Adding borders, how much extra should I plan?
 

I've just finished a quilt top for my queen bed and have my borders all figured out. But I know it'll shrink a bit after washing and the quilting will also take the dimensions down. I will be FMQing myself, fairly densely. Fabric has been prewashed. Are there any "rules"? I don't want it too big. Right now, I have 8 extra inches in the width and 6 extra in the length. Is this enough? Too much? This is finished size before FMQ and final wash.

Assuming that is 4 inches on each side and 6 inches on the top and bottom?

what kind of batting??? Cotton - cotton/poly??

i think that is good. I also have dense quilting. I usually use Dream Cotton batting and it does not shrink that much.

8" extra on width and 6" extra on length, but l don't need the full drop at the headboard, so not as worried about the length. Will use a cotton batting, not sure but probably Warm and Natural.

The label on the batting will usually tell you percentage of shrinkage (from the original size) expected from washing. Add a few inches more to that for the quilting and you can figure this out fairly easily.

E.g. a 100" wide quilt will wash-shrink about 5% or 5 inches for many cotton battings, leaving you with approx 95" quilts.
If the quilting takes up another 1-3", then your quilt would finish about 91-93" over-all.
You would plan to add extra border inches to get it back to the size you actually want it to finish.

Jan in VA