Calculating Fabric for Your Projects

I play around a lot with my EQ5 software program, making new quilt patterns and scanning in my own fabrics. But I have to be careful and watch my time - it is so much fun I lose track of other important things, like dinner. LOL

My friend Laura and I have set two tasks for ourselves - 1) using 23 Diawabo fat quarters each to make a quilt and 2) using a variety of Mary Englebreit fabrics Laura found at Goodwill (in varying sizes, no less) to make star quilts. While I use EQ5 to give some fabric guidance, it isn't perfect and it doesn't take scraps or fat quarters into consideration. Have you ever wondered how to calculate what you can actually cut from a fat quarter?

There is a great fabric calculator available online at http://vrya.net/quilt/index.php. What's cool about this calculator is that it allows you to calculate fabric based on either the finished size of squares, rectangles, and triangles or on the cut dimensions. Try it using fat quarter width of 22". Too cool!

I also use Microsoft excel to graph out cutting guidelines. You can make a graph by setting your column width at "2" and the row height at "12.75" - you will have a graph on a 1 x 1 grid. Then, play around with the border options to outline your pieces - like so:

Odd size squares I just outline at the next full inch line...

I hope these tips come in handy for you sometime. Wish me luck on these projects!