Cuts Like a Knife

It occurs to me that there are some out there who might not know what a fat quarter (FQ) is. I mean, I guess it's possible.... Anyway, a FQ is a quarter yard of fabric, except that instead of cutting the fabric from the end of a bolt, resulting in a skinny piece of 9x 44 inch fabric, a FQ is cut by dividing a yard of fabric along the long width and then cutting in half again, resulting in a fat, much more usable 18 x 22 piece of fabric.

Here's a photo from quilting.about.com, which illustrates it beautifully.

Fat quarters can run from about $1.75 each to around $4, for an exclusive fabric. So it can be a lot more affordable to buy a few yards and cut them yourself. For instructions about cutting a FQ, go here

BEWARE, buying FQs is addictive! You grab one here, you grab one there, and the next thing you know, you've got $80 worth of fabric in your cart, with no real plans to use them! The worst places for this problem are the stores like JoAnn, where they have different fabric for the FQ than for the yardage. Always keep in mind that buying buy the yard is a better price per yard.

Check out fabric . com (there's a button on the right) for a really wide variety of beautiful fabric. There is a special of the day and a lot of pre-cuts. What I like about it is that it's affiliated with Amazon so you can use your Amazon account to check out, saving me the step of wandering around the house looking for my purse, hoping that my credit card is actually in there an not left on some countertop from the last time I ordered something online. Go Amazon!

DON'T FORGET, comments get you entries into the charm pack give away!

~Jen