Originally Posted by
citruscountyquilter
People like and use quilts differently. Some use quilts as bedspreads, some use them to snuggle with and a large quilt in that case is heavy and unweildly. I fall into the snuggle category and find smaller quilts very useful. I made a twin size quilt for my mother-in-law and she wanted to use it for a bedspread and it didn't come all the way to the floor so she was not happy with it. She has passed away and I now have the quilt back and for me it is too big and heavy to use to snuggle with. Point it, different strokes for different folks. A smaller quilt it not unusable and many people desire them.
This sums up my viewpoint, too. The quilt I used most in my life was a small one I used for napping and supplemental warmth at night -- it was nap/throw/lap size, and so lightweight and easy to toss on the bed and fold up afterwards. I actually think smaller quilts have a better chance of being used in a variety of ways. When I started out quilting, I thought only of making bed-size quilts to be used as bedspreads, but now I prefer making the throw/lap/nap size. Bigger quilts are just so darned heavy. I have a lovely bed-size quilt that is folded and put away. It was too heavy for me to sleep under with my arthritic joints, and there was no point having it on the bed during the day, as it was just covered up by the fitted sheets we have to put on the bed during the day because of the dogs.
It is nice when a pattern offers multiple sizes, which I find many of them do. Maybe another factor in the proliferation of smaller patterns is that with so many people quilting on their DSMs, a smaller quilt is easier to wrestle through the machine.