Be careful since I made the mistake of buying long quarters instead of fats one time (my LQS was really busy and long quarters take less time to cut...they didn't have what I needed already cut) but the longs were too narrow to work with the pattern. If you still want to figure yardage on a certain pattern, send it to me and I'll do it for you; I'm a math teacher...

Don't care much for fat quarters so I cut my own from my stash. I have boxes full of FQ from guild drawings and exchanges and I seldom find use for them.

Great advice...why didn't I think of that a long time ago????

One could do that - but I definitely would NOT do so - because then one has four small pieces of fabric instead of the one larger one.

If you are not able to "think in fat quarters" - draw light lines on the BACK of the fabric with a removable marker (I would use white chalk or very light pencil lines) - and then cut from within one of the "quarters" you created.

Whenever I have fabric left over after a project, I cut the leftover pieces into the largest sizes I can get. This has given me quite a variety of fat quarters! :c)

Donna

I think you are over thinking. All fat quarters started out as yardage. If you have one yard of fabric you have four fat quarters. Sometimes the pattern will have cutting directions based on cutting a fat quarter. That doesn't mean much, you can cut all the pieces from whatever piece you have to cut.

I stopped buying fat quarters and started making my own as the size was never the same .... Make your own and then you are sure of the sizes

Usually I buy at least one yard of a fabric. If it is just a tiny amount needed I will purchase enough to cut out the largest pieces needed. I figure the left overs are a bonus for the back or binding. The rest goes into my test block stash or a scrap quilt.

Did you need 16 different fat quarters for the pattern, or just 16 fat quarters? A fat quarter is just half a half yard, cut length wise instead of a quarter of a yard cut across the fabric. Sometimes it makes a difference because you may need a piece bigger than 9" (1/4 yard). But in any case, you can easily use yardage, if fat quarters are suggested.

I would :
1. Figure out my color scheme.
2. Choose a focus fabric with close to 16 different colors in it.
3. Pull yardage from my stash to coordinate, with almost equal portions of lights, mediums, and darks.
4 Assess the need to supplement. Most of us don't have enough lights because they tend to be not nearly as exciting as mediums and darks.
5. Enjoy "supplementing" (ie shopping , because--oh, darn!--I really need a pale yellow jonquil in this quilt. :)