Originally Posted by
pjselzler
WOW! PaperPrincess! That is a lot for me to take in, but I will! What do you mean by cutting lines are not going to fall on a natural yard division and how do I make it fall on a natural yard division? So I am assuming this is not going to give me any overhang on a full size bed???? I REALLY APPRECIATE ALL THE HELP!!!!
OK, you are cutting 5" squares. So you get fabric, cut a 5" strip, then cut the strip down into 5" squares. A yard is 36", so you can cut seven 5" strips, and you will have a 1" strip left over. But that is going to give you only one shade of green. So lets say that you want 2 different green fabrics so you get 2 half yard pieces. That's 18". You will only be able to get three 5" strips from each (and have an extra 3" left over). So from the 2 half yard pieces, you will only be able to get 6 strips, not the 7 from a single contiguous yard of fabric. If you get 4 quarter yard cuts, a 9" piece, you will only get
one 5" strip from each, so from 4 quarter yard cuts, you will only get 4 strips. So the more varied you want your greens to be, the more total yardage you are going to need.
This is kind of the nature of quilting, and why there are so many posts on this board about scraps and scrap quilting. While it's theoretically possible to wind up with little or no waste, there are not a lot of patterns that would do this. Also, it's rare that fabric cut from the bolt is cut perfectly so you have to allow for a bit of waste to square it up.
An alternative would be to use precuts. Charms are 5" square. A charm pack has lots of different fabrics, you will need to read the fine print to see how many squares are in a particular pack. Here's a link to a site that has a good selection:
http://www.missouriquiltco.com/shop/browse/12
To answer your other question, about making a larger quilt so there's a 'fall' (hangs over the edge of the bed) I would add more borders. If you make your squares bigger, I think you will loose the pattern.