I want to make a quilt 6ft x 5ft. What size do the blocks need to be?

Question

And how many in each row? Im new to quilting so im not sure..

Answer 1

If you're new to quilting, you definitely want to bookmark this site: http://www.quilterscache.com/ Lots and lots of block patterns, easy instructions, and samples of finished quilts.

If you are new, I suggest you do not make a large quilt as your first project. Make a wall hanging or throw size instead of a bed sized quilt. Dealing with all that fabric when quilting can be difficult. Plus it can take a long time to quilt a large quilt, even if you do it by machine.

I also think a large quilt with 12" squares of fabric would be rather boring. The fun of quilting is cutting things up into little pieces and putting them back together into pretty patterns.

Go to Quilter Cache and pick a beginner block pattern. A 9-patch block is simple and can make a very pretty pattern.

Answer 2

This is a good question. For a new person to quilting, making the 12 x 12 block is nice because not as much sewing. If you want to do more sewing then a 6 x 6 block can be nice as well. So you are looking at 72 inches by 60 inches...so you would have 5 (12 inch) - blocks across and 6 (12 inch) blocks down. So 5 times 6 is 30 blocks.

If you did 6 inch blocks then you would have twice as many so you would have 10 across by 12 down making 60 blocks. And twice as many seams.

Remember you can choose any size of block but, the smaller the block the more complex it is. And if the inches of the block don't divide evenly then your quilt might be slightly bigger or smaller. For a beginner I usually recommend either smaller quilt or larger blocks, or both.

Remember as well, quilters usually use a quarter inch seam allowance so, if you want a 12 inch block you need to cut it 12 1/2 inches to account for the seams on all sides. If you do the 6 inch block then it is 6 1/2 inches. You can use any seam allowance you want really, but you will have to do the math in that case to account for your seams.

If you don't want to do that many blocks, then boarders can be added to make the dimentions of the quilt come out evenly but, in that case I would recommend a good beginning quilting book or class to help you. You can find this at any good quilt shop.
I recommend any book by Eleanor Burnes. She usually explains how to do boarders and binding and such very well.

As always, you are the artist of your quilt and it will be uniquely you...have fun with it.

Answer 3

I would probably make my squares 12"x12". That would be a total of 30 12" square blocks, sewed 6 rows of 5 blocks each. Remember that you usually start out with a square 12.5" because you need a 1/4" seam on all sides when sewing the blocks together. Also you will be adding a binding around the whole thing, so you'll end up with a couple of extra inches all around. Take a look at the sites listed at
http://quilting.about.com/ I hope this helps.

Answer 4

Here is a great site that may be of great help to you. I have used it in the past and helps calculate the size of your pieces, the number needed , and the yardage. I have found it very helpfull , especially when combining different pattern blocks for a quilt, as it also calculates the seam allowance for you !
Good luck with your project.

Answer 5

You could plan on a finished size of 12" squares, 6 blocks across and 5 down, or vice versa. When you cut your pieces remember to account for 1/4" seam allowance on all sides. Good luck!

Answer 6

As well as the previous excellent answers - get a piece of graph paper and sketch out your 6 x 5. See if you would prefer to have, say a 5" border all the way round and therefore one less block each way. Or even 10" blocks with 2" sashing (strips) between them. It always helps to have paper and pencil nearby. You could even try drawing out your block and photocopying it x-number of times and laying the paper blocks out. Good luck.