Fabric amount

[Helen W.]

When I have done Judy Niemeyer quilts (paper pieced), I usually can save a lot of fabric by making an extra copy of the unit. Cut out the piece of paper shape for one piece and just
add a half inch all around. That gives you a little wiggle room for alignment, but you are not wasting the rest of the fabric like when you are using a square or rectangle
and only need a small triangle do the rest is waste.

[Paulinekacher]

I am not a new quilter, but I have not made a large quilt. Only art quilts. When I saw 11 yards for the white I thought it must include the backing. Is that correct? I can't imagine 11 yards just for the top!

[polarjo]

No, that 11 yards does not include the backing. It sounds like a rather excessive amount to me too. But much of this quilt is paper pieced. With paper piecing you generally start with a patch larger than what you need and then cut away the excess as you go so you do end up with more waste than in a more traditionally pieced quilt. Even so, I suspect we will have leftover background fabric when we are all done. But that's better than running out. :-)

[Judith A.]

It seemed like a lot to me too. However, after thinking about it, I remembered that Caroline Hock said somewhere that there are a Lot of small pieces in this quilt.
So you would need extra fabric for all the seam allowances for those small pieces. and then maybe extra fabric for paper piecing.

[Paulinekacher]

So, I have learned to paper piece, but have never done a big project. I was really excited about doing this quilt, but when I realized the wasted fabric created by paper piecing..... It just is really hard for me to be ok with it. I guess it is my depression era mother speaking to me from the grave! I realize it is for precision. But......anyway, can someone speak to this?!

[Paulinekacher]

Thanks. That was exactly what I needed to hear. I'm back in!