pippa

I use both. I grew up with imperial but living in Italy we use metric. Which I use when quilting depends on the pattern. I just turn mat over and change rulers and foot on the machine. In my experience its never worth while trying to convert measurements as one ends up with silly little fractions!
Pippa

Jennifer23

I'm Canadian, and born after metric was introduced. I love metric (no conversion factors to memorize!), but I sew in whatever system the pattern is written in. I can visualize both imperial and metric units without too much difficulty.

Fun fact: I grew up in the Northwest Territories, and grocery stores there price everything by the kilogram. I was shocked when I moved south for university and discovered that grocery stores in the rest of the country post prices by the pound (except, of course, in the deli section, where prices are per 100 grams. Sigh.)

It's even more crazy when you realize that grocery stores buy food by the kilogram. Then they calculate their markup. Then the convert the price to $ per pound. Then they round it to numbers they like per pound ($2.49 instead of $2.51, etc). Then they convert that price back to $ per kilogram, which is the "official" price that gets input into the till. That's sooo much work just to post prices in unofficial units! If they all just switched, we would adapt.

Of couse, we all have preferences, some of which don't make sense. For example, I think of stitch length and width in millimetres, since that's how modern machines display them. However, I still wish the base plate was marked in eighths of an inch - I don't like thinking of seam allowances iin millimetres!

I've learned to accept these inconsistencies. The heart wants what the heart wants, right?

patricej

we could if we wanted to, or if we had to.
luckily, we don't have to because we don't want to.

here's something i find odd, though.
this question led me to another: where did quilting originate?
lots of sources, with two in particular that i looked at:

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/an-in...13th%20century.

https://www.ablockaway.com/long-hist...g-explored.htm

so ... why is it that most patterns and rulers are still based on feet, inches, and fractions thereof?
i can't speak for others, but i might be inclined to "go metric" for quilting if the tools were available.

Onebyone

I think commercialism of quilting started in the US so that is why quilting uses inches and yards. I can visualize the metric system somewhat, like a liter, that's congers up a large bottle of soda. We have a guild member that grew up in England and her measurements will be 1/5 or 1/7 of a yard. We never know what she means, just get a yard of fabric and go from there.

mojo11

Thank you ladies. Maureen

Watson

As a Canadian who was in school when the metric system came in, I'm a hybrid.

I use Imperial for a lot of things like quilting, baking, cooking temperatures, but for outdoor temperatures and driving I go metric. There's really no rhyme or reason to it.

I know all the conversions, so I can switch it over if I'm speaking to someone who is thinking in the other system.

Watson

CanoePam

I learned the standard US measurements in grade school, but by junior high my science classes were all in metric. I stayed in science throughout high school and college and my first jobs, so I felt more comfortable with centimeters than inches and Celsius than Fahrenheit. It took 10 years before I could identify an inch as something other than 2.5 cm (approximately) LOL! Now I am more comfortable with US measurements than metric, primarily to my sewing hobby and moving farther away from science. ... Dividing by 10 is so much easier than 12 or 5,280.

Railroadersbrat

I actually grew up on Imperial, tried metric out in junior high and high school, dropped it when I entered the workforce because no one wanted to use metric. So I use Imperial on everything except when it comes to baking, then I convert everything over to metric because I found out just last year how much better your baking is when you actually weigh your ingredients.

Onebyone

I found out just last year how much better your baking is when you actually weigh your ingredients.

I use to always weight my dry ingredients when baking. Now in many of the recipes the dry ingredients are weighed and then measured in cups or spoons for the right amount. That's why there may be 1 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons for a measurement.

bearisgray

According to these articles, there are differences between the Unites States Customary Units and Imperial Units:

https://www.convert-me.com/en/Imperi..._Measures.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...rement_systems