Estimating Fabric Amounts
 

I said I wasn't going to do it, but I couldn't resist... I bought three Moda Fruitcake charm packs on eBay. I'm so excited! I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas quilt during the holiday season this year, so that we could pull it out and put it on our bed every Christmas from now on.

So... I decided to come up with my own quilt pattern, pictured below. It's very basic. The diamonds and corner squares represent the five-inch charm pack squares I'll get in the Moda shipment. I ordered 3 charm packs, so I'll get 126 fabric squares. I'm using 124 of them in this pattern, including the four corner squares. (It's a king-size quilt.)

What I want to know is, how do you estimate the amount of fabric that you will need for various parts of a pattern you create yourself? I came up with 3.5 yards of the dark brown in this picture, 4 yards of the lighter brown, and 1.5 yards for the green inner border. Does that seem reasonable? Do you know of a website that has a tutorial on calculating yardage needed?

Try this article for estimating fabric needs
 

Since it takes a bit over 8 yards for the solid back to a king size quilt according to the standard charts, and your total yardage adds up to quite a bit over that amount, it seems like you are on track to be close to the right amount. I saw lots of yardage calculators on line when I did a search, but you would have to do the math to get it exact!

Thank you! I'll read it later today. I appreciate the link!

The math in quilting is going to kill me! LOL

They don't teach the math in quilting classes any more. Back in the days..........that was how we started.
To be simple.....you take a section/piece/square or whatever and calculate square inches
Then multiple those square inches by the number of times unsed in the quilt
Then divide into the square inches in a yd of fabric (42"x36") That is how much you will need.
Now if you want to cut borders without piecing then you need the length.

You didn't say how big your blocks are. I made a big assumption, possibly wrong, that the center square corresponds to the 5" charm, which would mean your blocks are 7". It may be that you intend to cut down the center square... but if not, then I think you will need much more fabric. If the center square in the square is 5" finished, then the block is about 7" finished, or 7.5" unfinished.

Of the light brown you will need eight 7.5" squares in each of the 15 rows, for a total of 8*15=120 squares. With standard width fabric (I usually count on 40" usable) you can only get 5 squares in the WOF, so you will need 120/5=24 strips. 24*7.5"=180", which is 5 yards. You will need to buy more than 5 yards to account for squaring up and shrinkage if you pre-wash. With your design, you actually have more

You also have 120 diamond-in-square blocks. For each one, you need two squares cut at *about* 4.5", and you will cut them on the diagonal to make the block. (You may use another method; this is the most conservative, fabric-wise.) That means you need 240 squares, and you can get about 8 in each WOF strip. That means you need 30 strips, each at 4.5", or 135", = 3.75 yards. This doesn't include anything for the border!

Thank you! This was so helpful. I see exactly what you mean. I appreciate you sharing the process with me. I'm still very much in the learning stages. :) This is perfect.

Maybe not, I couldn't say. :) I haven't actually taken a quilting class. I've been teaching myself from books... and making heavy use of the generous experts here on this board. :) Thank you for taking the time to respond! I appreciate it!

Learning math - (basic arithmetic)

Nothing like having a practical use for a subject to make learning it worth the effort!

I don't see first and second graders relating very much to cooking or quilting, though.

dunster's explanation was excellent.

One has to go by how many squares/pieces can be cut from a width. Most fabrics are only 42 to 43 inches wide "off the bolt" - and many shrink some, so one has to go with how many pieces per width, instead of square inches total. If one figures 40 inches "usable width" for estimating fabric needs, one will come out fairly close most of the time.

I checked fabric widths for about 400 pieces of fabric - most were in the 42-43 inch range. Including selvages.