One of the very best pieces of fabric that I have ever bought - in my humble opinion - came from Jo-Ann Fabric. It was their high priced fabric and I think that I got it 60% or 50% off. You just have to look and keep your eyes open.

There are so many wonderful on-line quilt shops! I usually discover them by accident googling for specific slightly older fabrics. Fabricworm and Hawthorne Threads are two very nice websites that specialize in modern fabrics. Shabby Fabrics is also a wonderful on-line shop.

I have to honestly admit that if someone gave me a bunch of fabrics without the selvage, I wouldn't feel confident in whether it was good or bad. There seems to be an enormous variation in the hand of LQS fabrics, so I just go on trust. It usually feels very different once it's washed.

A "good" quality fabric will feel NICER after it is washed than before it was washed.

Although that is hard to tell when you are still in the store.

"Good" quality fabrics can still be good and have different hands. For example, Kaufman Kona feels heavy and rather coarse to me, but is considered "good."

I am not particularly impressed with the Moda fabrics I have purchased. I have some OLDER VIPs and Peter Pans that I consider to be almost ideal for my purposes.

Batiks are generally very tightly woven compared to the "usual" quilting fabric.

A lot depends on the feel and look that you prefer.

(Excluding the really inferior pieces, of course.)

Back to the original question:

What I consider to be "good quality" cotton quilting fabric.

It is colorfast. It shrinks no more than 3% in either direction. It feels nice and smooth. It is thick enough to that one cannot see easily through it. (Most fabrics have some "see-through" when held up to bright light!) The design is printed on-grain. It is wound on-grain on to the bolt. It has only a very small amount of sizing in it. It does not need to be starched or sized to be usable after it is washed (although if people like to do that, great - but it does not behave like overcooked spaghetti).

I so wish I had read this thread before my ill-fated Linus challenge quilt! I bought "sky" fabric (with clouds, you know) from my LQS and it just kept growing and growing! Of course, I didn't pre-wash it, which certainly would have helped. By the time I was finished quilting, the fabric was bunched and pinched and totally ugly. Of course it was on a deadline, and it went to a national meeting! I am still embarrassed, even though no one knows it was mine.

Final thought - listen to the kind people on this board and may you never have such a problem!

Here's the link to fabshophop - http://fabshophop.com/ You can read all about it.

Tracey Smith - I am going to be in Seattle on Saturday. Can you please tell me the name of the great quilt shop you found? Thanks!

I usually go by the feel of the fabric if it feels nice I use it if it feels flimsy I pass it up

I agree with bearisgray; if the fabric isn't color fast (& the thread, too), I don't buy it.

I will say that sometimes there are surprises in the upscale quilting fabrics that Joann sells. A client of mine found a Robert Kaufman fabric in that section of Joann -- with a 50% off coupon, it turned out to be quite the steal! That said, I've also bought fabric (back when I didn't know any better) fat quarters from Joann that turned out to be basically sheer (if you held it in front of your face, you could still see objects on the other side of the room -- they just took on the pinkish hue of the fabric). I ended up using them to make fabric yo-yo's. Really they were useless for anything else & I'm not even sure the yo-yo's will hold up in the wash.

I also look for frayed edges on the cut edge of the bolt. If the fabric is already fraying before it's even made it out of the store, it's not going to hold up well in a quilt. Someone mentioned novelty fabrics, so far, the best brand I've found is V.I.P Fabrics, available at my LQS.

One way I keep costs down and still get good quality fabric is to always scope out the sale rack/room at a local quilt shop. Most of the time they are not very obvious and I have to ask. Usually the fabrics are in the 40-60% off range. They are not much left on the bolt, the left overs from a fabric line, out of season, not as popular etc. I went shop hopping to pick up row by row patterns with a friend who is a fairly new quilter and she was able to get fabric for a quilt whose pattern called for 10 different fabrics all from the sale area of the different quilt shops. It was beautiful and she didn't feel like she was settling for something only because of the price. I always get backings for my quilts this way. I rarely get anything at JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby because of the quality and if I have to pay in the $12 range to get quality at JoAnn's I'd rather support a local shop where the person who waits on me sews/quilts and is anxious to hear about my project.