Question on materials needed
 

I am starting a new quilt from a book I purchased.

The quilt they did is half the size that I want to make it, which is queen sized.

If I double the materials list, it comes out to 11 3/4 yards of fabric for the top.

Does this seem excessive? Or normal?

It's a PP pattern called Wheel of fortune, done in two colours and a white background.

Thanks,

Watson

Are you putting a border on? For 12.5" blocks using this calculator (http://search.quiltshops.com/calculator/calculator.htm) I get 9.5yds. More if including a border.

for paper piecing, normal. It's a big reason I don't cut my PP pieces based on the pattern, I've found they often have over 30% waste. I had a lot of fabric left over from my CMIYC quilt, the directions had you cutting rectangles for all the shapes, when they are all triangles. I cut mine as triangles to start with.

When I did the Fire Island Hosta, I cut WOF and did not precut individual pieces. I was using from stash and knew I would quickly run out of fabric if I followed the pattern cutting layout.

Thanks for your replies. I have to drive about 2 hours over the border to get fabric, so don't want to run short, but didn't want to buy a huge amount if it wasn't needed, either.

I will be doing it in the "Quick Strip Paper Piecing" method and I don't know how much waste there is compared to regular PP.

Watson

If I drove a good distance and was concerned about getting all the fabric I needed for a project, I would buy the larger amount and if extra was left over make pillows or pillow shams or somehow use the extra on the quilt back.

My "rule of thumb" is about 10 yards for a queen-sized quilt, so 11 3/4 seems reasonable for a paper pieces pattern.

I looked up the "quick strip paper piecing" method, and it seems to have quite a bit of waste. Like Macybaby described, all pieces are cut as strips even if the final shape is a triangle. The paper pieces are also all sewn to a single fabric strip, rather than having individual pieces cut, so there is waste between the pieces. I found a sample of the book online; the waste between blocks is apparent in the illustrations.

It looks like an interesting technique; I'm going to have to see if I can get the book from the library. I can accept a bit of fabric waste if it saves time and headaches, and produces a good result!

There is a Craftsy class that is very good.


Watson

I'm doing a different pp'd pattern. Bought what I thought would be an accurate amount of fabric plus a bit extra. I think I will probably have to buy more. I traveled about the same distance (to Lancaster, PA) for my fabric.

My thought process - if I need more, I can always order from the same shop I originally purchased - or elsewhere now that I have the name/number of the fabric.

I agree there is quite a bit of waste with pp'ing anything. But you can't beat the accuracy! I bought about 3/4 the fabric amount as EQ calculated I needed for my king size quilt. The young lady helping me in the quilt shop used a quilter's reference guide and looked at the backing fabric requirement to help me in deciding quantity for the top. It would never have occurred to me to do that!

I would buy the extra.
If you run out you might not get the same again.
and you can always put it into your stash.