OMG - Aldi's sells fat quarters!!!
 

Ran in for some milk and "my candy" and just happened to see a box of fat quarters - maybe 5 or 6 tied together in a bundle for $5.00 I think. Nothing I just had to have and did not have time to really look through them to see the brand or quality as my DH was waiting outside for me.

I’ve bought fat quarter bundles from Aldi here in the UK. They’ve been ok.

I have a problem understanding the whole fat quarter thing. When the big store runs a sale for $1.50 for a fat quarter, that means it is $6 a yard. This means you could buy fabric that is $11.99 per yard with a 50% coupon - not a great savings. I buy most of my fabric either on sale at 60% or a 60% coupon or scrounge online stores for as big a deal. Because I sell my products, I work very hard to never pay more than $5 per yard and often less. This does not mean I buy garbage fabric, it just means I work at it like a business. I have bought more expensive 'special' fabric when I am making a gift or a special order for a customer who wants to have a particular fabric, but not for regular product. And I sell a lot of products! If this person found good fabric in fat quarter bundles of 6 for $5, then yes it is a deal. But folks come into my big fabric store and are so excited about buying a few fat quarters when they are $2 or $3 each..........a puzzle.......

I've seen them at my Aldi's also. I love that store, it always has something unexpected. For example (not sewing-related), I love lightweight turtlenecks and crew neck tops, I wear them underneath other things. Would you believe, Aldi had sets of two for $10.99 and $14.99?! I grabbed them lickety-split. I also bought a wonderful cold brew coffee maker there in the summer. You just never know what you'll find. And their imported German candy is the best thing of all. I'll be giving some for Christmas gifts!

klswift, it's because the price point seems reasonable for fat quarters, but yes -- quite often you even pay more per yard with fat quarters than you would just buying yardage. But then to get the variety many people crave is beyond their price comfort point. For me, I don't worry much about under $20 purchases here and there, but to go in and spend over $100 on fabric at one time? Pretty much impossible on my budget but that's on the low end of what a typical not-on-sale queen sized quilt top in my area.

I buy thrift store fabric typically around $1-2 yard to keep me sewing, today I got a lovely bag with a full half yard of an easy to use indigo Moda print, several smaller pieces of metallic embellished Asian fabrics, and a couple other odds and ends for $4.99, it wasn't on tag sale today but it was worth that price and it won't last the week.

I saw a similar thread to this about a year ago that Dollar Store had fabric, been looking ever since but today finally found some! Label calls them 100% cotton craft fabric. Got two fat quarters, $1 each, one of a white with bright polka dots that is just right in my wheelhouse, and a funky dog print also on a white background. The two certainly can be used together, quality seems ok but I haven't washed them yet.

Another place I was surprised to find fabric and was because of a thread here was a Tuesday Morning, they have various layer cake and other quality fabrics for about half the usual price. Don't know if it is worth me going there on a regular basis, but worth stopping by the rare times I'm passing it.

fat qtrs are more about variety and that fact that many cuts for patterns can be made out of a "fat" cut fat quarter than a regular cut. 18x22 as opposed to 9x40 or 44 (if you are lucky). nine inches is usually too skinny for most cuts these days. patterns change.

I like to buy fat quarters and other precuts for the variety. I don't mind paying more for that.

I have seen these in Aldi here, but do wonder about the quality for such a low price. I would be interested to hear how it washes and what the shrinkage is like.

If you are making many projects, fat quarters don't make sense! However, if you are a casual quilter, and you don't want to build up a big stash, but still have variety in your designs fat quarters are useful. It's economy of size vs overspending on something that you will never use again and will take up room. A different choice for each quilter

Obviously the brand you get can change the results, these are what I got from the Dollar Store, they were rolled up.

It's always interesting when I do these tests. I washed the fabrics as I prefer to do, loose in with my other color sorted laundry. Prior to washing, I did find one puncture flaw in the polka dot fabric. The thread and weave were otherwise consistent in both fabrics. It is on the lighter weight side of things but not flimsy.

For both pieces of fabric, I lost about an inch in one direction, slightly less in the other, because I think the selvedge doesn't ravel. Roughly half of that or 1/4" each side was fray, the rest seems to be shrinkage. When I first unrolled the pieces the seemed rather nicely square, but you can see after washing how skewed the edge is, the ruler is lined up with the selvedge.

End report, now that they have been preshrunk/prepared, I'd still use the fabric in a use quilt or for crafts or doll clothes like they say. And for the final thought, the standard 1/4 yard width of fabric piece also in the wash tangled things up like a snake!