Hello from Chicago! Welcome to the group! As suggested earlier I would practice on good but less expensive fabrics to develop your techniques and move on to more expensive fabrics later. I remember when I was first using the rotary cutter and I couldn't hold the cut to the ruler-you don't want to do that with $12+/yd! Or even on a difficult block.
As with the better fabrics, you do get a feel for them. Just like sheets quilt fabrics are made in a variety of thead counts, experience looking at them and feeling them helps tyou to tell the difference.