Tell me about fat quarters

[tinkerpuppet]

I'm fairly new to sewing, so I'm not sure exactly what these are. I've seen them in my fabric store, and in a quilting store, and they seem to have amazing different patterns and prints. But what size are they? What do you do with them (other than the obvious making a quilt). I don't really have any projects in mind, but I've just seen so many that I love.

[cristeen]

Usually 18"x22" or so.

Nowadays more of them are coming pre-cut and bundled, but it used to be that all the fat quarters were cut in house from fabric they carried, in which case buying a fat quarter was an expensive way to go. If they're selling loose fat quarters, take a look around for the bolt, cause it may be cheaper that way.

[claras_mom]

There are entire quilting books devoted to what you can do with an assortment of fat quarters...but you do usually pay a premium for the fact that the fabric store cut them up and packaged them as such.

I agree that they can be irresistable, and they do go on sale.

For me, I often go ahead and get a half yard, if I can find the bolt. Or if I think it's something I'd want to make a jumper or whatever for dd, I buy 2 yards--enough for most size 2T or 3T garments, with a little over.

[caiesmommy]

Like what has been said....if you LOVE it and want t do a huge project with it..buy off the role!! If you want to add a splash of color or its a very expensive fabric needing just a little go the fat quarter. My mother and I went to a fabric store and loved the fat quarters, struck a deal with the owner? and bought 4 fat quarters got the 5th free!!! It was a little shop..so we each paid for 2 went home cut everything in half! Obviously not a huge chunk of fabric but they were ones we loved! My mom is actually making a crazy quilt style table runner out of a whole bunch of fat quarters shes picked up...I'm finishing a purse she started.

[pixie-n-hertwoboys]

on craster.org there are tutorials on how to make bags using fat quarters. I get the clearance ones and use for bags, quilts, appliques, etc. I bought some to use on a dress to add a little design to it.

[Novella]

Originally Posted by tinkerpuppet

I'm fairly new to sewing, so I'm not sure exactly what these are. I've seen them in my fabric store, and in a quilting store, and they seem to have amazing different patterns and prints. But what size are they? What do you do with them (other than the obvious making a quilt). I don't really have any projects in mind, but I've just seen so many that I love.

"Fat Quarters" are just regular pieces of cotton or poly-cotton fabric that are 1/4 of a yard. (So here in Canada, I guess they are probably a quarter of a metre). The reason they are called Fat Quarters is that if you buy 0.25m of fabric off the bolt, you get a long, skinny strip. If you get a Fat Quarter, your piece is much more square - allowing you to cut blocky shapes out of the same quantity of material. Imagine that instead of cutting one metre of fabric (usually folded in half on the bolt) into four skinny strips, you opened up the piece and quartered it with one cut at the vertical half-way point and one cut at the horizontal half-way point.