I made a quilt years ago with stock JoAnn fabrics -- not the greatest thread counts or patterns -- that turned out great and has held up well.
These days I don't buy "muddy" prints. I find that many of the fabrics at Walmart have the muddiness I am talking about -- slightly blurred pattern lines, as if all of the colors did not match up exactly where they should. When I see this, I also usually see that the texture of the fabric is fairly coarse (lower thread count).
I don't pay as much attention to price (except to price me out of the market if it's too high!) now as I do to print quality.