Okay. It's Wednesday and I haven't posted anything since Sunday. I PROMISE I have been diligently sewing at my machine since my short hiatus last weekend. 

I FINISHED ALL MY BLOCKS! Yes, I finished sewing 210 blocks last night; my 6 1/2 inch babies.

This is a few more than I need for a queen-sized quilt but this will allow me to swap out a few blocks if they are just not working. I might also make a matching wall hanging if I have enough extra blocks. 

Now that I have all my blocks, you might be wondering HOW MANY blocks I need for this quilt. Here is the math.  Using my EQ5 software makes doing the math super easy.

I knew my blocks were being CUT at 6.5 inches so I told the software the size AFTER accounting for a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

So these blocks will finish at 6 inches square. They will sit 13 across and 15 down, so I will need 195 total.

Note: on the bottom right of the previous picture you can see that my total quilt size is 92.5 inches by 103.5 inches, making it a queen size quilt. Like I said, EQ5 does all this complicated math for me :D

Around the blocks I want three borders. The first border is a simple border that measure 2.25 inches (FINISHED) on the left/right and 1.75 inches (FINISHED) on the top/bottom. This complicated math is necessary to make the second border work. (Note to self: when cutting the border, add 1/2 inch to the measurements for the seam allowance.) The third border is also similar and measures 2 inches (FINISHED) on all sides.  

Now, the second border. I had a bunch of these scraps left and felt bad not inviting them to the party. 

So, I added the second border to incorporate them. They are cut 3.25 inches square. Because of the size, I can cut them out of scraps, or cut a 6.5 inch block in half and get 4 of these bad boys, depending on how many scraps I have in the end.

I will need a total of 128 of these mini babies to complete the second border.

Ffeww. I am tired of typing already! Next post: How to cut the blocks.