A Quilt of My Own

I’m not a quilter, myself, but I did enjoy some time this week surfing quilting sites, in search of yardage information I needed to buy backing fabric for an inherited quilt top.

It was pieced by my late mother-in-law, shortly before her descent into Alzheimer’s disease stole her ability to work at the crafts that gave her such joy for many years.

Finally the time has come for this quilt to be finished — the local church ladies have a quilting circle, and I’ve been on their waiting list for some time now.

I love the idea that the church ladies will be doing the actual quilting and finishing on this quilt: it will give the piece even more meaning as a memory piece, as these ladies were my mother-in-law’s dear friends.

But how much fabric should I buy for the backing?

That was the question — I’m not a quilter, as I say — and I was happy to find the answer quickly in a quilt backing fabric and batting calculator online.

While looking for that, however, I also stumbled across a handy quilt fabric calculator, which helps you to figure out the amount of material needed to make a pieced quilt top. You put in the size of the blocks, the number of blocks across and down the quilt, and the width of the fabric. Hit the “calculate” button and it tells you the yardage of fabric required!

I also found a wonderfully inspiring article called You Too Can Make a Quilt!. Something tells me, it won’t be too long before I can’t resist starting a quilt of my very own.

And I understand that there’s something called “lap quilting” that lets you build a quilt one block at a time. That sounds like just the thing for a beginner like me. If I get overwhelmed, my “quilt” can always turn into a cushion cover!