Bad Math and Sudden Realizations

Last week, I was counting up the blocks and how much more time I would have to put in on the Christmas Lemonade Quilt. I counted incorrectly. I thought I had 80 blocks and if I did 4 a day, I could get the blocks done in a little over 2 weeks. That was keeping in mind I had just done 16 blocks. I figured another week to put the top together. I even bought some fabric for borders and backing.  I was excited to get this project done and move on.

Now I don't know how I came up with the 80 blocks. I had four turnovers. Each turnover had 80 half square triangles in it. That is 320 half square triangles. Once sewn together that equals 160 blocks. When all the blocks are completed, I will have 160 blocks not 80. Some where along the line I halved the number.  It may have been because I had done the blocks in sets of two.

I am usually very good in math. I like to run number problems in my head when I am bored. I can generally add numbers faster in my head, than most people can punch them into a calculator. So for me to make that silly error is unusual. It is not a big deal but it does means that it will take a little longer to get the quilt done.

Of course the real issue could have been the fabric I bought for the borders and backing. I don't usually get that stuff until the quilt is about done. But I saw some fabric I liked at the local Walmart (no booing or hissing, this is good stuff). I thought "Okay that will work." Since the bolts were kind of low, I figured I better go ahead and buy it. You never know if the fabric you like today, is going to be there when you are ready to buy it. I had no choice but to buy it now. I thought about what I needed for a quilt made up of 80 five inch blocks.  I mentally laid out the quilt and I figured out what size it would end up. I estimated what I would need for 3 inch borders, binding and backing then added a little to be safe. Like I said the fabric was getting kind of low on the bolts and I wanted to be able to finish the quilt. At this point I hadn't realized my mistake. And of course I have 160 blocks. A recipe for disaster if ever there was one.

As I was waiting for the person to come cut the fabric, I estimated how much fabric was on each bolt. I figured one bolt had about 3 yards and the other was around 4-1/2 to 5 yards. They were two different red prints both of which I really liked. I got to thinking about my stash. I tend to favor blues, greens, purples, and pinks. Consequentially the color selection of my stash has been rather limited. So over past few years I have been trying to broaden the color selection of my stash. I knew I didn't have much red in my stash and I see red as a very traditional color in quilting. Logically I had no choice but to get what was left of both fabrics. By the way, my estimation was pretty close. The one had 3-1/2 yards the other had 5 yards.

Later that night as I was finishing up my 40th block, I realized that I was not half way through the blocks. I was no where close to half way through. In fact I was only a quarter of the way through them. I will not lie and say I wasn't a bit disappointed. I thought I would be moving on to another quilt in about a month. But that is okay. This way the quilt will be more of a bed size quilt. Best of all because I bought the extra fabric, I still can put the boarders and backing I want on it.

I don't know how many times experienced quilters have told me "buy a little extra fabric for your projects". Their reasoning was if you make a mistake in cutting you will still be able to finish the project. If you don't make a mistake, you have some left for exchanges or scrappy quilts. I think the main reason is because so many of us fail to finish projects in a timely manner and then when we get around to finishing a project and we make a mistake, we can't get the fabric. I know I have always been glad when I follow the buy extra rule.

What advice have you gotten that you were glad you followed?