Fat Quarter

 Most quilters know what a fat quarter is, but it can be somewhat confusing for a first-time quilter. Here are the basics. Quilting fabric tends to be around 42-45" wide and is normally sold by the yard. Quilts often don't take a full yard of some fabrics, so quilters will ask for part of a yard. When asking for a quarter of a yard, the quilter will end up with a piece of fabric that looks like the darker section on this yard of fabric:

So, the quilter ends up with a piece that is about 45" long and 9" wide. This may work for some patterns, but not all, so the fat quarter was invented. This cut of fabric is almost never done off of the bolt. Instead, the store will cut a half yard of fabric and then cut it in half again the other way like this:

The fat quarter ends up being 18" wide and about 22" long. Then the quilter has the same amount of fabric in square inches, but the shape is much more likely to work for more designs.

There are lots of quilting books dedicated to quilting with fat quarters. I've not worked with them much beyond making purses, but I did do this fat quarter quilt with both fat quarters and scraps.

Other F words I considered included fabric, felting, fusible fabric, fleece, and feed dogs. Check back again on Monday for more A-Z challenge posts!