Peckish

There is a huge difference between fabric produced for manufacturing purposes and fabric produced for retail sale. In retail, fabric width is mostly dependent on type. For instance, most polar fleece, rayon, polyester, etc - the fabrics you would use to make clothing items - are manufactured at anywhere from 54 to 60 inches wide. Home dec fabric is about the same, 54 to 60. Cotton quilting fabric is 40 to 45 inches wide. There is also cotton "wideback" fabric that is designed to be used for the backs of quilts, that comes anywhere from 104 to 110 inches wide.

Connecting Threads is NOT the only company that cuts fat quarters to include the selvedges. It sounds like you're concluding that you can avoid the selvedges by not purchasing any CT fabric, but you will be disappointed. You will find them everywhere.

Let's talk about where fat quarters come from. When you ask for a quarter yard of fabric, typically the clerk will unwind the fabric from the bolt and cut 9", so you end up with a rectangle that is 9" x 44" (approximately, and we'll get back to this in a minute). But sometimes we need something wider than 9" and we don't need the 44" length. So instead what the clerk will do is cut a half yard of fabric (18"), then cut the 44" length in half to 22". If you do the math, 9 x 44 = 396, and 18 x 22 = 396. So you're still getting a quarter yard of fabric, but instead of it being a long skinny piece, it's "fat".

Now let's go back to my first paragraph where I said cotton quilting is manufactured anywhere from 40 to 45 inches wide. What happens if the fabric you're buying isn't 44" wide, but 42" or even 40"? Well, your fat quarter won't be 18 x 22, it will be 18 x 21 or 20. And those narrower fabrics WILL have selvedge edges on them.

Plus, it's just a lot of work to cut the selvedge edge off before packaging and selling the fat quarters.