Originally Posted by
dcamarote
.... I will pass along what I have been told. The difference is if you buy fabric from a quilt store, they receive the first run of the fabric. As fabric is woven the weave becomes looser at the ends. So, when a quilt shop orders their fabric, generally they receive their portion from the best part of the run; that being the best and tightest weave. When they get to the portion where the weave is not as tight (good) then those portions are bought by Joann's, etc.
You were told a load of hooey. For this to be true you'd have to be talking about homespun. Homespun is the only fabric that is woven into a design and it certainly does not get looser as they go along. The other fabric available to quilters is printed on a base fabric, and there is no such thing as weave getting looser as it goes along in manufacturing.
I was a manager at JoAnn and I can tell you they have good quality fabrics and some not so good. They cater to all checkbooks. Your LQS needs to stay in business, we probably shouldn't complain that their prices are high. It's not a ploy to get you to spend more money, they have bills to pay and they don't have the purchasing power of a big box store. I buy half my fabric at a LQS and half online. I do this to help keep the LQS in business, even though I worked at JoAnn. I bought Audra's Iris Garden online from a quilt shop in another state. They carried the full line of this collection and no one near me did.
I think we need both types of stores, simply choose the one that's best for you.