You can tell by the feel of the fabric. I just picked up some really cheap fabric to make a wall hanging. It won't be washed or put in direct sun. Thought it would be fine to use for a wall hanging. For my favorite quilts, I am much more selective

Definitely hold it up to the light - if you can see through it, you'll know that it's not very tightly woven and will shrink a lot. I've noticed differences even in the same fabric line, because I think they may use different mills for production. Also, some dyes are more expensive so in order to keep the entire line at the same price per yard, they may cut corners on the quality of the yarns and the denseness of the weave. I have all sorts of fabrics in my stash - good stuff, mediocre stuff and bad stuff. All of it gets used.

Fabric with a denser weave feels smoother. Rub the fabric between your thumb and forefinger .. can you feel the weave of the fabric with your thumb, or does it feel smooth?? As an example of two opposite ends of the spectrum but the same principle ... silk charmeuse compared to burlap. You can obviously feel the weave of burlap, you can't feel the weave in the silk. Sometimes washing/drying will shrink the weave and pull it together more and the feel will become softer - but I would rather not take the chance that it won't improve enough.

Also ... look for obvious "slubs" which are thickness variances in the fibers. You see it in a lot of organic fabrics to some degree, even in blue jeans ... ever see a small single piece of thread that is clearly thicker than the others around it? That's a 'slub'. An occasional small slub is forgivable, but they shouldn't be frequent or large.

Lastly as others have mentioned, hold it up to the light. How much light shows through? Sometimes with cheaper fabrics you will even see dots of light penetrating through where the weave intersects!!

You'll hear quilters and garment makers refer to a fabric having a "nice hand". This is (part of) what we're talking about.

Walmart on long island is carring lqs type of fabs at lqs prices.
Not all of it but a few bolts at a time

Everybody is right...it is by the "hand" or feel of the fabric. Like sheets, it is thread count and weave. My big deciding factor is color. I can work with a "thinner" fabric ( heck I will throw a fusible interfacing behind it) if the color and pattern is right. Muddy or off tone colors drive me batty.

Also shrinkage, LQS will be able to tell me that X fabric will shrink about X% which is important if you pre-wash and need a true fat quarter or are doing things like mixing flannels and cottons or cottons and Minkee. I hate it when you buy a FQ, you pre-wash it and it comes out a 16 1/2 by 19 trapezoid instead of a 18 by 22 rectangle.

That being said, I have also paid a king's ransom for a piece of fabric from a well known line and had it ravel and just be awful.

Once you are quilting awhile, you will have manufacturers that you like and you will be able to get them on sale or will be willing to bite the bullet for a special project. Like I said on the other thread, I make crafting type projects and I make quilts. Wallhangings, table runners, aprons, lap quilts...I am selective but not picky. I will buy a crappy fabric if the pattern is cute. A king size quilt I am putting 200 hours into, each fabric better be right and last.

I can tell the quality is much better by the softer feel as well.:thumbup:

I go mostly by feel, but nowadays with all the finishings they put on the fabrics in manufacturing, it is more difficult for me. Secondly, I hold it up to the light. If I can see through it, I know it's not a good quality. It took me a little time to be able to judge a fabric. I also look at who manufactured the fabric as some manufacturers are known for better quality fabrics, but they are more expensive as you would expect. But in the end, whether or not a fabric is "a good fabric" depends on what I am going to use it for. If I need a novelty fabric and it is only printed on a poorer quality fabric, I use it. It's good for what I need. If I'm doing a quilt that I want to last for many years, I search for and buy the best quality quilting fabric I can find no matter how expensive. If I'm making a quilt for my dog, I use the cheapest decorating fabric as he doesn't care what he gets.

Good quality quilting fabrics have gotten pretty expensive in my opinion. It is not uncommon for me to see fabric for sale at $13 a yard where I live. But an expensive fabric may not be any better than a less expensive one. Sometimes I think the expense reflects who the designer is.