Have you
always wondered how to resize a quilt block or a favorite appliqué pattern?
Here's
some good information from Robin Strobel, an expert quilter and an
experienced teacher, technical editor, illustrator, and author, who has the
mathematics down pat! She says it'll be a breeze if you'll just
remember this quote, "ya start with
whatcha want, and ya divide it by whatcha got.”
You want
to reduce a 12" finished block to a 10" finished block (always use
finished dimensions).
Example: 10
(whatcha want) divided by 12 (whatcha got) = .833333 (always move the decimal 2
places to the right) so 83.3% is the percentage you would enter into your copy
machine.
Let's say
that you have an appliqué pattern for a 6″ x 7 1/2″ heart, and you decide you’d
like to make it at least 8″ wide, but you’re clueless how tall that will be.
Example: 8 (whatcha want)
divided by 6 (whatcha got) = 1.3333. So you will enlarge the picture by 133.3%.
Then take the height 7 1/2" and multiply it by the same percentage
to find out the new height. 7.5 x 1.333 = 9.99975. The heart will be
about 10″ tall.
One way
to check that you did the math correctly is to remember the following. The
proportion number will always be greater than 1.000 if you’re enlarging
something and will always be less than 0.999 if you want to make something
smaller.
So, there
it is, a bit of knowledge to allow you to resize your favorite pattern, up or
down!
Now....
you can alter the size of a favorite quilt to fit a 'dorm' bed exactly.
Oh, yes, it's that time again!
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