I love it too. From the minute I started quilting, I have wondered why math was never explained by making quilts. I struggled so hard in trig, algebra and geometry. If I knew about quilts then, they would've been a breeze. Though my friends laugh at me when they ask a math question and I start spouting formulae off...

math is what I do when I can't sleep. I figure how many inches of a color I need for a pattern so I can pick from my stash. If a patterns says 1/4 yard, you might actually need only 6". I go to Keepsake Quilting's tent sale and you can stuff a plastic bag with random sized pieces, I wash, press then write how much is there on the selvedge for future reference. I have oodles of graph paper tablets and use them for writing notes too.
I was on the math team in high school and studied architecture and building in college...not so good in English and history.

piney

Piney, that is funny because that is what I do when I can't sleep. I lay in bed and calculate yardage needed, overall size, effect of border or sashing width changes, etc..

I do like the math part .... except when I make a mistake( and its always a really simple math one/common sense that I goof) and don't catch it before I am too far into it for a quick solution.

Math is not my area of expertise, but don't mind doing equations for my quilts. I usually keep it simple. I admire those people who can take the numbers and in 30 seconds have it all figured out.

Since a=b for HST 2(a squared) = c squared. When I figure the size of the diagonal, c=a (squareroot of 2). For my squareroot of 2 = 1.414... So I use a times 1.5 (which means it is a bit larger), then I trim it down.

I like the math--as long as I don't get it wrong. I have to learn to trust my own conclusions. Lately, I just add a 1/4-1/2 meter to the amount I think I'll need. I am tired of sweating the last few cuts because of figuring too close.

Oh and my kids both love math. We moved around a lot during their school years and they always said that numbers never changed--no matter what language was spoken.

I hated math since I never "got it" in high school...but later on, it started to make sense as I used it for quilting. I got pretty confident with the basics and ended up teaching 6th grade math for several years----loved every minute! I sooo understood how frustrated my students were, and why! Quilting math comes easily to me. To the writer that said she won't do 5th grade math for others----well, I will, and I have. Takes little of my time but when I explain how I did the calculations, I might just create another slightly-less-math-phobic-quilter!!!! :)

You can do anything if you want too my Dad always told me so thanks Dad for teaching me i use math in my quilts