I have read that nearly all of the fabric in Shops come from overseas. So washing should probably be done anyway. About the cost...Buy what you can afford. Wherever you do shop, feel of the fabric, hold it up & check to see if you can see a lot of light through it. You do not want to be able to read through it. I have spent $12.98 a yd recently at a LQS & the darned fabric was awful to bleed. Had to treat it multiple times! Some I have bought @ JoAnns was not bad to bleed at all. Both had lots of dk. red in it. Our WalMart no longer has fabric but when they were discounting it out @ $2 a yd, I found very nice fabric and snatched up quite a lot. Been very happy. Used some in a quilt & took the quilt into my LQS to get a backing & she took me that very line of fabric and we found a perfect print for the backing. I am sure it was seconds or WalMart would not have had it, but there was really nothing wrong with it that I found. My $2 a yd fabric has held up as well as the $10.97 a yd from the same line through many washings. But just buy the best that you can afford. And look it over and really feel of it. Some feels so much nicer than others.
QIAD does have some nice fabric in their Fabric Frenzy section @ $5 a yd & some even cheaper. Other online Shops have Sales as well. Of course you have shipping to figure in unless you spend a certain amount.