Wal- Mart is a store that will get the first run, Joann's, Hobby Lobby, Ben Franklin will get the second quality and your LQS will get the highest quality, tightest weave, most accurate print run. If you look at the color dots along the selvage edge you can often see how accuate the print run is: if the color dot totally fills in the circle it should be the best quality, if it is askew it will be of a lower quality. You may find the same print at a Wal-Mart and a LQS but if you feel the softness of the two to compare you will find that the LQS will be smoother and the first run (WM)will be coarser due to the higher thread count in the pricier fabric.
Originally Posted by MzMcKee
This was years ago and I can't say what brand it was, but here is my JoAnn's story. I had purchased fabric from the local QS but ran short. I went to JoAnn's hoping to find something to compliment the fabric and was surprised to find the same print from the QS. I purchased what I needed and went home with it. There is a difference between the QS and the JoAnn's. JoAnn's was a bit thinner in weight and the print was faded not a strong as the QS. I took the fabric back to the store and it was explained to me that in a fabric run there are basically three cuts from a run of a print. The first and last cuts are those cuts that go to your discount stores. They are very thin, the print may be off center, the colors may be out of line and not as crisp. The second and second to the last cut go to your fabric stores. They are stronger then the first cut. The third cut is the best cut. It is the part of the run that goes to your specialty stores. I now use this information to determine the quality of fabric I will use for the project I am working on. And if the project I want to work on should use the best quality and I can’t afford it, I’ll save and wait. Needless to say, right now I have a lot of projects I’m waiting on. It’s all good fabric and I use it all. Just a bit of quilt fabric trivia.