Calculating yardage for Grandmother Flower Garden Quilt
 

Hey guys,

How do you calculate yardage for the path fabric on a grandmother flower garden quilt? I want to make one of these but I have no idea what I'd need for yardage for the path. I've already been piecing the flower blocks with scraps I have. But the path needs to be all the same. I've searched and searched for patterns and instructions but all I find are the people describing making the flowers and the templates used. I don't see anything that discusses amounts needed for the path.
Help?
I'm thinking I want to make a throw size, but a bed size may be possible. Not sure yet. lol

Usually you do a lot of counting! There are ways/helps to do this.

This seems to be a nice breakdown:
https://johannamaskoquilts.blogspot....uilts-aka.html

Usually you figure out how big a square you need to cut your hex and then multiply how many you need to determine your yardage. This is actually one of my favorite quilting sites, it has a variety of graphs, here's one on hexes, you fill in the size you need (they are using finished edge as the size, so for cutting you want the finished size plus seam allowance)
https://www.incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/

Currently in the process of sewing a GFG. You need to know three things:

If you are doing a center plus one round of petals, you need 12 path hexagons for the first block. Because subsequent blocks share path hexagons with the first block and each other, fewer are required. I would make 8. Your total no of hexes is (No of blocks * 8) + 4.

If you are doing two rounds of petals, you need 18 path hexagons for the first block. I would count 12 for subsequent blocks. So your total hexes are (No of blocks * 12) + 6.

How big a patch do you need to cut each hexagon? I cut mine with flat side on the top and bottom. So I measure top to bottom of a finished hex, add 1/2”. To see how many hexes you get out of a strip, measure point to point on a finished hex and add 1/2”
Now figure out how many you can cut from a strip. My patches are 3.5 x 4.5, so i get 8 from each strip.

Divide the total you need by how many you get out of each strip and round up. Multiply by strip width, 9 (for the inevitable crooked cuts) and divide that total by 36. Round up to the nearest 1/8 yard. Buy that much and hope it

https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/eek.png Yup. I'm pretty shocked right now.
I'll play with the math and keep the migraine meds closeby! LOL!

OR you could just "wing" it. I just finished a GFG and have various shades of white/cream for the path. When I ran out of one shade, I just found another one close and used that. Don't think I would have ever finished my quilt top if I had to do math. Besides, I wanted to use scraps and it came out just right. My centers were white/cream too.

I would wing it and use my lighter scrap fabrics but I'm worried about the quilt being too print overwhelming. I have no solids prepared and was considering a more colorful but lighter solid as the background. Since it's planned to be a throw size I'm thinking maybe 5 yards could be enough. Reading the links and running through the math, it seems 5 yards could work. I dunnos tho!

It is going to depend on how big your hexies are. I just put away my GFG last week because I'm getting ready to start my sister's DWR in the next week or so.

My hexies is 1.25" and I bought three yards of black for my paths around the flowers. It's already the size of a large lap quilt, which I'm considering stopping it there and I still have at least a yard of black remaining. If I stop where I'm at now, that yard will be my binding.

Hoping that helps!

1.25 is exactly the same size I'm using! I was also wanting to do a throw size around 60x60. Did you do single or double petal rows? I'll only be doing single. This is very helpful! Thank you for sharing!!

i think the best way is to mix the path colors. Start off with 3 or 5 different shades of whatever the path is and mix them. If you run out, an additional shade won't matter. I would prefer to buy more fabric than do the math.

Thank you for these links........I do quite a bit of EPP and normally just wing it by buying extra. The graph paper proved useful as I have been hunting for 2 inch paper.