Yardage

The yardages listed are the total length required, as if it were a two-colour quilt.

WHITE (close to white) background: 4.5m (4 yards 33″)
Selection of LIGHT backgrounds: 2m (2 yards 6″)
DARK DARK (close to black) background: 2.75m (3 yards)
Selection of DARK to VERY LIGHT colours: 9.5 (10 yards 14″)

Dealing with Additional Colours

If you want to add another colour, then divide the yardage listed below among those colours. For instance, say you would like a brown and blue quilt. The quilt needs 2.75m of VERY DARK fabric, so you could make up the 2.75m with a selection of navy, chocolate brown, and perhaps navy with brown squiggles. Use any combination you like, fat quarters, fat eighths, scraps or whole metres … as long as it adds to about 2.75m.

Similarly, the quilt needs 2m of LIGHT backgrounds, so you might buy a fat quarter of light blue, cream/blue posies, cream/blue stripe, and tan/white, and then add 1m of a light tan you love … as long as it adds to 2m.

If, after reading the section below, buying yardage still confusing you … read the Yardage Hints and Tips, below.

Detailed Yardage Breakdown

Here’s a more detailed breakdown, below. The fabrics illustrated are just examples.

Main Colour

Background

Additional Colour

Crossover Fabrics

For a quilt in two colours, for example, blue and brown, you will need ‘cross-over fabrics’. That’s my name for fabrics that contain more than one colour to ‘cross-over’, or tie together, the main colour and additional colour.

References

Electric Quilt Company, (2014), Electric Quilt, Version 7, Build 3, “Fabric Library”
Electric Quilt Company: Ohio, USA

Fabrics:
Windham Fabrics Nancy’s Blues by Nancy Gere
Windham Fabrics Lincoln Bicentennial 1808-2009 by Nancy Gere
Moda Fabrics Union Blues by Barbara Brackman; Moda Fabrics Tuppence by Shannon Gillman Orr; Moda Fabrics Grunge by Basic Instincts and Primitive Gatherings