How to figure yardage for a quilt by Marsha McCloskey

Boy am I happy to be doing this post. This is something I have often wondered, but I have never sat down to try and figure out the math. Alas, Marsha McCloskey, the creator of Staples and soon to be released Everything Blue, and the author/designer of many amazing Feathered Star Productions patterns is here to answer our burning question of how to calculate how much yardage is necessary for a quilt (without a pattern). IF you are a quilter who ever looks at something and says, “I could make that”, but never really does it, this worksheet is going to get you going in the right direction. OR, if you are a budding quilt designer or just scrap happy (that’s me!), this will be an extremely useful quilting tool for you, too. Marsha’s process is very straightforward–you just need to follow all the steps. And, she even provides a way to proof your estimated yardage in sort of a ballpark fashion at the very end. So, if you try this out, scroll all the way to the bottom to see the conclusion and proof your work. And, if you really just need a ball park and don’t care if it’s over/under, you can use that proofing method to get a very loose estimate without moving through the more detailed steps laid out in the primary method. I also included a pdf for easy download/print so you can just print these instructions off, keep them in our quilt tote and use them at the fabric store, swap meet, thrift shop, grandma’s attic or where ever you source your material!! And the final kicker is that Marsha has included an inches to yards conversion chart for quick reference. It is totally useful, so I put it on the last page of the method worksheet. Now, quilt students, get our your pencils, calculators and notepads and let the math-ness begin!

See how to figure yardage for your quilt or scroll down to to see it here.