2+2=3 1/2

When I was in elementary school learning math, I was told, like so many other students, that no matter what you do, you will need math.  How right they were.  I use math every day at the quilt shop and not just to figure up the cost when I ring up a sale.  I am often asked to figure up the yardage needed for a quilt or how many five inch squares can be cut from a half yard.  Not to mention that I have to convert inches to fractions to decimals just to get the yardage from a pattern to the checkout stand on nearly a daily basis.  I will forever be grateful that I knew how to find the circumference of a circle when a customer asked how much rick-rack she needed to go around a circle 40 inches in diameter.  Geometry, fractions, measurements, even algebra I use on a fairly regular basis.

Yet the problems that I deal with are not anything like the simple, straight forward word problems that we were given in elementary school.  There should have been a whole section in school just for quilting math.  Even simple addition is different in quilting.  Normally an addition problem would look like this: 2 + 2 = 4.  Simple.  Yet if you were to sew a two inch strip of fabric with another two inch strip of fabric, you would normally get a 3 ½”.  Somehow, with quilting, even the most fundamental rules don’t seem to apply.  Really the equation looks more like this, (2 - 1/4) + (2 - 1/4) = 3 1/2 because you need to account for seam allowance.  Probably the most common question I am asked is to figure the yardage for a backing.  In school, figuring the area of a rectangle was pretty straight forward.

L x W = Y

Length times width equals area.  Figuring a backing, however, is a little more difficult.  You also have to take into account the width of the fabric.  The real formula looks more like this:

(L/42)(W+6)=Y

36

Of course, even this doesn’t take in to account that L/42 must be rounded up before multiplying it to W+6 or that L and W could be switched if that would use less fabric and be more affordable to the customer.

For those of you who think you could hack it as a quilt mathematician, here is a story problem, one that I actually had to solve at the shop one day:

Suzy would like to make a quilt using the disappearing nine patch pattern.  How many layer cakes would she need to buy to make a queen sized quilt without borders?

Now, for those of you who are not quilters, you may think that I haven’t given you enough information: And you are right, there are no numbers in this story problem (unless you count that nine which is really part of the title and really doesn’t help much).  How can you solve a math problem with no numbers?  Most quilters will recognize the hidden or implied numbers.  So, in fairness to any non-quilting readers, here are a few hints to help you out.

1. A layer cake is a set of pre-cut, 10 inch squares and there are usually 40-42 squares in a pack.
2. A disappearing nine patch is made by sewing squares together in sets of nine, 3 down and 3 across, and then cutting these assemblies in half twice, first up and down and then across, making four blocks which are then rearranged and sewn together to form the quilt 
3.  A queen sized quilt measures about 84” x 92”.
4. Don’t forget to account for ¼” seam allowance.

These problems won’t get you an A+ or a gold star.  There is no prize for excellence in the area of quilt math or a trophy for the first person across the finish line with the right answer.  Yet there is something rewarding about solving these convoluted problems.  It is something akin to solving a Sudoku puzzle or answering trivia questions on a game show.  It’s good to challenge your knowledge and reasoning abilities sometimes, to test yourself and stretch your brain and really think.  This and the ability to help those that come into the shop is really all the reward I need.  To those of you who wish to take the challenge, good luck, have fun, and make sure you show your work!

Inspiration

I have seen it dozens, if not hundreds of times.  Someone will come into the shop seeking inspiration.   Whether they are beginning quilters looking for a simple project to get them started, or they have been quilting for years and are just looking for their next project, it starts out the same.  They wander around the store looking for something to grab their interest, some spark that will set the fires of enthusiasm alight.  Sometimes it’s a pattern and sometimes it’s a fabric, either way that moment is unmistakable.  They go from lost and confused to excited and ready to get started in an instant. 

 

I had a similar thing happen to me as the year began.  There I was on the first of January wondering what I was going to do with the New Year.  The year spread out before me like a blank page waiting for an author’s pen, and I found it a bit daunting.  There was much that I wanted to do but I hadn’t yet found that spark, that moment of excitement when the need to do something overwhelms me and i can’t get started soon enough.  Yet all it took was one thought, one inspiration to bring me back to life.  The thrill of a new adventure, a new journey, a new project, was calling to me.

If I can wish anything for you this year it is this: that you find something to get excited about.

Dear Santa,

This year there is something very important that I want: Magic!  When I was younger, this season was full of magic, yet somehow as the years went by, the magic seemed to fade.  I no longer wait up with eager anticipation for the time when you would come and fill my stockings with toys and candy and leave all sorts of wonders under the tree.  I no longer look at the presents and wonder what joys the brightly colored paper and ribbons contain.  Even the tree seems to have lost its luster and gleam.  I once sat in awe before our tree, amazed at just how beautiful it was.

So this year for Christmas, I want the magic back.  I want Christmas to be a time of excitement and joy instead of stress and frustration.  I suspect though that this cannot be accomplished by adding more to the season, but by taking things away from it.  I need to decrease my “to do” list and simplify my celebrations.

Perhaps this will not bring back the spark I felt as a kid, but maybe it will give me time to feel the magic that is already there.

Sincerely,

Heather

The Gratitude Game

One Thanksgiving a couple of years ago we were following the normal tradition and going around the table saying what we are all grateful for.  My brother, who was there with his two highly energetic children, said that he was grateful for his kids.  I, seizing the opportunity, responded that I was glad that they were his kids.  I was being facetious of course, yet there was a nugget of truth in it.  As a single lady, it can be hard during the holidays that center on families and children.  Truthfully there is a large part of me that wants that someday.  Yet I can’t deny that there are certain benefits to being single, such as when I can turn my nieces and nephews back over to their parents.

It can be hard to look on the bright side of situations.  When we are young, we long to be old, when we’re old we wish we were young again.  Short people wish they were tall and tall people want to be shorter.  When we’re single, we seek after marriage, than when we do get married, we realize how good we really had it when we were single.  It is difficult to have an attitude of gratitude when what we lack seems so much greater than what we have, but no matter how bad we think we have it, there is always more to be grateful for than we realize.

At times when I am blue or feeling down, there is a game I like to play, I call it the Gratitude Game.  (It is somewhat similar to Pollyanna’s Glad Game.)  I start listing all of the things that I am grateful for.  I start with the obvious things like family, friends, a place to live, a job.  Then as I go on I get sillier and sillier.  I’m Grateful for the color yellow, street lamps, toothbrushes.

We all have a lot more to be grateful for than we realize, but it is a lot easier to complain about what we don’t have than it is to take a good look at the things we do.  It stands to reason, that if there is something to complain about, there must also be something to be grateful for.  Even if you have nothing, you can still be grateful that somewhere out there, there is such a thing as the color yellow.

Girls will be Girls

At the shop I work with a lot of women.  All of my co-workers and most of the customers are women.  As anyone who has ever been to girl’s camp knows, there are drawbacks to being around that many females at once.  I’ll admit there are times when I see women at their worst.  But most of the time, I see women at their best.

The nature of women never ceases to amaze me.  There is a natural kindness and affection in women.  Most of the women in the shop have included me in their groups despite the differences in age or circumstances.  Almost as soon as I started working there I have felt like I was working with my aunts.  They have treated me like one of their families.  I have also seen their generous and giving natures.  They generally put others before themselves whether it is just letting a customer go before them in line or making a quilt for a friend that is going through a tough time.  There is a natural tendency for women to nurture others that extends to nearly everyone in there sphere of influence.

There is a trend in today’s post feminist world to believe that women, in order to get the same rights and respect as men, have to become more like men, adopting traits that are stereotypically male, and perhaps, not their best traits.  The trouble with this is that it denies the worth that women already have in and of themselves.  Now, in saying this, I do not wish to come across as anti-feminist.  I sincerely believe that women should have the same opportunities as men, but I believe women can be anything and can do anything that men can while still maintaining those qualities inherent to women.

In one of my theater classes in college my teacher told us that the secret to success is not in being better than everyone else, but in providing that quality in ourselves that is unique to us, something that no one else can have.  No one else can be you as well as you can.  We need to cultivate our own particular qualities.  In doing this we can fill a niche that no one else can.  I believe that this is the case with women.  There is something we as women can provide in the work place and in the world as a whole that no one else can.  Our own natures do not need to be suppressed or altered in order to be equal.  Indeed, it would seem that this struggle to be equal and to have equal worth has erased the worth we already had.

It is a common saying that boys will be boys.  If we are ever to be truly equal, then we must first be equal in this thought and accept the fact that girls will be gi