I need star help
 

I'm in the process of planning a quilt for my daughter, a 6 point rainbow star quilt. I've looked all over the web for a pattern, but not finding anything. My problem? I am planning on cutting it all out using the 4.5 inch (4.25 finished) equilateral triangle cutting die from AccuQuilt. I also would like to make it queen sized, if possible. Each star will have the 6 colors of the rainbow.

The problems I'm running into is:
1) how many triangles will I need total
2) how many across and down for the graph paper to plan it on, and
3) how do I figure out how many yards of fabric will I need for the 7 colors (6 for the star and one for the background).

From what I can figure out so far on the graph paper I have, I'm going to end up with 4 stars for one row, and 3 stars for the next row. If it would help, here is a scan:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]566743[/ATTACH]
I colored in one of the stars, to show what the plan is. The two at the bottom were other concepts I was working with, but my daughter didn't care for them. So how do I proceed?

Hi, and welcome to the board! I love triangle quilts, and your design is beautiful. I just need a bit more info to finish the calculations:

Do you plan on putting borders on the quilt, or do you want triangles/stars all the way to the edges?
Can I use your estimate of 49 triangles per yard in my calculations?

Howdy from Texas & welcome to the boards. I can't help you with the stars but this board is full of highly knowledgeable quilters who will be along to help you out.

You can use the estimate, since I got it from the AccuQuilt site. Right now, I think I will carry the triangles all the way to the edge.

Ok, I would do 7 stars across, and 8 rows. This will make your quilt 88" wide x 91.5" long (approx). It will give you about 1 star hanging down on each side and at the foot (no pillow tuck). This will require 52 stars in all, arranged 7/6/7/6/7/6/7/6/7/6.

You will need 104 triangles of each of the 6 colours in the star. At 49 triangles, per yard, 2 1/4 yards should be enough, but I would do 2 1/2 yards each to be on the safe side.

You will need about 310 whole background triangles, and 50 half-triangles to square up the edges. I would cut them whole and then trim off when it's all assembled, but that assembly method is really up to you. This will be about 7.5 yards of background. Again, I would buy 8 yards (or even 9), just to be safe.

Have fun, and post pictures when you're done! :)

Jennifer23, Can I worship the ground you walk on???? I've been going nuts trying to figure this out, how did you do it???

Thank you so much!!!!!!

Ok, couldn't help myself... I had to do a mock-up of the whole thing. Of course, after I finished I realized you had used pink instead of orange, but it gives the idea. The grey line is the top of the bed, so the outside will be hanging down. I love it!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]566754[/ATTACH]

Math is my thing :) People I work with are sometimes surprised that I quilt, but not when I describe it as a nice geometry-based hobby.

My daughter is my Rainbow Baby. Love her to death, and all the other quilts I've looked at hasn't peaked her interest until I did a star mug rug. She fell in love with the design, so I thought, why not make her a quilt in that design. Now I can't wait to get the fabric to start on this.

And I tried to use orange, but guess my scanner decided it was pink.

And before I forget, I showed my daughter your mock-up and she went nuts over it.