I've noticed the same thing. Some of the exact same David's Textiles fabric that I bought from WM at about $4.50 a yard was being sold at the Hobby Lobby in town for $8 a yard. Hmmm....

Our walmart sells precut crappy fabric. Making an hour trip with my mom this week to a walmart with real fabric. And to eat at a neat old restraunt.

I think that one of the reasons that Walmart can sell their fabric for a low price is the volumes they order. Think about how many Walmarts are in the US.

However, we did have a speaker at our guild meeting years ago that told us about fabric runs. She said that runs are made on lower quality fabric to test the pattern. If you have ever seen a flat fold fabric with the design printed a little off, it is probably one.

I have fabric that has been stored the same place and way, but some of the older fabric from Hancocks is fading away. I, also, have a quilt made from a football field panel that I purchased at Hancocks for $1 and it is fine after many years. Not all fabric is equal.

That being said, I buy what I like. For many years, there were no quilt shops near me. I do buy quilt shop fabric today, but Walmart had Spiderman fabric and my DGS loves his Spiderman quilt.

So does this mean all fabric stores , shops and LQS get the same crappy stuff?..............LOL

J/K

The quilt stores I shop in won't stock anything you can buy in a Walmart. Walmart does not stock Moda, Hoffman, Kaufman, RJR, and a long list of other manufacturers.

Mine too. But, I have seen Michael Miller, Alexander Henry, Kaufman and Blank on the shelves at Joannes.

And as a rule they're almost as expensive if not more expensive than any LQS.

I had heard that too. That a test run is done first, and that these fabrics are then sold. I also read somewhere that there are three grades to the fabric, and most quilting stores pick up the top grade (best quality), while companies like Walmart pick up the lower end (test run) cheaply.

This is what I asked them, and they said that it wasn't true, at least with that one company anyway.

I've heard this exact thing many times,and I am trying to find out if it's true, or if it's something that got started and is not taken as fact.

As, this company has said, they don't do that, they don't waste the time and energy to make 3 different types of fabric, it seems too inefficient to be true.

I will wait on the other's replies, though, before I believe anything, LOL!

And there's also the issue someone else brought up, WM doesn't sell a lot of name brands. So, if its true about the 3 different types, what do those brands do with their lesser quality?

I would just buy what fabric feels and looks good to me and not do a lot of worrying. Yes, there is a deffernece, but not everyone can afford $10 a yard fabric. I would never criticize anyone for using Walmart fabrics, if that is all they can afford.