Originally Posted by pab58
Originally Posted by bearisgray
The length of a fat quarter yard (FQ) should always be at least 18 inches.
Not all fabrics are 45 inches wide - some are as narrow as only 40 inches - so the width of the FQ will only be half of the width of the fabric - so may vary from 20 to 22.5 inches.
Those must be the ones that JoAnns calls "fabric quarters" because they aren't 44" wide. 8-) The "real" fat quarters are the 18"x22" cuts. ;)
There are a LOT of fabrics that are not quite 44" wide. So FQs of those fabrics will be 18" long but not quite 22" wide. It doesn't make them any less "real".
I mean... suppose the fabric is only 42" wide. If a store is going to cut one FQ that is 18" x 22"... what are they supposed to do with the other piece that's only 18" x 20"? In reality, the store has to make the cuts 18" x half of the width of the fabric, period. That's the only way it can work.
Perhaps it is just unwise to assume that you will get 22" width on a FQ. You should be able to count on the 18" dimension, though!