Originally Posted by Favorite Fabrics

Forum readers, I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Windham Fabrics has some wonderful designs, and they also offer pre-cuts for at least some of their collections. Their price for their FQ bundles seems okay to me, but their Fat Rolls (5" x 44" strips of fabrics, rolled up) seems way too high.

So before I order any of these types of pre-cuts for my shop, I would like to know how it seems to you.

Here are pictures and prices from Fat Quarter Shop, a reliable website that has pretty much standard-retail prices for the newer collections.

The Seville FQ bundle has 32 fabrics and is priced at $84.99, so that's 8 yards, which works out to a price of $10.63 per yard.

The Fat Roll, is priced at $69.99, and with 32 fabrics works out to 4.44 yards, for a price of $15.76 / yard.

Now it's fun to have a little bit of every fabric in a collection, which is what makes the pre-cuts a nice idea. But the fat roll contains just a tad more than half the yardage as in the FQ bundle, and it's not very much less in price.

As I look at it, the Fat Rolls are just NOT a good value. Since Windham doesn't do jelly rolls, I suppose if you need the full width of the fabric and want a little bit of everything you'd have to go with the fat rolls but... seems to me it's definitely overpriced.

What say you, wise and financially-savvy quilters?

Originally Posted by dixiechunk

Yes, sometimes pre-cuts cost more if you calculate their cost at "per yard" figures. However, if I don't have a specific quilt in mind and therefore specific yardage, I am more apt to overbuy cut fabric. For example, I might but 1/2yd or yd pieces of many fabrics then only use part of the fabric in an actual quilt. My stash benefits, but the actual cost of my quilt has doubled because I didn't use all the fabric I bought. It's kind of like buying a whole chicken and throwing half of it away because nobody wants anything but the breast and thigh. It would be cheaper to just buy the breast and thigh parts.
That having been said, I admit to a fondness for pre-cuts and I buy them to get a "core" selection of fabric for my quilt. If I need more then I can fill out with other, coordinating fabrics or go on the hunt for fabrics in the original pre-cut. For me, the hunt is as much, if not more, fun than the making of the quilt.
Also, I don't do huge bed-sized quilts so a pre-cut and a little extra for borders or setting triangles makes me happy.