King Size quilt top
 

I have been asked to make just a plain old quilt top using 4 different fabrics and they want nothing but squares sewn together. She had already purchased the fabric. Each piece is 2 yards long by about 44" wide. This is so simple but yet I can't seem to figure out what to do. What size squares should I cut and how many of each do I need? I am so worried that I don't have enough fabric that I am paralyzed as to where to start! When I make quilts for myself I just buy lots and figure I'll use the left overs in something else later on, that way I never run short. I have never tried to figure out how much actual fabric I would need for a specific quilt. Can someone help me with this? All I need to do is the quilt top they will do the actual putting together a backing and batting and quilting. I think they are planning to do like a family quilt get together for the quilting. Do I have enough fabric to make a very large King size quilt? Thanks for the help, sorry that I feel so stupid with the math!

I think I would let the lady know that you probably need more fabric, for borders and binding, so that she can get more to you before the source is gone. If you end up with too much, oh well....

However, I wanted to offer a pattern idea for squares. I made this quilt for a Boys'Ranch about two months ago. I wanted to use ten inch squares but didn't have enough fabric, so I ended up with 9 inch squares. With a bit of math, it might help you to figure out if you have enough fabric.

Or maybe someone who is good at that stuff will be able to tell you a real answer. :)

Dina

That depends on how much work you are up for. I like Dina's quilt - big 10" squares would sew up nice and quick

You could cut 5" blocks - either 5" or 10" would have a 2" strip left from the 2 yards

If you do 3" blocks that divides evenly into 72"

You maybe able to make the fabrics "chain" through the top

You have 8 yards of fabric, which is 8*36*42 =12,096 square inches. (I'm assuming you can get 42 inches in width, which is optimistic.) A very large king might be 120 x 120 inches, which is 14,400 square inches. Even if you lost nothing due to seam allowances and cutting, you would not have enough for a quilt that size. I would go back and explain the math to them.

This may help you

http://search.quiltshops.com/calculator/calculator.htm

This is one of the projects I'm gearing up to make, obviously my throw blanket of 10x10 squares isn't going to work for you, but I bought 5 yards to do mine (I tend to over-buy). But I would estimate you're at least 2 yards short for a King.

https://www.quiltingboard.com/member...964-591236.png

I think the largest square you would want to go to is 10" finished. This would allow you, theoretically at least, to cut 4 10.5" squares across the width of the fabric (four times 10.5 = 42"). Two yards of fabric would equal a length of 72", so you could (theoretically) cut 7 sets of those squares. This means you could get 28 squares out of each fabric.

There are 4 fabrics, so (theoretically) you could cut a total of 112 squares of 10.5".

I say theoretically about all this because, if the fabrics were not cut straight, squaring up might cause you to lose an inch somewhere that would prevent a cutting that is 10.5" wide.

With 112 squares, you can do a layout of 10 x 12. Since the finished size of the squares is 10", this would result in a quilt of size 100" x 120". According to https://suzyquilts.com/quilt-sizes-chart/ , a king size quilt would be 110" x 108". If you change the layout to 11 x 11, you would end up with a quilt 110" x 110".

So, you could *barely* squeak out a king size quilt from this amount of fabric. It would not be a large king size. And, if even one fabric was cut crooked, you won't have enough for a king size.

I started with large 10" squares because less fabric is used up in seam allowances than with smaller squares. I might try re-calculating with 5" squares to see how that works out.

To make a backing for all my king size quilts , I use 3 cuts of 3 yard, stitched with only 2 seams (so no waste due to cutting and multiple seams) . So 9 yards is minimum for a backing. The 8 yards you have is not enough. You are going to need minimum 13 yards to make any king sized quilt. And that varies with each pattern chosen.

I used 10 inch blocks in an on-point layout in Eq and made a 98 inch quilt with no borders. It called for 2 1/4 yards of each of 4 fabrics. Another row took it 113 inches and 2 5/8 yards.

Fon's and Porter just had a king size of four blocks in their show. Trellis it was called. square with hst's around it. set on point, large triangles added to the sides and more hst's. 800 hst's they said. looked great!! Marianne and Mary Fons' did the show.