Ranchwife

I am going to town on Saturday, which is 120 miles away, and am going to get fabric for my next quilt. I'm making a double sized quilt that measures approximately 96x110 inches. I am making a log cabin pattern with blocks that will measure 9.5 inches square (includes seam allowance). The quilt should be 11 blocks wide and 13 blocks long. Each block will have 17 different colors of fabrics and each strip is 1.5 inches wide. I found an online fabric calculator which told me that I will need 9.5 yards of 45 inch wide fabric. If I divide that by 17, I end up needing 2/3 yard of each fabric. However, I know that is an average amount and assumes that I'll be using equal quantities of each fabric color. The center square is only 1.5 x 1.5 inches and I'll need 143 squares. The longest strip will be 1.5 x 9.5 inches and again, I'll need 143 strips. I don't want to do the calculus to figure out how much fabric of each color I will need, so I'm hoping someone here can please help me. With fabric being $12.99/yard, and being 120 miles from the quilt store, I can't afford to buy way more than I need, or too little. Thanks. The image below is what the finished square will be like (different colors though).
[ATTACH=CONFIG]399776[/ATTACH]

JenniePenny

You will need 1/4 yard of your red and 1/4 yard of #1. each quarter yard yields 168 squares, so just a bit more than you need.

You will need 2 yards of fabric #16 and that allows for a little extra.

sewwhat85

maybe this will help http://www.generations-quilt-pattern...hed-block.html

Ranchwife

So, if I multiply 1.5 times the length of each strip that will give me the area of each strip. If I multiply that number by 143 squares, that gives me the total area needed for each color. So, for example, for strip 3, I mulitplied 1.5 x 2.5 x 143 = 536.25 sq in. If 3/8 of a yard of fabric (13.5 x 43 inches wide) has 580.5 sq in, I should need 3/8 yd for strip 3. Is my math correct on this? If this is true, I'll end up buying 13.33 yards of fabric. If so, then I think I've figured this out. Hopefully my 8 years of teaching middle school math is correct.

Ranchwife

Thank you but she didn't give fabric amounts either. The pattern I'm using is identical to this and didn't have the fabric amounts. Guess I do the math.

I'm just glad I'm using rectangles and not triangles. I really don't want to deal with area of triangles, and seam allowances, and hypotenuses, and the Pythagorean theorem. Ugh. I'll stick to rectangles!

sewwhat85

well at least red and 1 are the same and 2&3 the same and 4&5 the same so on and so on that means you only have to figure half as many measurements

sewwhat85

ok here goes what i figured
strips inches needed
red and #1 1 1/2 inch strips 6 = 9

#2&#3 9=13.5
#4&#5 12=18
#6&#7 16=24
#8&#9 19=28.5
10&11 23=34.5
12&13 26=39
14&15 29=43.5
#16 33=49.5
this does not allow for any extra i would buy at a min. at least 1.5 to 3 inches extra on each

this does not come out the same way i posted it but it give the number of strips needed and how many inches to buy

Charming

I am confused here is the block size going to be 9 finished? because that makes the quilt 99x117

petthefabric

NE California, 120 mi to town! You're no where near Bay Area, or any other town. There's not many towns up there, Susanville, Shasta, Redding, Red Bluff. That far, does take a lot of planning. I thought our trip was difficult. I hope you love where you live. Is it in the Sierra Nevadas or the upper desert?

Kat Sews

I found a quilting calculator that seems to be accurate. I don't know how to make this into a link. http://vrya.net/quilt/index.php