I agree that precut fabric is out for myself. You lose too much fabric when washing, though I may try the starch method for preparation. I will still purchase one kit for hopefully a pleasant experience making a quilt.
It's a toss up between "Fat Quarters", Connecting Threads, and possibly "Thousand Bolts" when I do start purchasing fabric by the yard. My biggest problem is storage. Right now everything I own for quilting is atop my kitchen table. I would kind of like to have a place where I have a table dedicated to my sewing machine, and cutting and ironing requirements. And I would still need some kind of cabinets with drawers that can hold all the fiddly things you need for the pastime, as well as somewhere to store all that fabric