Plan before you cut
A quilt starts with its finished size, which depends on the mattress, how far the quilt should hang over the sides (the drop) and whether it tucks under and over the pillows. From there you can work out how many blocks to piece, how much backing and batting to buy and how long the binding must be.
Standard US mattress sizes
- Crib: 28 × 52 in
- Twin: 39 × 75 in; twin XL: 39 × 80 in
- Full: 54 × 75 in
- Queen: 60 × 80 in
- King: 76 × 80 in; California king: 72 × 84 in
The calculation
- Quilt width = mattress width + 2 × drop
- Quilt length = mattress length + drop at the foot + pillow tuck
- Blocks = quilt width ÷ block size, rounded up, times quilt length ÷ block size, rounded up
- Backing and batting = quilt size + 4 in on each side; backing panels = backing width ÷ usable fabric width, rounded up; backing length = panels × backing length
- Binding = perimeter + 12 in, cut into 2.5-inch strips across the fabric width
Example: a queen quilt
With a 12-inch drop, a 10-inch pillow tuck and 10-inch blocks, on fabric with 40 inches of usable width:
- Quilt size: 84 × 102 inches
- Blocks: 9 across × 11 down = 99 blocks (trim or add borders to fit exactly)
- Backing: 92 × 110 inches, so 3 panels of 110 inches, about 9.2 yards
- Batting: 92 × 110 inches, a queen or king batt
- Binding: 384 inches, 10 strips of 2.5 inches, about 0.7 yard
Tips
- Measure your own mattress: pillow-top and deep mattresses need a longer drop, often 15 to 18 inches.
- Wide-back fabric, 108 inches wide, avoids seams in the backing for queen and king quilts.
- Add 10% to fabric amounts for shrinkage, straightening and mistakes, and prewash if you mix fabrics.
- For a throw on the sofa, common sizes are 50 × 60 or 60 × 70 inches.