Originally Posted by PaperPrincess

The fabric store will probably not cut a fat quarter, or a square. They normally will only cut yardage, as the previous poster said, you would buy a quarter yard 'WOF' or width of fabric i.e. cut from the bolt. You figure about 40 usable inches WOF. Having said that, all quilt shops will sell fat quarters as pre cuts, in other words, they are already cut & are not measured when purchased. Precuts come in a variety of sizes: candies, charms, jelly rolls, layer cakes etc. except for fat quarters, they come pre packaged with one or two cuts of fabric all from the same line, so they all coordinate. The number of fabrics can vary (20 to 40 or so) so you need to be aware of what you are buying. You can look at the Moda site for more info on sizes and free patterns:
http://www.modabakeshop.com/
What you might want to ask your quilt shop about is a layer cake, which is a pack of 10" squares, however, it might be pricey. A less costly alternative would be a stack of 10" squares from Connecting Threads:
http://www.connectingthreads.com/cfS...?q=layer+cakes