toverly

That would eliminate the excess. I was going by the book which has sizes to cut each piece. Luckily I have a friend who is saving scraps for dog beds so I was able to use the clippings for something.

mirabelle

qltgrose I had 5 yards of the background fabric and my blocks are 10 1/2 inches. I am not a fabric hacker and cut strips 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 inches for my background triangles and then smaller strips if needed. I have had no waste and was really surprised at how much it used. I would go with Anael's suggestion of 7 to 8 yards.

Hope this has helped you.

janRN

Just a quick and sincere thank you to those who sent me ideas, patterns, and suggestions for a Mariner's Compass block for the center of my quilt when I asked for help a while back. One of the patterns sent was instructions on how to draft your own compass which is what I did. I drafted a 12 x 24 compass block for the center and will just use my blocks around them with sashing. I think I'll make a practice block just to see if my drafting works. Now I'm excited to start QAYG and putting this quilt together. Thank you all again!

qltgrose

Thanks everyone! I am surprised as well at the amounts you mentioned. Karen, I love your idea of using 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 inch strips. Also like the idea someone mentioned about printing a 2nd sheet and using those as templates to cut from. I think I will buy 4 yards of the batik I am considering and then plan on accumulating other pale ones to make up the rest needed. I like the way the slight variation in them plays with the stars when they are mixed.

toverly

Warning, pale batiks are addictive! I have so much more than when I started. I seem to pick them up whenever I go shopping for fabric. I do love the scrappy look of the light batiks, it adds dimension to the quilt.

janRN

Here are North Dakota & Ohio. I only have one more to make--yay!![ATTACH=CONFIG]489783[/ATTACH]

carriem

Great blocks from last week and this week too (Jan).

I have more done, but not the "right" weeks to share....not sure when I will get back to sewing them again. It might not be until my retreat in October. I have couple other quilts I need to finish in September. Not much sewing time with working three days a week now and homeschooling my kids.

qltgrose

Ok, of the ladies who have done the 10 1/2 size-- or -gulp smaller...do you think it makes them any more difficult? You can see my profile butterfly block which was 12 1/2 and I about tore my hair out on the small bits in that one. On the other hand, I would like to make this with all 50 blocks so its going to be huge, even if I set them side by side, without sashing. What do you think...if you were starting over today...would you still make the smaller size or go bigger?

Barb in Louisiana

carriem, please share your finished stars with us. I think of the schedule you started as a goal for everyone to attempt to achieve. That's the reason I keep posting it each month. If you do more than that, why not post them? If you are late posting them, we still want to see them.

Thank you for starting this great thread. There has been some really pretty eye candy on here and so many great color ideas. I am planning to start these blocks in 2015.

carriem

qltgrose--I am making 10 1/2 in blocks (will finish at 10") and haven't found any of the pieces too small to work with. I did another pp'd quilt that was 8" and didn't have problems with that either.

Barb--I will get some pictures of my blocks when I get a chance to put them on the display board. I would love to have enough blocks done this year so that in early 2015 I am assembling blocks into quilts, but we shall see how that works out. We will be sure to follow you in your journey and others who decide to join in.