Originally Posted by dream56
Thanks - I sent a pm for the templates and am looking forward to working on this. May try to do them in all one color sceme. Any ideas as to how many colors and how much material for either size for just the blocks?
That is hard to say. I usually give my fabrics to my friend Dorothy and she makes me 100s of these blocks. So I don't really know.
You can measure from the center of your template to one point and add a 1/2" for two seam allowances. This is how wide and how tall your swatch needs to be for the quarter square parts.
For the dark swatch measure across the template from corner to corner and your fabric needs to be at least this wide. I like to add a bit more so you aren't cutting it short. Then the height will be the same as the quarter squares.
You can cut a square for the dark swatch using the measurement across the template from corner corner. A 1 1/2" template is 2 1/8" from corner to corner and I like to add a bit so you aren't coming out short.
If you cut a 2 1/2" square you can cut it from corner to corner and use the triangles for your dark swatch. This will give two dark swatches. And you will see less waste.
I prefer to make my swatches larger than needed and reuse them to make more blocks.
So the yardage will depend on what quilt block you are making and it will depend on how many colors you choose to use. It will be differant for differant people depending on the choices you make.
So for a 1 1/2" Boston Block you would need for one block
light swatch - 1 1/8" (center to corner) + 1/2" = 1 5/8" or round it off at 1 1/2" to be simpler math. This is the height and the width.
The medium swatch will be the same 1 1/2" x 1 1/2"
The dark swatch will be 2 1/2" x 1 1/2" if you are using rectangles like I did or 2 1/2" square if you want to use the square method.
I show in the HST tutorial how I pull apart the leftover pieces and sew them back together again to make more blocks. This saves time sorting out more colors and fabric and saves you time matching up swatches. they are already sorted and matched. This is why I like to use larger swatches when I cut so I have more to work with to recycle. I only cut swatches once but can make 2 or 3 blocks with the leftovers without having to go digging for more fabric.
Now you can figure out how many blocks you are making and how many will fit in a fat quarter or half yard etc.