Originally Posted by
DedeWarren
She said that if I use scraps it will take more yardage, but if not I could get away with much less fabric. Doesn't really make sense as yardage is yardage.
What I suspect is going on with the yardage for scraps is that each fabric purchased will have a certain amount that is not used, and the smaller the amount of fabric used in each fabric purchased, the larger the percentage of unused (left over) fabric will be.
For example: suppose you are making a quilt with just a small set colors and need 340 4"x4" squares divided among four colors. Using the calculator that mindless posted, you need to purchase 1 yard of each of those fabrics. Now suppose you want a scrappy look for your quilt and are using many different fabrics, so that you need those same 340 squares divided among 20 colors. The same calculator says you would need to purchase 1/4 yard of each of those twenty fabrics, leading to a total yardage of 5 yards (vs. the total yardage of 4 yards when using only 4 colors). (Also note that when you are cutting a 17 4" x 4" squares from a 1/4 yard, you get 10 squares from the first 4" x WOF strip, and then cut 7 from the second strip, leaving you with a 15" x 4" strip left over, plus a 1" wide strip. These left overs are where the seemingly "extra" yardage is going.)
Playing around with the Plaid Madness quilt that QuiltE found (which may or not be the same as the quilt pattern you purchased), I calculate that a quilt measuring 68" x 90" quilt made up of only the central squares pictures (meaning no borders, either plain or pieced), it would take 10 yards of fabric, if using only
One color. It's a little hard to tell exactly how many different fabrics are used in the pictured quilt, but it looks like at least 30 to me, which would definitely drive the yardage needed up quite a bit.
How many different fabrics does your pattern call for?