I have a confession. I’m afraid to cut my fabrics, not because I want them to live on my shelves forever (though I do love looking at them) but because I’m scared I’ll screw them up. I’m not a math person and when I say that, I don’t mean I’ve got trouble with math. I mean, I’m your worst math nightmare. The numbers go in my head one way and come out another…it sucks but it’s me. My mother calls it “JoannaMath.” In this particular style of math, 3 x 3 can always be 6 (but could also be 9, depending on the day) and negatives are always optional. Now, none of this bothers me, but it is a TAD scary when I’m slicing into my yummy new threads. I’m horrible at calculating how much fabric I need, even worse at figuring out angles and (if we’re being perfectly honest with ourselves) I’m not even 100% when it comes to basic adding.
Herein lies my problem. String quilts are one thing, you cut up a bunch of stuff. Strip size doesn’t matter, length doesn’t matter and what you don’t use-whatever. Baby quilts-meh. No big, they’re small enough that even if you do fudge a number, chances are you’ll have enough left over to fix it.”Big girl quilts,” as I’ve come to refer to them, are a different story.
I bought a bunch of pink and green fabrics in anticipation of spring. A little Daisy Chain here, some Nicey Jane there, you get the idea. I really want to make a half square triangle quilt that alternates bands of pink and green with Kona snow. A big diamond-y pattern. In my attempt to be more mathematical (HAH!), I drew it out (on graph paper no less!) during the time my classes spent in the library on Friday. I had my husband look at it and I think I’ve got it all figured out.
So I started cutting. AND…I forgot to keep count. @#*&^! I haven’t the foggiest idea how much “snow” I need to cut to make the other set of squares for the half square triangles. Also, my minor calculations (I won’t even show you that scrap of paper) are all wrong, don’t ask me how I know, I just do.
Oh so preppy, oh so cute.
At least it looks pretty! I’m sure I’ll figure it out, just not tonight. Tomorrow we have tickets to the Hurricanes/Bruins game and I will NOT be sewing as I will be screaming my lungs out at the RBC Center. I’ll keep you posted! 🙂
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From one math nightmare to another, I feel ya! Isn’t is awesome to have hubbies who can handle it? I love your fabric choices — you have a great eye for color, pattern and contrast (you’d probably make an excellent photographer!). I can’t wait to see the finished product!
Good for you for tackling your cutting phobia! I have a cutting phobia too so I can totally empathize. But I love your process here, by drawing out the quilt design to figure out the math. I should do that more often. And your fabric selection looks fab!