Patchwork Help, Advice, Tips and Tricks

What is a fat quarter?

There are many strange terms in patchwork and quilting and ‘fat quarter’ is one of them. Many people wonder what a fat quarter is and the answer is really very simple.

It is just a patchwork measure and a way of buying the equivalent of a quarter of a yard or quarter of a metre in a squarer shape.

So there are both fat quarter yards and fat quarter metres and the fat quarter metre is approximately one-tenth larger than a fat quarter yard. If you think of a quarter of a metre cut right across the width of the fabric, which is about 112cm or 44 inches, this would give you a long thin piece of fabric. But if you cut half a metre off the roll of fabric and then divide the width in half you will land up with two fat quarters.

A fat quarter metre is approximately 50cm x 56cm or 19 ¾" x 22''.

A fat quarter yard is approximately 45.5cm x 56cm or 18'' x 22''.

Many shops supply packs of co-ordinating fat quarters which are extremely useful for small projects or the basis of a larger quilt.

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