anonymous

I think a lot of fabric too. The program must be skewing the yardage. Backing fabric for a large queen is only 8.5 yds. I know pp can require more fabric so that could be part of it.

anonymous

Do you by chance happen to have the book "Modern Quilt Revival"? The pattern is in the book. Neat version of the same quilt. http://freshlypieced.com/2013/12/mee...ilts-spin.html

Watson

Just bought the book, SummitBay! Even got it for a decent price on Amazon.CA for once.

Definitely going to work on this one. Someday.

Watson

IceLeopard

It does seem like a lot of fabric, but there are a lot of seams, too. the more seams, the more fabric, which is why the front of the quilt takes so much more than the back. I just designed a queen quilt for DH that is calling for 11 1/2 yards, and that's with a big panel in the middle.

I don't seem to have that particular block in my pattern library, but making one that's very similar I'm only coming up with 9 3/4 yards for the background.

I have heard that EQ figures yardage based on squares & rectangles. So each of those odd-shaped pieces the program draws a vertical line on each side, and a horizontal line on top and bottom. Even those narrow strips get this treatment.

Previous versions were really screwy on figuring yardage. Say you had a 4 inch border on a quilt that measured 45 x60. Long strips were not pieced, and it thought you could only get 1 strip per length of fabric. So it would tell you that you needed 5 1/2 yards to make your border, instead of 5/8 yard that you really needed. I remember once that it told me I needed 35 yards of fabric to make a full sized quilt. Thank goodness it doesn't do *that" anymore!

NJ Quilter

I just recently went through a similar exercise. Planning a king size hunter's star pp'd quilt. It's only 2 colors. Drew it out in EQ5 and it came up with something like 15 yards/color! Granted, there is a fair amount of waste with paper piecing but that seemed quite excessive to me.

I went to Old Country Store in Lancaster, PA to purchase my fabric as my LQS had nothing that excited me and Old Country had one online that did. I'm so glad I went to see it in person as I really did not like it at that point! But I digress.

I found two fabrics that I liked and headed to the cutting table. Asked the very helpful young lady there for some guidance. She whipped out her quilter's reference guide (apologies - don't remember the exact name of the book and I even own it, lol). She looked at the backing fabric requirements for a king. Just under 10 yards total. Armed with that info, I bought 6 yds of the one and 7 of the other (it was the end of the bolt and why not).

But looking at the backing fabric requirements in that reference guide was an 'aha' moment for me. Thought that was a brilliant source as a guide for overall fabric requirements. Granted, tops need more fabric for seam allowances, etc. but I at least had a clue at that point. Now, frankly, I'll probably have to buy a bit more fabric than I did but I have selvedge info and that young lady also informed me that their online and brick & mortar quantities vary.

And I must say, that same young lady was an absolute gem. I mentioned to her I saw the initial fabric online but I'm a 'touchy, feely' kinda gal and wanted to see it in person. She gave me access to their website in store so I could find the exact fabric and then she ran her feet off trying to find that fabric for me! It took her quite a while to find it as it was tucked away being a 'fall' fabric. But she kept going until she found it! Also ran around pulling other fabrics for me that she thought I might like. Just a sweetheart! I've always had wonderful customer service from that shop but this young lady was exceptional.

AnnT

It's going to be a gorgeous quilt!

Gerbie

Thanks to all of you generous quilters who take the time to use your expertise with your software programs to help anyone who has a question about quilting, block size, etc. Someone always comes up with an answer to ones questions. I definitely know where to go to find an answer in the future for anything that stumps me in quilting. You folks are just great. Looking forward to seeing your future quilt Watson.

Watson

This is one of those..."I've know the perfect fabric for that quilt." quilts. It's a black background with a white swirl, so I'll do the other blade a black with more white and the background white. Tempted to do the little in-between parts that Barb did in yellow, in red...I'll have to see.
Anyhow, I'll be collecting fabric for awhile for this one. Good thing I have some tops to quilt because after my recent big purchase, there's no extra money to start new ones!

Thanks again to everyone who helped out.

Watson

tuckyquilter

Barb in Louisiana did a fabulous job on the yardage. I was heading to my EQ8 when I saw her post. Saved me some time.. BUT will share how I figure backing both at home and when out and about. I keep both websites on my phone and frequently have a list of quilts that need backing too. So if there's a good sale on something that will work, on the spot I can get what I need.

http://www.lilystreetquilts.com/lilystreet/calculators

also of course the john flynn diagonal is ok for smaller quilts.

http://www.multi-patch.com/html/fabric_calc.php

Jaiade

Watson,glad to see you found the pattern for that block. EQ does seem to give generous estimates for yardage. But better more than not enough. And I do understand about the cost. That's why I don't understand putting $10/yd. and more for backings. But that's just me. Back to estimates for tops. I just made two quilts from M* following Jenny's utube videos and am quite upset. She said to use all 42 10 in. squares in the layer cake to make hst's, to make one quilt. It only took 32! I now have 80 hst's that are a waste. Guess who will not be doing any more M* quilts? May not even watch any more videos.