I just heard about www.quiltshops.com. On that site you put in the search box what you are looking for and any of the stores carrying that item will be listed and you can click on the store and look at your item and order if wanted.

Their search facility *is* very useful and I've known about it for years. You can find a lot of fabrics that way! But you can only find fabrics that are carried by stores that are under the quiltshops.com umbrella. Meaning that their stores are set up / hosted through Key to the Web. (For a long time I did't know this!) So it means that while you can find a lot, you are also missing a lot.

Another way to find a fabric is to do an image search at your favorite search engine. What you find there will draw not from "the whole ocean", not just a hundred "lakes".