What Can You Cut from a Fat Quarter?

Quilting Digest | August 25, 2015 | Quilting How-To
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It’s so easy to pick up a few extra fat quarters when fabric shopping. They tend to catch the eye and can be bought individually or packaged in a bundle with others. Either way, they’re relatively inexpensive and often an impulse buy.

But, what is a fat quarter, exactly? Wasn’t Quilt In A Day lays it out nicely:

So, what exactly are these magical gems?  They are quarter yards of fabric.  So, are you just asking for a quarter yard cut at the store?  Oh, no.  The cut is different … Here’s an image to help you out from about.com:

fat quarter

One yard of fabric is 36″x44″.  So, a regular quarter yard is 9″ x 44″.  Which is great if you need long strips, binding, sashing, or a few pieces.  However, a quarter yard is cut from a half yard of fabric so that yes, it’s shorter, but it’s wider – 18″.  This gives you more choices for various larger cuts.

Essentially, if you take a half yard of fabric and cut into two along the fabric fold line, you’ll produce two fat quarters.

So, what do you do with fat quarters once you have them (besides love how gorgeous they are)?

This chart from Patchwork Posse shows you how to cut a fat quarter into 2 layer cake pieces (10″ x 10″), 4 charm squares (5″ x 5″) and 1 jelly roll strip (2.5″ wide) with no waste.

fat quarter

Now, you can mix usable shapes from your fat quarter in with your other same-sized pre-cuts, ready to be selected for a project.

But, what if you’re buying fat quarters for a different type of project? How many would you need? This chart from Bright Linen should help.

Fat Quarter

Or, put another way …

What You Can Cut From a Fat Quarter

You’ll find additional information about pre-cut fabric and quilt sizes here.

Now you know how to get started using your fat quarters. Happy Quilting!

Top image courtesy of www.onestopcraftshop.com.

 

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