Help!!
 

Hey everybody I am a new quilter and for my first quilt, I am working from a pattern. Following that pattern, I got my fabrics cut to the measurement listed and now that I'm getting ready to start cutting, my pieces do not seem to be big enough. For example: one of the fabrics specified to get 2/3 yd and to cut a 6 1/2 " x 50 1/2" from that piece. But the piece only measures 43". Where did I go wrong?

That is quite long piece, maybe it would be a border piece and in that case it would also be pieced. Usually the border pieces are cut last. Sorry if I am not clear as I can not imagine what that piece would be used for with out any more information. :)

Judy in Phx, AZ

The piece spans the width of the quilt which is supposed to be 50". The quilt is six horizontal rectangles going down the length with some embellishment on the bottom. As I look through my fabric, none of the fabrics spans 50".

I don't know of any quilting fabric that comes in 50" widths. Is there a link that you can post to show us the quilt pattern?

I can see why you are confused.

You may have missed the folowing cutting instruction: Notice that several of the strips have a * by them.
At the bottom of the cutting instructions, this is what it says:

*Sew strips via short ends, then subcut as indicated.
WOF = width of fabric

You will need to sew those strips together, and then cut them to the indicated length.

MOST ordinary quilting type fabrics come 40-45 inches wide. The majority of the ones I have are around 42 inches

It appears to me that ALL the background strips/bands are pieced.

you would cut 2 strips 6 1/2 x WOF ( width of the fabric, you said yours is 43 ) then sew those two strips together on the short 6 1/2 inch sides to make one REALLY long strip. Then you would use that seam as your center line, and measure out 25 and 1/4 inch on each side of the seam to cut which would give you a final strip of 50 1/2. You may want to leave them a little longer ( I would measure out 26 inches on each side ) so you have room to trim up later though.

Okay. Thank you for the help!! I was getting really frustrated and confused.

So just to clarify so I do not mess this up (it's a gift for my parents) for those wide strips I: cut 3 strips 6 1/2 inches x the width of the fabric. Sew the three strips together and then cut it at 50 1/2" (the pieced strip should be 3x's WOF (roughly 120"-135").

Again...thank you for the quick responses!

~Jessi

Why couldn't you just sew 2 strips tog for size? That's already '80' in & just use the rest of that strip & the 3rd one for the pieced blocks. Any left after that could be used on the back or to build stash.