paulswalia

Add up the lengths of all four sides, including what the two sides will be once the first set of borders is put on. This is the total linear inches you need for borders. Divide that number by 40 or 42, depending on the width of fabric you are using. That tells you the number of cuts of fabric across the width of fabric that you will need. Multiply this by the cut width of your border and you get the yardage that is needed. For instance, a 50 x 72 quilt gets two 50 inch borders and two 82.5 inch borders (assuming a 5 inch border). That means you need 100 plus 165 inches in length. If your fabric will be 40 inches WOF, then 165 divided by 40 is 4.125 cuts across the WOF. Since .125 of a cut won't make a border, you will need to make 5 cuts. Since the border was determined earlier to be finished at 5, it will be cut at 5.5 and 5 cuts of 5.5 each means you need 27.5 inches of fabric. That's the math! and you need to do it each time you put on a border OR the binding.

burchquilts

Thank you so very much for your help with this! You just don't know how much it's helped me! This board is just awesome! Y'all rock!!!!

paulswalia

well, ya, I would have been awesome if I had done the math right - I forgot to add 100 to 165 for a total of 265 to be divided by 40 for 6+ cuts so you need 7 cuts at 5.5 each. DUH! Was so proud of myself I came back to read my post and found my error - hope you have haven't gone shopping based on my error!