Thursday, August 9, 2018

Quilting Calculators - Yards and Metres

There are many quilt fabric calculators and apps all over the web but they all calculate yards.  My calculators give the amounts of fabric required in inches, yards and meters.

They calculate the minimum amount of fabric required so if you are purchasing new fabric it's a good idea to buy a little extra.  They have short and long output - the long output tells you how much will be leftover after converting to yards or meters.  If the amount is very small this is your signal to buy extra--or cut very, very carefully.

I originally developed these for my charity quilting.  It can be so frustrating to cut borders only to realize that one is short and if only I'd cut the borders 1/2 inch smaller I'd have had enough.  With these calculators I can measure and if I don't have enough, I can recalculate with slightly narrower borders until the amount works.

Try them at Border, Binding and Backing Fabric Calculaors -- in Meters and Yards

ropy-clothing

Quilts & Tops from 2018

Arrowhead aka Garlic Knots - Charity quilt




This is the first Arrowhead Puzzle (aka
Garlic Knots) quilt I made.  My blocks were made from 2" strips and so finish 6"
















Free motion quilting on Arrowhead Puzzle baby quilt




I used this one to practice free motion quilting - the quilting is much easier to see from the back:














I made this table runner from a Connecting Threads kit that I purchased on clearance.  (Pieceful Place Table Runner by Mari Martin)  Made it for FMQ practice and used two layers of Hobbs 8-/20 so the quilting would show up more:

It now graces my DR table.  The double layer did show up the quilting but I wouldn't do this for place mats because a glass or stemware would not be stable on it.  But for the centre of the table I think it's just fine.

Hot Stuff - Charity Quilt






Marimekko and I Spy leftovers to make a cheerful charity quilt that hope some toddler will love.

















Garlic Knots II - Charity Quilt



Added to leftover arrowhead (aka garlic knots) blocks to make a second baby sized quilt.  The borders are Debbie Mumm fabrics that are nearly vintage LOL!



















Granny's Scraps - Charity Quilt



Went through my charity quilt group's scrap bin for small pieces to make this one.  It's inspirec by Elsie Campbell's  Big and Little Sister Quilts from her book Radiant Quilts .  Her two quilts are made from 2 1/2" and 1 1/2" squares - mine is made from 2" squares.  Some of my fabrics made less than completely successful blocks but all were enjoyable to make













Esks and UofA Colours - Charity Quilt



My home football team (Edmonton Eskimos) and my alma mater (University of Alberta) have the same colours - green and gold - like our river valley in autumn.  This was quickly made from 2 1/2 inch strips.



Flower Power Tulip Fields - WIP

A while back I started on some string blocks for a quilt based on Bonnie Hunter's Tulip Fields from her book String Fling - one of my favourites!  I've kept my internal and block sashings the same as hers but my flower blocks are larger!
One of my Tulip blocks
My sashings will be green where hers are orange
Green Sashings
Another difference is that her flower points and cornerstones are solid red where mine are a variety of red tone-on-tones.  I've kept the cornerstones with the green sashings in one fabric - a lovely mottled red that has streaks of orange through pink.  Aiming for kid's single bed size of @68"x78" as it's destined for my granddaughter.  She still has to grow into a bed so I've plenty of time to finish it!  Sure is a good use for all those strings cut from straightening fabrics as well as odd bits from my upcycled shirt collection.  Tried to have at least one bright string in each triangle though some of my blocks from months ago were a little dull.  Mixed up when laid out they should be fine though.