I am going to make a tarp, does anyone have any recommendations on where a good place is to purchase UL material; silnylon, mesh, spinnaker, cuben, tyvek, etc. Poking around the internet, I have found Quest Outfitters and Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics, any other recos?

Seattle Fabrics is a great resource, and currently has a bunch of stuff on sale. seattlefabrics.com

As a Seattlite I favor them :) They're a friendly shop and full of helpful advice. They have almost every kind of gear fabric, fastener, webbing, cord or notion you could possibly need. I'm headed there today to pick up heat sealable fabric and strappage for some backpacks I'm working on :)

I have ordered twice from Seattle Fabrics and both orders took over 2 weeks even though items were said to be in stock. I have also ordered from quest and rockywoods with much quicker service.

http://www.questoutfitters.com
http://www.owfinc.com
http://www.rockywoods.com
http://thru-hiker.com/materials/
http://www.kitebuilder.com

i am so all about OWFINC.com I know you listed them but if you plan all the projects you want to do now you can get wholesale pricing. If you buy 6yds of 1.1rip sil for a tarp, 5yds of 1.1rip uncoated for a quilt, 2yd 1.9PU rip for a pack and 1yd 4oz PU Rip for a pack, 4yds 1.9uncoated rip for a hammock, + 2yd sil for poncho you can get anything on that order for wholesale. IF you order 20yd of one type of fabric (not one specific fabric but one type, like ripstop) your whole order is wholesale, hard to beat.

All you need to add to the above is 2.5yd climahieldHL 6oz, some grossgrain, maybe a 26" one way sep zipper #3 coil and some buckles and cords and stuff. and you can do a lot of projects for a small amount of money.

-Tim

Thanks everyone for laying out all of the options.

Excellent suggestion Tim on ordering large quantities to buy at wholesale $. I think I'll get there eventually, but to start off, I am thinking of just getting a small amount of Silnylon 2nds. Hopefully the learning curve won't be too steep and I can mitigate sewing, cutting and design mistakes.

AC

You can also get silnylon seconds at Noah Lamport for $3.00/yd. You HAVE to call - the website is useless, other than to get their phone number.

It's a great place for starter material.