I am a batik lover too. I recently bought the ones from Connecting Threads. They are thinner, but they are very nice. I will have no problem buying more of them! They did wash up nicely, but I haven't sewn with them yet.
The ones in Joann's are over priced at $12.99/yd. Not too bad with a 40-50% coupon. The quality of those are similar to the Connecting Threads batiks. But if I'm going to spend that much, I'd rather check the LQS first because they have much more variety than my local Joann's.