How do you....
 

I am new to this message board. I always end up buying too much fabric. How do you all try to buy the right amount. Is there a good calculator to use?

Not sure what you really mean by the right amount. But if you are following a pattern, they usually have yardage amounts. If I don't have a specific pattern, yardage amounts will also depend on the size of the quilt I'm making. Anyway, any "extra" fabric goes into my stash for future quilts.

ETA: there is an app called Quilt Calc that also might be of some help. I have it on my phone and kindle fire. You could calculate, backing & binding yardage as well as border yardage.

If I am using a pattern I usually buy the specified yardage or a little over to allow for shrinkage or errors. If I am making up my design, I go through the math to determine the amount of fabric needed for a block--then multiply that out based upon the size of the quilt I am going to make. It might help to make a sample block first to get the amount of fabric needed, then multiply that by the number of blocks. Then calculate the amount for borders (if any). I cut binding strips 2 1/4" wide and based upon the finished size you can calculate the amount of yardage based upon the number of strips needed. Lastly the backing. I don't usually buy backing until I am done with the quilt top and see what scraps and extra blocks I have left and piece those together first, then buy enough backing fabric to get the right size.
I guess there is no easy way without lots of figuring if you don't have a pattern to give you yardage. Most of us must over buy or we wouldn't have so much stash!!

Oh I forgot to mention that Robert Kaufman had a free quilt calculator app that you can download on your phone that you might find helpful in estimating yardages.

Too much fabric. Is there such a thing as too much fabric? LOL

If you are designing your own, not following a pattern draw your quilt out on graph paper, then you can identify each fabric & figure out your yardage, it is always better to have a bit extra than to not have enough. With extra if you make a mistake, or figured wrong you will probably be OK, if not enough you may not be able to find the fabric again by the time you find out.

Welcome from western NY and happy quilting :)

If I am using a pattern, I buy what is specified. I don't worry about leftovers. They just go into my stash for use on a later project. If I just like the material, I buy at least two yards.

I love this app!