Fat Quarters

Yesterday, I cut over 250 fat quarters.  This means I dealt with over 62 meters of fabric.  And since I was cutting four FQs from each bolt, I dealt with over 62 bolts.
  Many of the jobs we do involve cutting fabric.  When a new bolt of fabric comes in, we trim the edge and cut six fat quarters.  We cut up fabric for kits, too, as well as for customers.  Sometimes we cut ribbon, and other embellishments.
  What is a fat quarter?  It's a quarter meter of fabric, but there are two ways to cut this.

The first photo above is a fat quarter.  To cut this, I cut a twenty-inch piece off a bolt and then cut it in half along the fold line.  Most fabrics on bolts are about 45" wide.  This amount in folded roughly (sometimes very roughly and so cutting FQs requires making adjustments) in half, so the width of the fabric on the bolt is about 22.5 inches wide.  While Americans use yards, or 36" of fabric, here in Canada we use meters.  At Periwinkle, we use a 40 inch meter, instead of the accurate 39 inches, because this makes the math so much easier.  Our FQs, therefor, are approximately 20" X 22".
  To cut a regular quarter meter, we cut a ten-inch strip from the bolt, and this is shown in the second photo above.  You can see its a much skinnier piece than the fat quarter, even though the area of each is the same mount.  This cut can be more useful than a fat quarter if you need strips, or pieces of certain widths.  FQs are more common, though, as they are very flexible, and many patterns are designed for them.
  So why did I cut so many?  Is this a typical day?  No, it's not.  Cutting FQs is a contant  job, because we need to keep up with them, and make sure there are always three or four on the shelves from each bolt.  We replace them as they are bought, and so we keep a constant eye on what is available.  We aren't perfect at this, though.  Sometimes we are very busy for days on end, and of course assisting customers is our highest priority.  But we do cut at least a few on most days.
  Yesterday there was a major blizzard here.  We discovered that quilters are determined people and tough Canadians. as we still saw close to 40 people in the store during the day, as the wind howled and snow piled up in drifts against the back doors.  Which reminds me, shoveling has become a regular job, too!
  It was still slower than usual for a Saturday and so Jackie and I decided to make sure there were fat quarters from all of our sale fabrics, whach are all half-price.  We discovered that many bolts had none at all available in the $2.50 FQ bin.  Jackie cleverly sorted all the FQs in that bin, to organize them, but also to learn what was there.  That way, as I brought armfuls of bolts over to the cutting table, she could tell if we needed them or if they already had their FQs.  And so there was rarely a time during the snowy day that we didn't have teetering piles of bolts on the sides of the cutting table, waiting for when we had time to cut.
  Cutting that much, you learn the value of a rotary cutter and a good sharp blade, I can tell you!