oksewglad

she cackles uproariously...For the blues I went through scraps and cut my 4 1/2" HST. The white I had been given a bunch of 9 1/2" squares. I knew I'd have enough so just cut from there.

I use the Easy Angle ruler to cut my HST's. If you want to figure yardage you need to count the number of triangles you can get from a width of fabric. In my case of 4 1/2" that would be about 16. Then count the number of HST's you will need; for me 140 for a 10 x 14 block setting. Divide the 140 into 16 to get the number of 4 1/2" strips you will need; 8.75 I rounded up to 9. Next multiply 9 x 4.5 to get # of inches needed--40.5 or 1 1/8 yards of fabric. There are charts out there that will tell you how many squares you can get in a FQ or a yard of fabric, but I always loose them and spend less time with a calculator than looking for a chart.

A gal came into the shop with this the other day and figured her backing needs...we compared it to hand calculations and it was spot on. I put it on my Kindle, but my GSon dropped it and shattered the screen so haven't used it for a year. I'm going to check with my other GSon to see if he can download it to my laptop.

http://www.robertkaufman.com/quilting-calculators/

kristakz

I love that Kaufman app! I use it all the time on my phone, especially for square-in-a-square and setting triangles. Mostly I just do the math myself (I'm an engineer - math is fun!), but sometimes I feel lazy, or want to double check.

oksewglad

I like to do math, too. I made an Excel ss to calculate the diagonal of squares. I do refer to it often.

JJBlaine

I decided my Irish Chain quilt needed a border. I don't have a lot of fabrics that are long enough for a border in my stash, so I was very tempted to go fabric shopping today. I really started to look forward to the thrill and excitement involved in browsing and auditioning fabrics.

Fortunately, I browsed thru my stash one more time. There was one fabric that would work, but I was saving it for a future quilt. I asked myself, am I really never going to be able to find another perfect dark green accent for some quilt I may or may not make someday?

I felt a little silly. I was able to resist the urge, and I'm off to do do some sewing instead of shopping!

Kristyn

Does this require monetary transactions? Because I did just pick up someone's destashing efforts and ended up adding to my own, but no money exchanged hands!

letawellman

I just had to get out of the house Saturday, so drove to one of the area LQS's that I haven't been to in awhile. Enroute was a fairly large-ish GoodWill, so stopped there first. No fabric to scavenge, but there were a couple of sewing machines. But neither of them were really old enough to be interesting. Instead I bought 3 hard back books for $1.50 each.
Then on to the LQS! I did not buy a single thing, but I did drool most copiously over a multi-needle embroidery machine that had been traded in the day before. I wanted that really badly, and it was a steal of a deal... but... just cannot figure out how to justify spending $4500 on a "toy", even though I could conceivably start an embroidery business with it.

So, no fabric, no patterns, no thread and definitely no machine purchases. Yay me!! Just $4.50 + tax for three books.

However, next weekend is the sale at Foust... maybe I won't even go at all. After all, I don't need any fabric!!

Teen

I don't think this moratorium is intended to deprive us of our joy in our craft but to encourage us to not be wasteful and shop our stash first. Go to Foust's sale...maybe look at your stash first to shop for complimentary fabric. I may be out of line (and the rules) but if you find a fabric in your stash and match it up with something fresh and new, maybe you'd power through your stash more efficiently. That's what I am attempting to do once I complete the three quilts I have everything needed. Just thought I'd share my thoughts....

Blue Bell

Teen, Well said.

Krisb

Krista, those are all very nice. But the purple/olive—just love it! And I despise olive green.
This is my second January finish. It started as ORL, but then it changed.
P
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Teen

Beautiful, Krisb! That project was a labor of love. I followed along as you all made yours. I like the Browns and teal in yours. Good job and, I bet, a relief this baby is done.