big quilting section if your into that. They also offer sewing classes but I don't know if they are any good or not.
 I go to Joann's most often since they are closest to where I live. The selection is not very exciting but I can usually find what I need without the sales people bothering me too much. Of course, they are kind of used to seeing me and have figured out that there is really nothing they can help me with.

 I used to shop at Hancock's too but they all shut down in this area. They were pretty similiar to Joann's and carried birdcage netting for hats in a few colors. I bought one of their big pattern drawers when the one in Sugar Land closed down and have stuffed it with patterns and sewing books. I almost had to fight an old lady for it since it was the last one!

I found a listing for a place called Universal Fabric Center  www.universal-fabric.com at 2530 Times Blvd in Houston  713-521-4544 but the review I read says their prices are outrageous and they don't do swatches. I don't know if I'll bother to check them out but you never know.