Quilt Calculators

Photo courtesy Crazy Mom Quilts

Two days ago I read the post on Crazy Mom Quilts about how to calculate fabric requirements for making quilts.  As I read through the very clear instructions I realized that the calculations could be automated in an Excel spreadsheet.  So I built two spreadsheets.  The first one tells you how many charm squares you need if you are just making a charm square quilt (no sashing, no borders, etc.)  The second one tells you your fabric and cutting requirements for one of the lovely 9 patch quilts you can see to the right.

For both files you can either select a standardized size quilt, or you can specify the dimensions you would like (think non-standard or square).  The calculators will get the final quilt size as close to your original dimensions as possible, but it will always round up to accomodate sashing and fixed block size.

For example, if you want a 40″ square charm quilt:

Charm squares are 5″, 4.5″ after seam allowances.  Forty inches divided by 4.5″ is 8.8889 charm squares across.  The calculator will round up to 9 squares across, and then it will also tell you the final dimensions you can expect for your quilt.  In this case it would be 40.5″.

If anyone wants to double check my math on these it would be greatly appreciated.  I am fairly confident in my calculations, but I would definitely feel better if someone else were to also take a look at it.

Click here to download the Charm Square Quilt calculator

Click here to download the Nine Patch Quilt calculator

Until next time, may life continue to inspire you!

I’m still here, I swear.

Betcha thought I ran away, huh?  I didn’t.  Other parts of life have just managed to weasel their way onto the priority list above blogging.  Mr. Kaizer has moved to the States for a project, so I have been on my own in Tokyo since the end of August.  (We have done the different country thing for months at a time before, and while it’s not our favorite way to do things, we handle it pretty well.)  Not only have I had to adjust to living alone for the first time ever, I don’t have my sweet, lovable Mr. Kaizer to help me out during the week.  Not only do I have to do my own ironing now (which I detest), I had to give myself a crash-course in cooking.  Still haven’t starved, so I think I’m doing ok.  Add to that some major paradigm shifts in my day-job industry, new projects to try and increase the company’s competitiveness in the market, and my immediate superior taking time off which allows me an opportunity to prove to the higher-ups that I can/should be promoted at some point, and I have barely had time to even think about blogging, let alone actually sitting down to do it.

But I feel like I’m losing my mind.  As my mom reminded me, if I don’t make time for myself there never will be any time.  So, I’m making time.  For the last couple of nights I have done nothing but watch movies and unpick dozens of yards of machine stitching.  My seam ripper is my new best buddy.  After so many quality hours together, I really feel it deserves a name, but nothing comes to mind.  Perhaps one day I’ll come up with something.

“But Miss Kaizer, what on earth were you completely ripping apart?” you ask.  Well, there is a project I started last winter that I didn’t finish.  Not very surprising, honestly.  (My ability to procrastinate is legendary.)  Mr. Kaizer had an idea for my first quilt that I absolutely loved.  Using only traditional Japanese prints, make a nine-foot square blanket out of one-foot square blocks arranged in a pattern that is completely symmetrical along any central axis.  We got the fabric, cut it, and stitched it together.

The only problem was that we didn’t have a quilting ruler when cutting the pieces, and the cutting mat was metric while the ruler was using imperial measurements.  Had disaster written all over it, honestly.  But I assembled the top, hoping the piecing errors would be slight enough for me to live with them.  Some of the corners were absolute perfection.  Others were, for lack of a better term, a hot mess.  All I could see when I looked at this quilt top were the errors.  So I had to pick the entire thing apart.  I will be trimming all the blocks to make sure they’re the same size before I start to slowly and meticulously assemble the pieces this time.

Until next time, may life continue to inspire you!

Miss Kaizer