#quilt math

[tj-crochets]

Quilt math! I finished ironing all my fabrics for the progress pride quilt, so I had to finalize the pattern before I could start cutting out the pieces

Now time to dig through my scraps to see if I have any I’ve cut down to usable sizes in the right colors before I cut any more, but I’m almost ready to start cutting out fabric! :D

I might actually get this done during pride month for once, instead of my pride projects stretching until Halloween lol

[charliecraftsthings]

Planning a back (or front) for my little practice blanket, a project for familiarising myself with patchwork so I can repair my childhood blankie.

I want a soft blankie, but I also want it to be durable.

I decided to test a variety of fabrics, feel how they feel as a blanket, feel how they evolve with washing and wearing. Fabrics include: cotton flannel (flannelette?), Fableism Sprout Woven, Essex (cotton-linen), a quilting cotton, and some Japanese yarn-dyed cottons.

I've been trying to define what I mean by "softness", and I think there are two important and independent qualities: flexibility (pliantness, the bendiness of the fabric) and friction (texture, the surface of the fabric).

My intuition says the flannel will be the softest right away: the most pliant and having the most pleasant surface texture. But I'm worried that it won't be very durable. (Flannel's soft texture is the result of fine fibres sticking out of the fabric. These fibres either come from the loosely-spun yarns used in weaving, or from mechanically brushing the fabric to make them stick out. Either way, choices have been made that result in a less durable cloth.)

I suspect the Essex and Sprout Woven will remain coarse-textured and not-very-bendy for a few washes; the Essex taking longer to become more-bendy. Sprout Woven has little woven X-es, which contribute to a rougher overall texture, but I think it will become more pliant with time (both the overall fabric, and the raised X-es), which will ultimate translate to "softer." But I believe they will be the most durable--especially the Essex with its linen content.

Some of the yarn-dyed fabrics have distinctly woven textures; but even those without have a little coarseness in the weave: maybe the yarns are thicker, or there's more space in the weave; or maybe there's more irregularity in the yarn thickness. So it'll be interesting to see how they evolve.

I only picked one quilting cotton (also Japanese, I believe), because I don't have a of blues stashed; I chose the one I had the most of, that also kinda matched the overall vibe of this blanket side.

For patchwork, I wanted to try making a "disappearing 9 patch", which is made by quartering a 9-patch.

Y'all. It was so hard (emotionally), to slice up my cute little 9-patch!

I also learned that I'm awful at quilt math.

But that's ok. I turned that into some chaotic patchwork practice!

I knew I'd need to add sashing (ie: strips of fabric between these quilt block rows--I think I'm using that term correctly at least), in order to make a the right size of rectangle; but I also mis-calculated the width of that rectangle.

So, yay, more practice!

It's a bit chaotic, but it still has a pleasing amount of symmetry. I kinda really love the "scrappy" look here--I wasn't sure I would before I started, so I'm glad.

This is getting close to the max number of images I can stick in a post so I think I'll call it here.

Next part: attaching the front to the back, trimming, and quilting (sewing through the two layers of fabric).

[abigailspinach]

[serendipitouscrafts]

DIY EPP templates

I have been making my own templates for the Ballerinas Blooming quilt. To get the angles and sizes right, I decided to print out some customizable dot paper.

I like the triangle dot paper from Incomptech: https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/triangledots/

Most dot paper sites only have isometric dot paper, which doesn’t produce the equilateral triangles I want. The Incomptech dot paper also lets you space the dots really far apart. Most triangle dot paper generators top out at less than an inch between dots, or they measure in dots/inch which isn’t of any use to me here. Once I figured out I needed the diamonds to be 3.25″ long on each side to frame the ballerina motif the way I wanted, I created 1.625″ dot paper so that I could easily subdivide the shapes as needed. 

[charliecraftsthings]

Childhood Blankie Progress (Dec 2024)

I realise I haven't written about it much on this blog, but my childhood blankie is becoming threadbare with use, and I decided that I will repair it by sandwiching it between two layers of patchwork fabric.

My blankie is filled with a fluffy polyester filling, and not a dense batting that I associate with "quilts". I really love this fluffy, squishy stuffing, and want my mended blankie to retain this quality. I've learned that I should have lots of space between my quilting (the stitching that goes through all layers of the blanket, holding the sandwich together), or possibly tie the quilt instead. I also like the idea of "machine tying" with some small areas of dense zig-zag stitches (tacking).

As for the patchwork...

I decided to do a scrappy quilt. I collected together a bunch of cotton fabrics I already owned, that fit a colour palette and theme (autumn, especially pumpkins and leaves, cute animals, especially cats, botanicals, solids, patterns, and woven patterns):

...I may also have purchased more fabrics, too!

After doing some practice patchwork with Lil Blankie, I found I really enjoyed making 9-patches and quartering them ("disappearing 9-patch"):

For Big Blankie, 9-patches are made of nine 5-inch squares (seam allowance of 1/4 inch). When quartered, this yields four 7-inch squares. Some of the 5-inch squares are made from scraps.

I'll also include 7-inch squares of both solid fabric, and squares made of scraps. This will help me use up remnants, especially as I get close to finishing all my quilt squares.

Here's a peek from December 2024, at some of the 9-patches:

While I can't name every single fabric used, these include:

Fableism Sprout Wovens (cotton solid with textured Xs woven in)

Fableism Everyday Chambray, including Nocturne (52% cotton / 48% bamboo viscose chambray)

various Japanese yarn-dyed wovens

various textured wovens by Diamond Textiles

Art Gallery Fabrics "Pure" (solid colours)

various quilting cotton prints by Northcott, Figo, Art Gallery Fabrics, Cotton+Steel, ...

When I first started making 9-patches, I was pretty haphazard about them. But as I continued, I tried to make them more symmetric, and to optimise the placement of the very soft and draping fabrics (Everyday Chambray) so the 5" square wouldn't be cut during the quartering. This both maximises the continuous area of soft fabric, and maybe reduces fraying due to cutting.

Quilt math!

So, with Lil Blankie, I learned that I need to slow tf down when doing "quilt math".

Big Blankie is approximately 80"x80" (actually a little smaller, and rectangular; but I'm rounding up now, so I can trim excess later).

Using 7" squares (which includes a 1/4" seam allowance), this means I need 13 pieces per column, and 13 per row. This will yield an 85" square of patchwork fabric, which I can trim down to 80".

(Alternatively, I could sew 12x12 and then add a border. But that feels less forgiving than simply trimming excess?)

I want to use patchwork fabric for both the front and back of the blanket (not using a backing). So I need 13 x 13 x 2 = 338 squares of 7".

If about half of my 7" squares are made from Disappearing 9-Patch, that means I need about 42 Dissapearing 9-Patches (yields 168 blocks; I still need another 170 to come from somewhere else). Which means 378 pieces of 5" squares to make those 9-patches. O

Ok, I think I confused myself, so I'm gonna summarise. I need:

42 blocks of 9-Patch (yields 168 squares of 7" when quartered)

170 pieces of 7" squares, from some other method (solid or scrappy patchwork)

I'm about halfway to my goal 42 blocks of 9-patch, and have made some number of 7" squares as well.

Phew!

[abigailspinach]

Ok quilt math was mathing

I was like this would require six yards of fabric?

That seems not right

Walked away and came back later

Yup that was six feet of fabric needed, not six yards

[the-laridian]

so this extremely scrappy quilt will need 900 2.5" squares, which is fine, I probably have that many in the stash, honestly. And then there's some blocks I'll need to make some HSTs which again, np, I have stash stuff.

How big will it be? how the heck will I know. I reverse engineered the pattern from a photo I saw online. I don't know how big those squares were, and I feel good just getting "I should need 900 squares" out of the quilt math. It will be the size it will be