Trajectory: Fabric and Cutting

This is the second post in a series on how to make the Trajectory Quilt. Previous post is here.

Today we'll talk about fabric requirements and get cutting. Of course, the alternate title to this post could be "The One Where Quilt Math Kicks My Butt...Again." More on that in a bit.

Here are the fabrics I chose. All are Kona cottons by Kaufman. 

For your background squares, you'll need a total of 64 - 6.5" squares. If you cut a 6.5" strip x the width of fabric (usually 44"), then you can get 6 squares per strip. You can make your background all one color or use a variety of shades, like I'm doing here with the grays. You'll need 11 - 6.5" strips to get all your background blocks (and have a couple leftovers). So, that's 2 yards of fabric total. Since I used three different shades and I like having extra fabric to incorporate into either the back of my quilt or the binding, I got 1 yard of each of the grays.

Let's move on to the boomerang fabric.

For each of your boomerangs, you will need two 3" x 8" strips. That translates into 102 - 3"x8" pieces. If you cut an 8" strip x the width of the fabric, you'll get 14 - 3"x8" strips. That means you'll need just over 1-3/4 yds. total for your boomerangs. If you're going scrappy, just remember that each boomerang needs TWO 3"x8" pieces, so 51 pairs. Make sense?

*Note: This is where quilt math kicked my butt. I figured everything out at first based on needing ONE strip for each boomerang. Doh! And that is why you see a fourth fabric in the next photo. I used about half a yard  each of four colors.*

Congratulations! You did it - all cut and ready to go. You have everything you need to start piecing your blocks!

Up next: Paper piecing the boomerang blocks.