I am making a baby quilt for no one in particular and am wondering how wide it should be? I have no other baby blanket to compare it with but I want it to be used while the baby is little and also as he grows ie to drag around and to lay down watching tv etc so what would be a good size while not being too big? At the moment it is 26in wide and 36 inches long and i am going to add borders which will make it approx 32 inches wide and 42 in long..will this be too small?

A crib quilt is 45" by 60"

i better make mine wider then! i ran out of fabric but managed to get some more of the same one this morning..thank goodness!
Thanks for responding..it was truly helpful and appreciated.

I make them kinda big so the kids don't outgrow them so quickly. I like 45X60, but that varies with the design. If it's more than 44-45 wide, then you can't use just one piece of fabric, I try to keep it 40-44 wide. But the quilt police are not there - do what looks good!

thanks for your input Saravincent...i was thinking of putting fleece on the back? Has anyone done this and is it hard to sew with ie would there be a problem with puckering as the fleece is stretchy?
I just thought it would be so snuggly with the fleece and warm...by the way the front is a disappearing nine patch done with cotton material.

I am making mine 40X60 so that the grands can use them for a longer time, too :wink: I plan on using fleece on the back and I heard to keep an eye on the bobbin area for dust and to use a walking foot. I am going to try putting the cotton on the bottom and using a roller foot to see how well that works, too :wink:

thanks for the tip to put the cotton on the bottom and to keep an eye on the dust Amma...but whats a roller foot?

It looks as though you already have your answer, but I thought I'd chime in. My Mom's church group does baby quilts for charity, and they never go larger than 45" square. This may have been in the original ABC quilts design plans (Mom was an area coordicator). ABC's were given to "At-Risk Babies and Children" in hospitals, etc. Project Linus has sort of taken over the ABC's now.

Fleece on the back? Why not. As you said, it's stretchy but that isn't much of a problem with such a small quilt. I have put cotton, fleece, flannel, whatever. Once I had a piece of lavender brush tricot stuff that I made the front just to fit. I also think of adjusting the fabric type and the thickness of the batting to where the baby will be when it's small. Northern Montana VS Southern Texas. I raised my babies in WY, so I was used to lots of warmth, thick, flannel. I'm making a blankie for a "someday hopeful" for my daughter in Phoenix. It will be thinner and cotton.

I make mine 48x48. I tell the moms when they move to a big bed let me know and I will make them another. I use flannel on the backs. I don't like fleece because it stretches too much.