I bought 7 fat quarters of hand-dyed fabric at the Vermont Quilt festival from a registered vendor in the exhibit hall. LOTS of people were cruising her booth which was full of lovely fabrics of all colors and they were grabbing fat quarters.

I think I got took, because only one was the right size.. but maybe hand-dyes are a separate species which does not have to conform to fat quarter specifications (no fabric police???):

3 were cut the wrong way - the selvage was on the 22" side, not the 18" side of the fabric piece.

3 were off size - one gave me a bare 17" after I tried to line it up as it was too crooked in all directions but the selvage. One was 16" x 24". One was barely ok.

The issue for my project (a cute fat-quarter "easy no brainer" pattern LOL) is I needed to use them cut into varied width strips on the *** Long Grain *** to sandwich between other fabric I already had purchased and I needed at least 17" to make the 8 1/2" raw block size work. Fortunately I have enough extra of the gorgeous Keepsake Quilting batik I bought on-line to make it work. This fabric was supposed to be the 'pop' in the quilt, not the "poop"!

The issue for my pocketbook, is, before I call the vendor, and complain to the Festival, is, am I out of line to be extremely annoyed by crummy wonky wrong-sized fat quarters?

Please sound out on this!

Thanks much
Sue

she uses 54 inch wide PFD fabric and cuts it the opposite way so she can get 3 FQs across the width of the fabric without any waste.

if she cut it the traditional way she would have 10 inches of waste for every width she cut.

as far as some off and some not, she didn't account for shrinking when she cut the fabric for dyeing. even PFD shrinks during the process - the up side is the fabric has been put through so much it won't shrink on you.

as far as a standard, i always believed there was one but lately there has been a number of complaints on the board that people aren't getting the exact size any longer.

I think you should contact the vendor and give them the opportunity to correct the situation. I'd start nice and if they tell you to pound sand - then let them know you will be reporting them to the festival organizers and let them know of the issue with their vendor. ALSO let them know that you are on this QB and will not be shy about letting folks know what happened to you.

Good Luck!

the standard for fat quarters is 18" by width of fabric...which can vary anywhere from 20" to 22-1/2"...but you definitely should get the 18" measurement...and if all of those miss-measured fat quarters were from one shop I would complain....they need to be more careful in their measurements. If they were off that much in just the ones you bought, they could be off in so many more,and that isn't fair to the customer.

I have had a similar experience recently, and have decided that if I need a specific measurement i.e. 17", I will buy yardage, not FQ's. I have purchased them for smaller pieces and they measure anywhere from 17" to 19" x half the width of the fabric before straightening. I did complain to the (rather well known online shop) and was told that FQ's measurements were approximately 18" x 22" and that was that. That's when I decided to purchase yardage instead of FQ. That gives me the measurements that I will need, and hopefully a FQ that actually does measure 18" x the width of the fabric for future use.
I don't prewash, and hand dyed fabric probably is pre shrunk d/t the dyeing process, so even if it started out as a correct 18 x 22 before it was dyed, it might not be after.

I figured it was well-washed (it sure looked it and vendor assured me she had washed after dying with sympatrol? or whatever it is called to set the colors) but I didn't know the hand-dye implications (nor was I told) so I assumed it was std layout. 54' would give you 3 18" max. which makes sense.

What is PFD?

Thanks for the enlightenment on hand-dyes.

I was going to say all of this as well....there is also a variation in PRINTED fabric as for a while, some makers where making the fabrics only 40" wide! BUT you should always get 18" x 20", NOT counting the selvage edge!

With hand dyes it is different fabrics and the dyer/vendor needs to know she needs to cut them larger to account for the shrinkage!

I don't think I've ever bought a FQ that was a true size. I never buy them anymore and if you figure out the price of a full quarter yard as comppared to a FQ. Your money is better better spent on the full quarter yd. of fabric. Even if you don't need a full quarter yd. you could pass the left over on to someone who could use it. Keep this in mind when buying FQs'.
peace :D

I went to JoAnns today, got shorted on 3 out of 5 pieces, only a inch, but my pattern calls out for 1 yard. I am probably picky, but will take it back since it is only 4 miles from my house.

While the 22" side of a fat quarter can vary, the 18" side should not. A yard of fabric is 36" no matter what. As for shrinkage, I doubt that she dyed the fabric after cutting it, so she should have allowed for that. You should not have to measure each fat quarter to make sure you have a large enough piece of fabric.
Sue