First Triangle Quilt - Help with Calculations
 

Hi there!

Brand new to the form and relatively new to quilting! Just finished my first two very basic projects (a rag quilt and a basic square quilt), and looking to make a 60 degree triangle quilt for my grandmother. I was hoping to make it lap sized, but am struggling with calculating how much fabric I need / what size triangles to go with if I'm aiming for a finished product around the dimensions of 50x60". Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance :)

I haven't made a 60 degree triangle quilt yet. My suggestion is that you find a pattern and follow the directions. That's exactly what I would do, and I have a few years of experience making quilts. There are probably a few tutorials on the QB, so do a search for them.

do you have a picture of one? I'm not sure exactly what you are planning to do cause there are many quilts that use a 60 degree triangle ruler so unable to help you.

This is my estimate, as I don't know how many fabrics you will use or what size triangles you will have.
There would be 119 triangles - I think.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]579853[/ATTACH]

Welcome from western NY and happy quilting :)

As mentioned....first decide what pattern/placement for those triangles, then, then size, then fabric needed can be calculated....

Welcome from Kentucky! I would recommend drawing out your design on graph paper first. Then you can begin to decide on size and fabric needs.

Welcome from outside St. Louis, MO.

Sorry I can't help.

Thank you all for your help!! I appreciate it - I decided to draw everything out and calculate my fabric needs by hand (LOL, my math skills are a little rusty!), so hopefully we're in good shape now. Will let you know it turns out, fingers crossed!

Welcome from Northern Indiana Amish Country. Just keep practicing.

May I offer unsolicited advice?? Starch the fabric well before you cut!! Use smaller cuts, like fat quarters, if you are wanting a scrappy look. Ask me how I know about the starch part. Kathy

Yes as Kathy J says, starch is important as you will be working with bias edges which will easily stretch out of shape. Also handle the pieces carefully as you sew them, taking care not to pull on them or tug them out of shape.

With or without starch, handling the pieces like newborn babies is key to success in this quilt!

Not sure if this will help -- is your grandmother in a wheelchair, by any chance? I sew wheelchair quilts for charity; it is recommended that these quilts should be smaller than other lapquilts, so they don't get stuck in the wheels. The recommended size is around 36 x 44, or thereabouts. (I just made a wheelchair quilt that measures 40 inches square.) Otherwise, I make lapquilts larger -- the size above (54 x 62 inches) sounds right. Also, I agree with starching. I didn't realize how important it is not to stretch bias edges when I started; starching and careful handling are very important!

You probably know that you must also consider fabric requirements for binding and backing.

I had this link in my bank of goodies. It is a very pretty equilateral triangle quilt pattern/tutorial:
https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/...-tutorial.html

Thank you for the advice about starch! I just received my fabric and am about to start preparing everything. Will make sure to keep everything starched and work carefully with my cut triangles :) Will let you know how it turns out!

One thing I learned from using 60° triangles...I start by putting 2 together at a time, then joining sets of 2 together. That didn't work so well, it was hard to match everything up. It was much better joining them 1 at a time to the strip. Agree that starch will be your friend.