I am new to quilting and I thought I would like to try to make this pattern.

http://www.quilterscache.com/A/AtticWindowBlock.html

I am terrible at calculating yardage for the quilt top, binding, and backing. If you could help me with these, that would be great. I've tried many calculators, and I am just too incompetent to get them to work.

Thanks much,
Heather

First step, figure out how big you want the finished quilt to be.

Hey Heather,

You have come to the right place!

First question, how many squares wide and long is this quilt going to be? That will impact the yardage.

To get total yardage (roughly)

For the black fabric (in the picture - Color 2), take total blocks and divide by 5. Round up. Multiply by 7". That gives you how long to ask for.

The way I came up with that, each block starts as 6 7/8". For ease, I rounded up to 7. I then said on average fabric is 40" wide, so the most blocks I could get from 1 7" strip is 5 (=35"). You can possibly get 6, but I wouldn't assume that. So then if you had 10 blocks total in the quilt (waaay too small), you could get those 10 from 7" x 2 = 14" cut of fabric.

Does that make sense?

Color 1 - red - needs 1 3.5" square. 40" total in the fabric = 11 blocks per fabric. Total blocks / 11. Round up. Multiply by 3.5". Get that many inches cut

Color 3 - 4" x 11" strip. Hmmm... total blocks / 10 - round up. Multiply by 11" (I'm cutting it so it's an 11" piece cross cut into 4" strips. Would work the other way).

Color 4 - 3-7/8" square - total blocks / 10. Round up. Multiply by 4".

Phew! For all of those, I would then add 1/4-1/2 yard for extra/mistakes/etc.

If you reply with final quilt size, I can help with borders and back too.

I just wanted it to be big enough to be a throw-type quilt, just to have in the living room. I measured a throw I use right now and it is 66" x 62".

You're working in 9" increments (since the block is 9" :D ) so you can do 63" x 63" = 7 blocks x 7 blocks

For the border, first decide how big of a border you want. I would do 5", but I like big borders. So I'm going to do this with 5.5" (unfinished) and then just change the 5.5" if you do something else.

Assuming it's 63.5x63.5 for the quilt, you want a border on all 4 sides, right? :) So imagine (draw a picture if it will help), that you add 2 borders, on the left and right side of the quilt. They would need to be 63.5" each to cover the whole side, right? So you need 2 pieces of fabric 5.5" x 63.5".

So now for the top and bottom, you need 63" (that's now just 63 because the seam allowance is sewn) PLUS 5.5" on the left and 5.5" on the right = 74". So you need 2 pieces that are 5.5" x 74" (you'll probably have .25 or .5 extra, but that's minor).

So if you line those up, end to end, you have a reeeealy big piece that is 5.5" x (74x2 + 63.5x2) = 5.5" x 275". Divide by 40" in each piece of fabric, you get 7 (rounded) 5.5" strips of fabric. So you want to get 38.5". Round up.

Backing (very rough since I have to get going :shock: ). Quilt is now 74x74 (more or less). Get 4.5 yards.

If still confused or more questions, feel free to ask, but I gots ta run

So, let's see if I've got this.

Color 1: 49/11=5, then 5 x 3.5= 17.5"
Color 2: 49/10=5, then 5 x 11= 55"
Color 3: 49/10=5, then 5 x 4=20"

Now, I read somewhere that you can divide the final inches by 36" and that would be the yardage? Is that right?

And, what about backing and binding?

Oops, I forgot to do color 2, and did colors 3 and 4 as colors 2 and 3. Bah, I am so bad at this.

Color / Needed / Can get from 40" wide fabric / yardage for 49 blocks

1 (red) / 3.5"square / 11 / 17.5" (1/2 yard)

2 (blk) / 6.875" square / 6 / 54" (1 3/4 yd)

3 (gld) / 4"x11" / 3 across (4" strip) / 68" (2 yd)
/ or 10 lengthwise (11" strip) / 55" (1 5/8 yd)

4 (crm) / 3 7/8" square / 10 / 20" (5/8 yd)

These are minimum measurements, as indicated before. Add in a quarter yard for the oops factor( :oops: I usually make a mistake or two), and more if you might want one of these colors for the border.

Yes, when you get the total number of inches needed, divide by 36 to get the yardage.

I wish you the best in your endeavor!