nuevaguilter - sent you a PM.

Macybaby I love your quit it is so beautiful.

Macybaby -- great quilt. I prefer buying fat quarters (probably too much). They are, after all, the original precut. I like them because I can cut a number of pieces out of them and I know the pieces are accurate.

Fat quarters are like candy. Unfortunately, I have a sweet tooth. : )

I like them for variety. I get the combo sets when JoAnn's has a big sale. That way I know the colors will go together. And I buy enough to do a whole quilt.

They are good when you want to do certain patterns like I-spy or bug jar quilts when you don't need a lot, but need a bunch of different fabrics.

Personally, I love them! I have a huge collection of them, have a subscription of sorts where I get 6 coordinated ones (and a pattern) every month. FQ's are so useful for so many projects that I have made, such as Bible covers, cell phone pouches, etc. Plus there are lots of patterns around that are FQ friendly, particularly Anderson and Calico Cottage. They are my fabric guilty pleasure!

I'm not very excited about them, myself. I have a few, but rarely have bought any. Most of mine were free bonuses. I think they are pretty wasteful, unless you are really good at using the scraps up.

I buy them to give more variety to my projects. I recycle most of my fabrics, but I need a few current prints to lift the total look of my work. Fat quarters allow me stock some accent fabrics at a low cost.

I don't understand why you think they are wasteful. Recently I used a small stack of fat quarters to make a baby quilt. I had very little fabric left over. If I had bought the same number of fabrics in 1/2 yard increments, I would have had half the fabric left over (or a much larger quilt). If a person only needs a small amount of a certain fabric it's less wasteful than buying a 1/2 yard or full yard just to get a 10-inch square or whatever size.

I use them sparingly to fill in gaps in my colors. One FQ also makes a great backing for a doll quilt, which I make.