Thursday, March 10, 2011

Warning: Think For Yourself!

Be sure you are thinking for yourself.  It is a good rule to live by in general.  Here, I am more interested in applying it to quilting math.


I will be taking a class with Christine Porter in the next few weeks.  I am really looking forward to the trip as Christine's work is beautiful and I will meet many new people.  Yesterday I went to my local quilt shop to buy the fabric I need for the course.  As it is really a study in light fabric playing on dark, I chose fabrics from the Makower UK Spraytime line with a tone-on-tone spray instead of the bright patterns I usually choose.



Once I had the bolts piled up for cutting, we realized that it was quite a lot of fabric for a 45x60 inch quilt.  We  re-calculated the yardage from the cutting instructions and found that regularly the math was incorrect and I could purchase less than what was listed in the pattern.  In the end I saved about 20 euro on my purchase...enough to buy the new ruler and the travel iron listed in the course requirements list! 

This is the second time this has happened to me.  Has it happened to everyone and we just do not tallk about it?  Lesson learned: I will always back calculate from the cutting instructions to the listed yardage to save myself a bit of cash and reduce the old scrap pile.  I would rather spend that extra money on a new brightly colored fat quarter, after all.

I hope to have a beautiful quilt to show you in April!

2 comments:

Sandy H said...

What a good tip. I've had that happen--I've also had the opposite happen where I really should've had more fabric than the pattern stated. Usually I'm a bit lazy about that and just buy what they say--if I end up with more, I consider it stash fabric. But you're right--$20 (US or Euros!) is definitely worth saving--or putting towards fabric for another project!

Cindy said...

For my first quilt pattern I bought what they called for in the materials list and had enough fabric left over to make a baby quilt! I would not choose to make two quilts with the same fabric, so I am truly glad we spotted this before it was too late!

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