What size should my Quilt be???

Hello my friends, and welcome back! Let’s talk for a bit about how to decide what size quilt to make. There are many factors involved in this decision, and at the end of the day, the ultimate answer is “whatever size you want to make it” lol, but that’s not really helpful, so lets walk through some of the aspects that might affect your decision.

Purpose

What is the purpose of your quilt? I mean besides the obvious of keeping someone warm, there can be many purposes for making a quilt. If you’re making a quilt for a baby, it might be smaller than what you’d make for a teenager or adult, for example. Likewise, an art quilt of some sort would probably be smaller than a quilt made for a bed. If you’re making a quilt for a wedding present, it may be larger than making a quilt for your kid’s birthday present. If you want to just try a new technique, or you’re new to quilting and making your first one, then perhaps a throw size would be better than a bed size, so that you don’t get overwhelmed.

So the first thing you need to know is the purpose of your quilt. In general, there are a few size ranges of quilts:

Mini Quilts are usually around 24” or less.

Baby Quilts are usually around 36” or a little more.

Throw quilts are around the 48” x 60” to 60” x 72”.

Bed quilts will depend on the mattress size and some personal preference

Pattern

Are you making a quilt from a pattern? Most patterns include some list of suggested sizes, with associated fabric requirements. It’s fairly common for a pattern to include a baby, throw, and bed size. When you combine these pattern sizes with your purpose that you determined from above, this might point you in the right direction. 

If you’re making a quilt for your child from a pattern, then probably a throw or bed size would be appropriate. If you’re using a pattern to make a baby quilt, then go with what the pattern suggests for a baby quilt. 

This might seem like unnecessary advice – i mean, duh, right? – but it’s still not really so cut and dried! What if the pattern doesn’t have the bed size you need? You  need to make a king quilt and the pattern only has up to a queen? Stay tuned, and we’ll get to some calculations to help you resize from a pattern.

Preference

Okay, some of your decisions will come down to personal preference, and guess what? That is totally okay!  For example, I like my quilts a little oversized. If I make a throw quilt, I want to be able to completely cover myself from my chin down, including tucking under my feet. I don’t want just a little lap quilt. So when I make a throw, I go BIG! I think most of the throw quilts I’ve made have been at least 72” long, if not more. I made earlier this year that was 84” square because, as I told my friend, I felt like at 72” square, it seemed a little small. 😀 She thought I was a little crazy, but hey, personal preference! 

Even for baby quilts and bed quilts, I prefer larger than smaller. I don’t think I’ve ever made a baby quilt that was only 36” square! They’re usually at least 42” by at least 48”. I figure I might as well make something that they’ll be able to use well into toddlerhood, and 36” square just feels small to me. (Which might not be so surprising based on my opinions about throw quilts 🤣)

So what I’m trying to say is, your personal preference as the maker is perfectly valid and can and should be part of your decision making process. 

Market Availability

Okay, now that we’ve covered some of the decision points, let’s talk a bit about some general sizing guidelines. I’ve gathered some general sizing guidelines from around the interwebz into the following table:

Quilt Size	Mattress Dims (in)	Batting Dims (in)	Short Side (in)	Long Side (in)
Baby		45 x 60	36	36
Lap Throw		60 x 60	50	60
Large Throw		60 x 60	60	72
Bed Sizes
Twin	38 x 75	72 x 90	70	90
Twin XL	38 x 80	72 x 90	70	90
Full / Double	54 x 75	81 x 96	85	108
Queen	60 x 80	90 x 108	90	108
King	76 x 80	120 x 120	110	108
California King	72 x 84	120 x 120	100	102

These are just a starting point.  The quilt size suggestions are just that, suggestions, and as you can tell, they don’t always match very well to the batting sizes – the crib batting is much larger than the baby quilt size, the Queen size is EXACTLY the same as the batting size, and the Twin XL is the same size as the Twin, despite the mattress being 5 inches longer (hello, chilly toes!).

So let me give you some calculations for calculating your own quilt size to suit your preferences.

Based on Batting Size

As I mentioned in a previous post, a general guideline for quilting your quilt at home is for the batting to be a couple of inches larger on each side than the quilt top. So you could use the batting size, and just subtract 4” from each dimension to determine your quilt size. So for a Twin quilt, you’d take the 72 x 90 batting size and subtract 4” from each dimension to get a quilt that is 68 x 86, for example. This would work perfectly well if you’re quilting your quilt your self. If taking to a longarmer, you’d want to subtract 4” on each side, so 8” total on both dimensions. So for the Twin, then your quilt top would come out to 64 x 82. 

This doesn’t really address some of the other inconsistencies in the above table, nor does it take into account your personal preferences. So let’s free ourselves from the prepackaged batting sizes (you can always buy a larger size, or get it cut to your preference off the roll!) and do what we want! Here’s how to calculate your own quilt size.

Quilty Math

Determine the length you like to hang down on the side, known as the “drop.”

I personally like at least a 12” drop. If you have a particularly deep mattress, you might like a 15”, 18”, or even 24” drop (a 24” drop would drag on the floor of my bed lol). This is personal preference, so take a tape measure to your bed and take some pics to decide how much of a drop you like. 

Add twice that number to the width of the mattress.  

So for a Twin bed, with a 12” drop, you’d add 24” to the 38” width of the mattress to get 62” wide.

For length, you’d add your drop length to the mattress length to get the shortest length of the quilt. For the regular twin, that’s 75” + 12” = 87”. This will allow you to have your 12” drop, with the quilt pulled up to the top of the mattress when the bed is made. Fine if you like for your pillows to be on top of your quilt. If you want to cover your pillows and have a little tuck under them, then you want to also add another 10 to 20” depending on how big your pillows are. So for a single layer of standard pillows, go for the 10” pillow tuck. 

So for your regular Twin bed, with the 12” drop and 10” pillow tuck, you get 75” + 22” = 97” long.

Now you’ve calculated a quilt for a regular Twin bed that is 62” by 97”. 

You can perform these same calculations for any of the other mattress sizes. Use some caution in calculating any sort of drop for a crib quilt. For safety, you don’t want too much extra material, and a crib quilt probably won’t actually be in the crib until the baby is more to the toddler stage and well able to roll over. 

There’s just one more thing to think about here. Blocks. 

Sizing for Blocks

Quilt blocks come in many sizes. From small 4” blocks or smaller to very large 18” blocks or even larger. If you’re making a quilt from blocks, you need to resize your quilt according to the block size. 

So let’s take the 62” x 97” quilt size we calculated above. If you’re making a quilt with 12” blocks, neither of these dimensions is a multiple of the block size. So what do you do? Well, again, personal preference, lol! 😀 You can size up or down to the nearest multiple of the block size. I told you I like my quilts BIG, so I would probably always size up. So I’d make that quilt that’s 6 blocks wide by 9 blocks long, or 72” x 108”. I’d have a little extra drop, but it would match my personal preference. 

Another option is to take the next smaller multiple of the block size, and either add sashing between blocks, or borders at the edges of your quilt. 

So you size down to 5 blocks by 8 blocks, or 60” x 96” and see that, well, actually, honestly, you barely have enough to put even a border on, and decide to just do that size after all 😀

Or you size down one more block to 4 blocks by 7 blocks, or 48” x 84”, and you put on 7 inch borders on each side, to get a quilt that’s 62” x 98”. Pretty darn close. 

You could also choose instead 2” sashing between the blocks and a 4” border to get a quilt top that is 62” by 104”. A little longer than the base size calculated above, but not bad, and would be perfect for a Twin XL!

Final Thoughts

To be honest, there are a million ways to resize a quilt! Larger or smaller blocks, more or fewer blocks, sashing and/or borders. I’m an engineer, so half the fun for me is the quilty math! If you really, really need help, you should always feel able to run down to your local quilt shop and ask for some help! If that’s not an option, please feel free to comment on this post, or DM me on socials, and I’d be happy to help you with your calculations!

As always, remember that quilting actually is for EVERYONE, and you, yes YOU, can learn to quilt, too!