me i like to get yardage. it is easier to re-purpose and much more flexible on what you can do with it. I get 1-3 yards and starting to only get 3 yards unless i am working with a specific pattern or blocks, then get more toward a yard or so. People how ever keep getting me FQ's and jelly rolls. they are nice but most of the time they are fabrics that I am not in love with or even the style that I really like so it makes it hard to work with. I used to just buy Fq's but then when I found i had three CD storage cases full of them but never really using them I stopped buying them, except for my kids. they like to have them to play with with dolls and "action figures". So I would go with maybe a combo of all the kinds of fabric stuffs. but it is a real personal thing depending on how you quilt and what you are pulled toward, which will change as the years go by.