Interesting thread!
I've been looking @ buying a bolt, or mini bolt, of white and black. All one dye lot plus have patterns I'm planning to do that will use them. White, always, but I have a pattern that uses black for the background; it appeals to me bc it reminds me of Light Bright toy when I was a child.
I very much appreciate the link to Moda's explanation on whites. It's really difficult, especially when buying online, to know which one would would work best. I wish they had included a picture of the porcelain and snow next to the whites. Even if the color on my monitor is a bit off, having them side to side would help in comparing. Am slapping my forehead as I have purchased the ready to dye when it was on clearance... I'm not wanting to dye it, and now realize it is "dying" to pick up colors. Drat.
Re precuts - I do buy precuts if I want a bit of each fabric in a collection, or at least most of them. But for white or black, it's not worth the extra $ to me. Cutting my own yardage to precut size, whether layer cake, charm or jelly roll is easy enough that I don't want to spend up to double/yard.