Welcome from Ireland.

That is odd - most of the patterns I have looked at tell the exact size of pieces I need which generally includes a 1/4" seam allowance. If the pattern DOES NOT indicate how many strips to cut, then the math is going to be a little more intensive.

I use 42" as the general fabric width for my calculations because it is the shortest fabric width I've come across. Then I divide the length of my piece into 42. Let's say my piece is 4" then I get 10 pieces out of each length. (42 divided by 4 = 10.5)

Then I figure out how may pieces I need total (pieces in each block multiplied by the blocks in the top) and figure out how many strips I will need. Let's say I need 4 pieces in each block and have 30 blocks so I need 120 pieces. Each strip gives me 10 pieces so I need to cut 12 strips.

If each piece is 2.5" wide, I know I need to cut 12 strips @ 2.5" and I need to have a minimum of 30" of fabric for that color and piece.

You would need to repeat that process for each piece in the block.

IMPORTANT: I always assume that I will mis-cut something or get off on an angle, so I always buy more fabric than the minimum. Generally, I need to restraighten my cut line at least once.

IMPORTANT: Depending on the complexity of the block, I make a trial block to test the pattern BEFORE cutting all of the fabric and finding out there is a problem with the pattern.

Just so you know, I usually have to go back to cutting because something was mis-cut, mis-aligned, sewn wrong. To me that is just part of the process. Patchwork is not always a linear process. Sometimes it is darn right wonky, lol

Hope this helped.

Harriet Hargrave's Quilter's Academy Freshman year does a thorough job walking you through the steps of how to calculate fabric needed/strips needed.

Cheers, K

I think I could use this also. I tend to do stuff the hard way.

It is an excellent book. I'm blogging my way through it. Harriet is very gracious and will gladly answer questions as they arise. I've got Sophomore year waiting for me and volume 3, Junior year, will be released this spring.

Cheers, K

Welcome! I know this is crazy, but I can't seem to focus on one activity right through to the end. So, I cut fabric till I get tired of it, sew a while, maybe sew blocks together in rows, cut more, look at everything on the design wall, cut, sew, etc. I know, huh, it's a wonder that I get anything finished, but I do. Although I now have a studio, there was a time when I had to go to a closet for sewing, dining table for cutting, kitchen counter for stash (kept in baskets but hauled out when needed) living room floor for design wall, and so on. Eventually my husband had enough (honestly he got scared he'd get lost in the quilt stuff) and enclosed the carport to make a studio. The lesson: spread out, have fun, surround yourself with your quilting.....you may get a studio! But if not, you'll be happy anyway.

Well dang! Just when I thought I had enough books, a new "must have" appears :-) Thanks for this reference.

And no matter how long any of us have been quilting, there's always more to learn. In that sense, we're all "newbies" at something!

Very, very true!!!

OK...so lets say you need 10 blocks. In each of these 10 blocks there will be 2 sets of strips.

I don't know about you, but I cut my strips WOF, and generally, you have 40" to play with. You'd need 20 sets of strips to have two in each block...you follow?

Now, how long are the strips sets in an individual block? Let's say they're 6", you can get approx 6 set of 6" strips from the 40" WOF (6x6=36). You need 20, so you'd need four sets of long strips to get that - 6x4=24 (which will actually give you 24 small strip sets).

Sooo, let me try to generalize...

strips in ONE block x number of total blocks = how many strips you need

WOF / length of small strip = # of small strips from wof

total # of small strips / # of small strips from wof = # of wof strips you need

width of strip x # of wof strips = yardage required

clear as mud?