I have the Moda Marbles color card and I love it. Well worth the money. But I didn't pay $35. Mine was less than $20 from Hancocks of Paduch.

I have a color card for the Hoffman water color "batiks" best investment ! So if you really want to be sure of a color, and you can not get swatches. If you plan on doing lots of work with that fabric line .. get a color card !

I bought a Konacolor card many years ago and have really used it. I do notice that colors have been dropped and new colors added; but the basic colors remain the same. Perhaps it is time for me to order a new Kona color card.

Know your fabric makers and stay with them. I order from www.fabricshack.com but I purchase Windham or Northcott etc. I know they make quality fabrics so when they come to my mailbox, I know I have good value. So far, the photo of the fabric has been exactly like what comes in the shipment, plus shipping with them is cheap! Good luck!

Note that if you order a charm pack or even a fQ pack that most of the solids do not have any info on the selvage edge so you still might not know the exact color name/number to order

Sorry you don't live closer. My LQS owner will order Moda bellas or marbles for a customer. They usually arrive within a few days. Check with your LQS -- can't imagine why they would not let you look at their cards, whatever they carry.

The Kona card is actually the next item on my to-buy list. They are my preferred solids and I recently spent a ridiculous amount of time agonizing over which colors would be just right for a project with nothing to look at except pictures online.

Some notes gathered over a long period of using solids from many sources...

Color cards are good IF you are sharp enough to judge from a 1" square that is half pasted to cardboard...it's not easy and I have a very keen eye for color. Also be aware that the dye lot of the actual fabric received will not match the dye lot used to make the color card so it can be a c**p shoot anyway. I have a Kona card and have been disappointed more frequently than not. I stopped using it a couple years ago.

Not all solids are broadcloth and not all broadcloth has the same hand as Kona solids. Moda Bella is a broadcloth, but with a softer hand and a slight glow to the surface. Kona also has a softer hand after it is washed, btw.

Two solid lines with a hand very similar to regular quilting fabric by the same manufacturer are RJR's Supreme Solids (my current favorite) http://www.rjrfabrics.com/fabrics/co...packageID=1007 and P&B Color Spectrum http://www.pbtex.com/html/colorspectrum.html (I believe this is what borntohandquilt prefers for her wholecloth quilts, but I could be wrong).

Despite the differences in monitors, I have found much more often than not, if two colors from a manufacturer's website "go", odds are great that they will coordinate in person as well. They may be slightly different from what you see online, but relative to each other, they will most likely be fine. It's much trickier when using multiple manufacturers or even multiple lines. Safest way is to buy in person, of course.

Hope at least some of that helps you. :)

Color cards make a wonderful "quilters toy". I just LOVE my color cards, and wouldn't be without them.

I have all four of the color cards you mentioned, plus Maywood's Shadow Play and RJR's Cotton Supreme. If you can send me something in the colors you are looking for (such as a paint swatch) I can look over the color cards and tell you what goes best.

We may not carry the colors you need, but at least you will know the pattern/color numbers of the ones that are right, and then you can hunt them down online. Bear in mind that the batiks are hard, though, because on the color card the swatches are tiny and may not represent what color would be a few inches away on the actual fabric.

And... by the way... it's the kind of customer service that we provide all the time! We spend a lot of time on the phone with customers, helping them to match fabrics.

Well... I have to disagree. I've had to "tweak" the pictures of many Moda Marbles to make them look right with respect to each other. Some of their pictures are just plain wrong!

I do agree that trying to coordinate between manufacturers based on their online images is risky business.