Nora McMeeking was in my quilt guild when I lived in Santa Barbara. I took a class with her for making these Cosmati quilts, and many of us used batiks. They give a very nice marble look, and come in any color you could possibly want. You can combine batiks (or marbles) with other fabrics, too; it's not necessary to use just one type.

Two sites I know of are batiksplus.com and sewbatik.com; Hancocks of Paducah also carries a huge batik selection. Many, many online fabric stores have "sale" sections, which often include batiks -- if you want to save some money, do a little snooping around on the internet and you're sure to find some good deals. ebay is another place to look, especially if you're looking for yardage.

When you consider the time and money you'd spend driving around trying to find fabric, plus sales tax, I think online shipping charges are a bargain.

Patti I wasn't familiar with that one, but looks great! I've often bought from The Virginia Quilter which doesn't have a brick & mortar store, but they're right here in Fredericksburg, and she'll usually bring my fabric to my office on the way to the PO to mail orders! Only problem is they often offer free shipping so I'm not really saving that expense, but it does save time and they're a great shop!
Florence

Patti.... that web site is FABULOUS

Carla

Florence, you probably know this store since she's relatively close to you in Purcellville. Webfabrics.net. I used to order online even when I lived in Sterling VA. She's very responsive and helpful, fast and a pleasure to work with.

Try contacting Norma McMeeking, the author she is a nice lady who could probably guide you toward some great fabric choices. Google her you could probably get contact information on her web site. She give lectures to guilds ( she came to our guild last year) so hopefully you can track her down.

Invite her to join the forum here...

Moda is the only ones I have used. I love to sew with them and love the color choices.

Can't help with the more distinctive marble fabrics, but I normally go for Moda Marbles if I want that sort of fabric, because of the range of colours and the quality of the cotton.

Lorchen

Some time this fall I'll be embarking on making graduation quilts for my twins. I've decided to do similar but different quilts based on the intricate marble floors we saw on our trip LY to Rome, using instruction from the book "Bella Bella Quilts" http://www.bellabellaquilts.com/home.html

(since they laughed at me taking pictures of every floor we saw!)

While they don't have to be made using marbled fabrics, I'm thinking of going that route, so I wondered if any of you have a favorite brand of marbles? Also, some of the floors we saw used reversed "slices" of marble, so that the natural marbleing appeared "mirrored" and I'm thinking I could incorporate some of that if I use a marble fabric that is more like a batik, where there isn't a "right" and "wrong" side, so if you know a brand like that it'd be helpful info.

Thanks in advance, Florence