A Quilter's Alphabet: Letters Y and Z: Yardage and Zigzag Setting

Hi friends!

Well, it’s hard to believe but this is our last post in the A Quilter’s Alphabet series. Today Tammy and I are tackling the letters Y and Z. I will share about yardage and the zigzag setting.

Yardage

Yardage is a terms used to indicate a fabric amount calculated by using yards as a form a measurement.

A yard of fabric is 36 inches so ½ yard is 18 inches. When buying yardage, it is helpful to also know the width of fabric the pattern designer used to calculate the amount needed.

As most quilting cottons come in 40 – 44″ widths, most quilt pattern designers, they will use 40″ or 42″ as the width of the fabric.

So often, when a pattern says you need a yard of fabric, they refer to 36″ length of 40″ wide fabric.

Not all fabric is 40 – 44″ wide though. Some fabrics are only 36″ wide, some are 54″ – 60″ wide. And a quilt “wide back” is often 108″ wide!

ZigZag setting

A zig zag setting is one where the blocks can be rotated to create a pattern with a zigzag effect. You can see this with blocks set on point in vertical columns and then when they are offset it creates a zigzag.

Or you see this with Log Cabin style blocks. Rotate the block and you can create new settings.

Here is my quilt Breakout shown in a zigzag setting.

And that’s a wrap! My last post in the A Quilter’s Alphabet series. Click here to head on over to Tammy’s blog and read her last post about Y seams and the zig zag stitch!

In 2 weeks, I will be sharing about my re-imagined Ocean Waves block in our Exploring the Basics series. I have been having fun showing sneak peeks on Instagram. But don’t worry; I will share all soon here on the blog!