Quilting cottons are almost always a balanced plain weave. Basically, the balanced part means that your warp and weft threads are the same weight, thickness and material and you are not doubling up or using multiples of one or the other. Plain weaves are fabrics in which you have a weft thread that alternates going over and under the warp threads--think of a checkerboard.
Lots of those nice home dec fabrics that have different kinds of threads to get texture, or sheen in some areas are not balanced weaves. They may have many different types and thicknesses of threads in either the warp or the weft, or sometimes both. In addition, they may use different kinds of weave structures such as twill, or brocades in which the weft skips over more than one warp at a time.
Rob
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