Mystery Quilt Along w/ 3 x 6 Flying Geese - Fab Requirements

[knitnoid]

There are at least two dilemmas every quilt designer faces when determining yardage: 1 - How wide is the fabric quilters will have to work with and 2 – what technique to use when making patches of the block.

1 – I use 40" for my yardage calculations. That is definitely narrower than the 44"/45" the fabric is sold as, and still potentially narrower than the fabric is prior to washing. However, I’m generally a pre-washer, and I’ve seen my QUALITY 44"/45" fabric turn out to have 40" of USABLE fabric.

2 – This quilt consists of squares, rectangles and flying geese in various color combinations. Even though this is the QIAD forum, I’m sure there are at least one or two people who don’t have the QIAD flying geese rulers. I LOVE making flying geese with the geese rulers, but do not want to leave anyone out of the quit if they don’t have one (or the correct size). Thus, 2 different methods are presented.

So, what does this mean to this particular pattern? First, you may be able to get more pieces out of your strip than I counted on. 40" only makes 11 – 3 1/2" squares, but if your fabric is 43" (still narrower than advertised) you can get 12 – 3 1/2" squares. That can result in having an extra 3 1/2" strip extra if you need 24 squares (3 strips for the 40" fabric but only 2 for the 43" fabric).

Another decision I made was to only re-write the flying geese instructions. The instructions for the squares and rectangles are the same regardless of the method of making flying geese. This quilt had various color combinations of geese, and if I only wrote it for the QIAD ruler, exactly 1/2 yard would be needed for the geese. But with the rectangle and square combination, more yardage is needed – again remember I’m doing the math on 40" wide fabric.

Yes there will be extra fabric. I have 19" linear inches of my Color B, 2" of my Color A and 6" of my background – which wasn’t enough to cut the last square for the flying geese. I also have a few partial strips, including an extra 3 1/2" strip because my fabric was 43" instead of 40" (I didn’t prewash this time).

Since I don't design or sell fabric, I don't have a vested interest deliberately listing fabric requirements greater than required. I'll go back over the yardages and post an update if they are off.

[gramajojo]

I think I might like to participate in this. Could I use my stash and make it scrappy? Most of my stash is 1 yard or less (I think) and was just wondering if it would look ok scrappy, or do I need to add to my stash to make it 3 colors?

[knitnoid]

Personally, I like scrappy quilts. My next step it to make this up scrappy - but I'll do a 'controlled' scrappy -- so I'd still have only 3 colors, but multiple fabrics of each color.

[BamaGirl]

I'm SO looking forward to this! But, I just can't decide which colors to go with.... I do like the purple, green and yellow--- very pretty! I'm in the Birthday swap and the colors I chose for that are purple/lavender and green, so I think I'll try to pick something else for this...

I'm considering two shades of blue with yellow for the background... Or maybe red and blue with white for the background... decisions, decisions, decisions....

Gwen

[knitnoid]

Gwen,

I can see both of those color combinations working in this quilt.

[Oasis]

LOL Gwen............

I'm having fun looking at different combinations also. I'm thinking about black/white and maybe an electric blue or red. There is a black/white/blue quilt posted a few months ago and I loved the contrast.

But then, I've been wanting to do something in blues............so like you said, decisions.....decisions.....decisions!

[sewcarolyn]

Oasis...the black/white and electric blue quilt was mine...and I am thinking about doing another one because I liked it so much. I have the flying geese ruler on my wish list for Christmas this is a good excuse to get the rulers

[Oasis]

Sewcarolyn.......The blue you chose was the perfect shade! I loved that quilt. Kept going back and looking at it.

I've been looking and there is a lot of blue out there but not the electric shade you found. I might have to stick with red or maybe pink. But still haven't ruled out the Indigo collection.

I guess I had better get to deciding....................

[sadiedaisy1]

OK, I went through my stash this morning and had lots of difficulty coming up with 3 fabrics for this because most of my stash seems to be made up of 1/2 yard cuts. So, this is what I came up with. Let me know if you think this will be ok. I'm not sure I like the brown fabric, but it was the closest match I had to the rooster fabric. I sure hope this will work or I might have to go out and buy fabric (which I'm trying not to do). In the future I will buy 1 yard cuts. I'm sure looking forward to this mystery. Knitnoid, do you think you can come up with a future mystery quilt for some 1/2 yard cuts of fabric??



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[knitnoid]

sadiedaisy1 -- I like your fabric choices. Is the print going to be your Color A and border?

If you are going to use the flying geese ruler and promise not to make any cutting errors, it is possible to squeek -- and I do mean squeek -- by with only 1/2 yard for color B.

I've written the cutting instruction in 2 installments. The first installment is everything except for the flying geese. The 2nd installment is the flying geese. Given everyone's desire to work from their stash (that is what it's there for afterall), I'll post both installments on the same day. That way, if you are running short on a fabric you may see where you can make up the difference.

As to future mystery quilts, I'll keep shorter lengths of fabric in mind.