Need Quilting Help

So I was looking at the directions for cutting the black (magazine said to buy 1 3/4 yards black.

And then it wants me to cut 2 (3.5x87.5 strips), 2 (3.5x78.5 strips), 2 (3.5x75.5 strips) and 2 (3.5x66.5 strips)

Umm you can't do that with only 1 3/4 yards!!!!

And the only way I know how to cut like that is to cut across the fabric instead of from selvage to selvage which is weird to me. I always cut selvage to selvage, never along the length of the fabric. So why would we do it for this?

Quilting Update

Bought the fabric on 2-19
Started ironing on 2-20
Started cutting it on 2-21

Made first cutting oops on 2-21

I thought my medium yellow was actually my light yellow and cut it as my light yellow. Oops! I should be able to fix it though. And hopefully we won't have to make a run to the store for any more!

Last night we bought another lip ruler for me. The ones at WalMart didn't come in a long length (like 24 inches?) so the one I have is like 3x18 inches. I normally fold my fabric in 4 anyway so it still works for me.

I read somewhere that it talks about folding in half for a beginner quilter and I was thinking, do cutting boards come in that size? And the rulers?

New Quilt, Alex Update

So I picked a new quilt to make. I haven't finished Alex's winter quilt yet either. Bad mommy!

That's it. At first glance it looks really difficult but its not at all. You take a medium and dark strip, sew them together. Then for the square of it, you just overlay the correct colors on the corners and sew them on to make it into a bigger square and voila! That takes it from the square on point to a normal square that you can line up with the rectangles.

I love the 3D look of it too. They actually show an example of it in the magazine where it looks like a view of the downtown of a city.

Now my only problem...I was looking for my cutting stuff earlier. I found my rotary mat and the rotary cutter...but I can't find that clear thingy that you use to cut straight lines! Which means I can't do any cutting yet!

It might be in the closet with Alex's crib and that would be a pain because I'd have to get Eric to hold the crib up so I can get to the back of the closet.

Speaking of the crib, Alex is now in a toddler bed. :) The first night he like freaked out when we put him in it so we drove around until he fell asleep and put him in bed. He's done well ever since then. He seems to be getting better at actually staying in bed too and not falling out. If he fell out he'd just play in his room and eventually crash on his floor. LOL. It's definitely low enough for him to climb back in it. Heck he climbs onto the couch in his room!

He's 19.5 months old now. :) Sneaky little guy too at some times. We just one day didn't hear anything out of him and went and checked on him in his room and found him standing on his couch! And he kept doing it LOL. He doesn't know how to get back down though so we have to rescue him each time he climbs up there.