Fabric Requirements, By Month

[Barbara B.]

Barbara,

Thank you very much.

[Barbara B.]

Hi! I am starting to get confused by the fabric requirements. I am using a different white fabric from my stash per border, so Sue's fabric requirements are driving me a bit batty. I am having to recalculate the white fabric required per border before cutting to ensure I have enough. I'm about to cut month 9 (which seems to require 39 x 42 to get 180 3" squares total). Even if I used her numbers of 137 squares just for month 9... it adds up to 30"x 42" of fabric, not 20"x42" (or 40" as she has).

I found similar issues with the pinwheels. I needed 32" x 40" to make 16 8x10 rectangles. Yes, I am aware that she has us doing some from the next month in her fabric calcs, but even when I subtract that out the white fabric requirements seem super wonky.

I am most concerned about months 10 and 11. I am assuming, since she puts the fabric requirements PER MONTH, that we need 2 pieces of 40x 72. So we'd need 4 yards of fabric just for the Delectable Mountains? This seems like a lot of fabric. I just want to be sure, as I've found her white fabric requirements to be confusing.

Hope this made sense and Thank you.

[Barbara B.]

Helochick77, if I understand, you are cutting the white fabric the size it says in the fabric requirements chart and then cutting the various pieces. I made mine very scrappy, using different backgrounds for the various borders so it was important to me that I had enough for of any one fabric for that border. I never looked at the fabric requirement chart. There have been issues with it and some months back it was updated and it was recommended you not cut any fabric ahead, wait for each month to find out what you need for that month--work from the Monthly pattern instructions which have been carefully reviewed for accuracy.

For month 9 you need 137 3" squares--there are 43 geese in the side border and 47 in each of the top and bottom borders--that is 137 geese so 137 squares cut in half give you all the half square triangles you need for these 3 borders. In month 8 you made the other side border with 43 geese and used 43 squares. I agree with your figure of 30" x 42" for Month 9.

For the Delectable Mountain blocks, Months 10 and 11, it does take a lot of background. I PROBABLY shouldn't tell you this but: Each month you make 2 borders, each from 12 6" blocks. You will need 12 6.75" squares EACH MONTH and 72 2.75" squares EACH MONTH. That is a minimum of 48" x 42" EACH MONTH. I don't know where Sue's original measurements came from--I know she liked to work from Lengthwise grain which would explain why she cut fabrics into 72" lengths. I cut mine from crosswise grain for piecing and I use 40" for figuring how much I'll need. So just be sure you have enough to do each month's blocks and you'll be fine.

I hope this helps.

[Barbara B.]

Awesome! Thank you for your reply. No, I'm not cutting the fabric chunks ahead of time... but I too am using a different background from my stash per border... but I often buy in 1 yard or 1.5 yard cuts... so I need to know if I can make each whole border work with the yardage I have. I'd hate to start cutting it up and realize I'm a few squares short (which is why I do the math based on total number of required pieces for the whole border and not just the breakdown per month... as she assumes I already made some from the previous month). I just wish there were fabric requirements per BORDER and not per month. I'm doing the math based on 180 white squares for the flying geese border (mostly month 9), for example.

That's helpful that the measurements for the fabrics could be based on her cutting lengthwise. I thought I was going crazy! Haha. I don't really look at the colored as I am totally scrappy and just using up what I have, but the white is important (to me) to have the same throughout each border. I'm glad I've been carefully recalculating the requirements each border.

Thank you SO much for the help with months 10 and 11. I have a 3 yard chunk that I have avoided cutting and it should work perfectly. Yay!

[Pam N.]

Barb, so we could go ahead and cut our background material for October and November if we get real rambunctious?.

[Barbara B.]

Pam, that info was so the original person could be sure she had enough fabric. I'd wait until you have the pattern instructions in front of you.