Watson

If I am doing an on point quilt, queen size of (approx) 90 x 108, with 8" borders and 10" (finished) blocks, am I going to need the same amount of blocks I would need if I were doing a straight setting?
How do I figure that out?
I searched the 'net but couldn't find an answer, although now I know what size to make the side triangles and corners.

Thanks,

Watson

dunster

With 10" finished blocks, the block's diagonal measurement will be about 14". Your 8" borders take up about 16" total i each direction, so you want your inside quilt measurement to be about 90-16 x 108-16, or 74"x92". To get the number of blocks needed tip-to-tip in the vertical direction, divide 92 by 14, which gives 6.5. You can either round up or down, so suppose you decide to round down to 6. In the horizontal direction you need 74/14 blocks tip-to-tip, or about 5 blocks. So far you need 6 rows of 5 blocks all tip-to-tip, but you also need to fill in the spaces around them. This will be an array of one fewer rows by one fewer blocks, or 5 rows of 4 blocks. So you need 6x5 + 5x4 = 50 blocks, plus setting triangles.

If you were to make the quilt with a straight setting you would need the same interior size, but the math is simpler. In the vertical direction to make 92" you can use 9 blocks (90") and in the horizontal direction to make 74" you can use 7 blocks (70"). This means 9x7=63 blocks, but you don't need any setting triangles.

SuziSew

A helpful site (although it takes a little practice) is MyWebQuilter.com for those of us who aren't as good as Dunster! Maybe you can get some useful information from it.

http://mywebquilter.com/quilt.aspx

dunster

That is a neat site!

bearisgray

An illustration for what Dunster said about the on-point blocks:

bearisgray

There is no rule/law that says that the side and top/bottom borders have to be the same width. If you have to have an "exact" finished size - the borders are the place to make adjustments to "make it fit."

Munster would have made it look nicer with EQ - but graph paper, pencil, eraser, and a calculator work well for me.

Watson

Thanks, everyone! That makes it a lot more clear.

Watson

nativetexan

humphf!! something going on with my computer. can't get links to work. I will ask my son when he gets home.
doing on point i number blks differently. second row would be 2,3 and 4 and then so on to other rows. Visuals are great though!!

bearisgray

I would number them differently if i wAs tring to show how to assemble the blocks.

AliKat

Do you have a friend with EQ? They could very easily plot your quilt out. Otherwise, graph paper can be downloaded or bought to draw it out.
Personally, I prefer the easier EQ way.