I wanted to do this quilt for my mother but wanted to do it in a lap size quilt. how do I change the pattern from a larger quilt to a smaller one? as in number of pieces etc. I quess this would go in the quilt math catagory.. ;)

It really depends on the size and type of pattern you have and what you want it to look like at the end...you could just enlarge with borders...show us the pattern

What pattern are you using? You could make fewer blocks or make the blocks smaller. You can also use/not use a border and that alters the size.

I was looking at the Fons and Porter Twirling Triangles.

It depends on your pattern. You can shrink the block sizes (example: from 12" to 9"), you can shrink the number of blocks (example: instead of 5 rows x 6 columns of blocks do 4 rows x 5 columns) or you can alter the borders (make the borders not as wide and/or don't use all the borders the pattern calls for). Some patterns lend themselves more readily to different ways of resizing.

Do you have a specific pattern in mind? If so, share it, and we may be able to give better suggestions.

You can also use these methods to make the quilt bigger (increase the block size, increase the number of blocks, increase the border width, and/or increase the number of borders)

I'm assuming that's the same as this one someone here was working on: http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-87743-1.htm

I would just do less hexagons across and down. Maybe alter the border treatment too, as I find smaller quilts usually look better with a slightly smaller border. I think trying to resize the hexagon/triangle pieces would be too hard.

Yes that is the quilt. thanks