Sunday, December 7, 2008

A Little Math

Back in August, when I decided to make this quilt, I selected 63 pairs of 2-1/2" strips of fabric 44" wide. That's 126 different fabrics. Here they are, stacked up in a big pile.I actually measured the height of the stack - it was 4-1/4" high. But later I decided to make the quilt much bigger, using 81 blocks, so I needed 36 more fabrics. My stack would have been about an inch higher.
Since I never follow any quilt pattern, I never really considered how much fabric gets used up. And since all 162 fabric strips for this quilt (and there are 161 different fabrics) came from my stash, I never thought much about it. But when I ordered 12 yards of backing for this one, I wondered... Just how much fabric went into the top?So I did the math. And I had to double check my figures, because they just didn't seem right. I cut 162 2-1/2" strips. That's 405 inches. Divide that by 36 inches in a yard and you get...
11-1/4 yards!
Dunno why I am surprised. It's a -BIG- quilt. My son helped me tie it Saturday afternoon.

7 comments:

Paula said...

Now THAT'S stashbusting! Great job.

Gina said...

That's alot of fabric
love and hugs Gina xxx

Anonymous said...

I tell ya, one day you guys just have to go metric..
It sure sounds like a hellva lot! (and looks it too!) :)

jovaliquilts said...

Wow. It's probably a good thing you didn't think about all that fabric at the very beginning! I'm always shocked when I invest in backing fabric.

Quiltdivajulie said...

Wow ~ guess that's why working a little along is less stressful! Major accomplishment (math and stitching) :-)

zizzybob said...

I could be wrong but you didn't use the whole 2 1/2 strip. Therefore you will have to recalculate based on how much of the strip you used. (I'm guessing half)

Millie said...

zizzybob, you are wrong. I used the whole strip.

2.5" x 4 blocks = 10"
4.5" x 4 blocks = 18"
6.5" x 2 blocks = 13"

10 + 18 + 13 = 41"

In fact, there were several strips that were not long enough and I had to cut more.