Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Flaw in the Math

Potato Chip quilts, aka 1600" quilts...whatever you want to call them.  This post really intrigued me with the variations.  It also sent my math brain to kick into high gear.  I started thinking about a container of leftover binding strips that I had on the shelf.  I knew it was loaded with lots of bright colors from charity quilts past, so I sprang into action.  I calculated how long I wanted the quilt and how many strips that would take to get there, and I multiplied by the width to get my total inches I needed.  What I failed to think about, was that every time I would fold it in half, the number of strips for the length would double (2, 4, 8, 16, 32).  I had calculated that I wanted it 26 strips long.....UMMM....That isn't even possible.  The result was that I had the correct width, but a really long quilt that was out of proportion.

I am still a little baffled how the big blobs of red and pink arranged themselves.  I took care to evenly space the colors, however, they ended up very near each other.  I will be taking the extra rows off because it isn't proportional.  And because it would always bug me, I will be separating the red rows.  The extra rows that I am taking off will be used as part of the backing.  It is about 29" wide which is a good size for a baby quilt.  Eleanor plans to jazz it up with a little applique.

The sad part is, the leftover binding strips container still looks full.

It's bright and sunny here today.  Enjoy your day.  

1 comment:

SandyQuilts said...

You might find these calculations of interest for the 1600.
http://exuberantcolor.blogspot.com/2011/07/jelly-roll-race-aka-random-plank-quilt.html