Thanks. That was exactly what I needed to hear. I'm back in!

When I have done Judy Niemeyer quilts (paper pieced), I usually can save a lot of fabric by making an extra copy of the unit. Cut out the piece of paper shape for one piece and just
add a half inch all around. That gives you a little wiggle room for alignment, but you are not wasting the rest of the fabric like when you are using a square or rectangle
and only need a small triangle do the rest is waste.

So, I have learned to paper piece, but have never done a big project. I was really excited about doing this quilt, but when I realized the wasted fabric created by paper piecing..... It just is really hard for me to be ok with it. I guess it is my depression era mother speaking to me from the grave! I realize it is for precision. But......anyway, can someone speak to this?!

It seemed like a lot to me too. However, after thinking about it, I remembered that Caroline Hock said somewhere that there are a Lot of small pieces in this quilt.
So you would need extra fabric for all the seam allowances for those small pieces. and then maybe extra fabric for paper piecing.

No, that 11 yards does not include the backing. It sounds like a rather excessive amount to me too. But much of this quilt is paper pieced. With paper piecing you generally start with a patch larger than what you need and then cut away the excess as you go so you do end up with more waste than in a more traditionally pieced quilt. Even so, I suspect we will have leftover background fabric when we are all done. But that's better than running out.

I am not a new quilter, but I have not made a large quilt. Only art quilts. When I saw 11 yards for the white I thought it must include the backing. Is that correct? I can't imagine 11 yards just for the top!