July 12, 2011

a little piece of heaven.

Simple patchwork quilts are my favorite to sew- remember these two that I shared on the blog a while back?
Brady's birthday quilt

Super dooper scrappy quilt

I'm not a huge fan of cutting fabric but, let me tell you, I can cute a mean square. :) There are also SO many different combinations of fabrics that you can use to make a pattern out of the squares. Anywho, square patchwork quilts = mi favorito!

I typically never use patterns for anything I sew- like these quilts I sewed for the girls' birthday last year.

Laura
Molly

Oh.My.Gosh. Have they really grown that much in one year?! *sniff*
Sorry.

I digress.
Anyway, the girls' quilts obviously were made out of triangles and not squares but I wanted to share a large project that I didn't use a pattern for along with that same project which taught me the hard way that I am square in my heart and should never try to be anything other than that.

Hehe.
I'm off track again.
ANYWAY! The one thing that always confuses me when buying fabric for patchwork quilts is how much to buy. I've researched it online and looked in books but all of the formulas I've found are uber confusing. Luckily for me, Crazy Mom Quilts has posted the sizes of quilts on her blog:
  • A nice baby size quilt is around 42" x 52"
  • For a square baby quilt, anywhere from 36" to 42" works well
  • A crib quilt measures 45" x 60"
  • A nice lap size quilt is 60" x 72"
  • Twin size, 63" x 88"
  • Full size, 78" x 88"
  • Queen, 84" x 92"
  • King, 100" x 92"
She answers the following question about how to figure out the exact number of squares needed (note: charms= 5" squares):
"...how many charms will I need to make a twin size quilt?"

A charm square= 5".
Take away 1/2" (for seam allowances) and your finished square will equal 4.5".
63" (width of quilt) divided by 4.5" (finished square)=14
88" (length of quilt) divided by 4.5" (finished square)=19.56, which would round up to 20.
So 14 x 20=280 charm squares. Your layout will be 14 blocks wide by 20 blocks long. The quilt will measure 63" x 90".
Long story short, you'll need 280 5" squares for a twin size quilt. Or, what sounds even better, 140 10" squares. :)

Now that I cracked the code on that mother, I decided to figure out the number of 5" squares you'll need for each size to share with y'all. Cuz I'm a gem like that. :)
  • Baby size quilt= 108 five-inch squares
  • Square baby quilt= 8 five-inch squares
  • Crib quit= 130 five-inch squares
  • Lap quilt= 208 five-inch squares
  • Twin size quilt= 280 five-inch squares
  • Full size quilt= 340 five-inch squares
  • Queen size quilt= 399 five-inch squares
  • King size quilt= 462 five-inch squares
Alright girls- who's coming over to sew?! :)

3 comments:

  1. Me! I wish...
    But I am bookmarking this post so that when I go back to my real life, I can start making quilts. It has always been something I have wanted to try, but have been too scared. You make it seem easy peasy! So I am going to give it a go one of these days thanks to you!
    You are wonderful at it. I am off to look up the super scrappy one...'cause thats a cutie.

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  2. I think you are so crafty. And your stuff looks great. The girls have grown...and are those nap mats hanging on the ends of their beds?? We have the purple ones!

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  3. Ummmmm.....where's my quilting credit, chica? :)

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