Quilt math · Calculator
How many fat quarters for a quilt?
How many fat quarters a quilt of squares takes, for any size and any square. Pick your size, or find it in the chart.
The short answer
A 60″ × 72″ throw of 4½″ squares takes 17 fat quarters: 270 squares, 16 from each 18″ × 21″ fat quarter. A 90″ × 96″ queen takes 35. Borders and binding come from yardage.
Work out yours
Free · no accountYour quilt: 60″ × 72″
270 squares cut 4½″
16 squares from each one.
8 squares from each one.
15 across × 18 down, no border.
Designing with a fat quarter bundle? Quarter Inch works out which pieces come from each fat quarter, block by block.
Start from fat quartersSame sums as the app: @quarterinch/cutting fatQuarterOf, precutPiece and piecesFor · strips cut along the half width · ½″ of seams in every square
Fat quarters for every bed size
For a quilt top made all of squares, no border, with 18″ × 21″ fat quarters. Find your size, then the square you’ll cut.
| Quilt | 2½″ squares | 3½″ squares | 4½″ squares | 5″ squares | 6½″ squares | 10½″ squares |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crib, 36″ × 48″ | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 10 |
| Throw, 60″ × 72″ | 20 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 24 |
| Twin, 66″ × 90″ | 27 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 28 | 32 |
| Queen, 90″ × 96″ | 39 | 32 | 35 | 37 | 40 | 45 |
| King, 108″ × 108″ | 53 | 44 | 46 | 48 | 54 | 61 |
Bigger squares don’t always mean fewer fat quarters. A 6½″ square leaves a strip of each fat quarter unused, where 4½″ squares fill it more closely. The chart counts whole squares, as you’d cut them.
How it’s worked out
Here’s the throw from the short answer, step by step:
| The quilt, finished | 60″ × 72″ |
|---|---|
| Each square, cut 4½″, sews to | 4″ |
| Squares across × down, rounded up | 15 × 18 |
| Squares in all | 270 |
| From one 18″ × 21″ fat quarter | 16 squares |
| Fat quarters, rounded up | 17 |
Whole squares make the top 60″ × 72″, a touch over the throw size. Leave a row off, or trim the edges square before you add a border.
A quilt with a background
Most quilts aren’t all prints. Stars, Nine-patches and Churn Dashes sit on a background, and the background is usually cheaper bought off the bolt. Count only the pieces that come from your prints:
- Count the print pieces in one block, by size.
- Multiply by the number of blocks.
- Divide by the pieces of that size one fat quarter gives (the chart in fat quarter sizes), and round up.
If you want each block from one print, check that a whole block’s pieces fit in one fat quarter first. Borders, binding and backing are long strips: they come off the bolt, never from fat quarters.
Quarter Inch does this for you. Design the quilt, and its Yardage says which fabrics fit in a fat quarter. Start From a precut you have and it lays every block’s pieces into your fat quarters, a print to a block.
Fat eighths instead
A fat eighth is half a fat quarter, 9″ wide. For the throw’s 4½″ squares you need 34 fat eighths, 8 squares from each. Squares wider than 9″ don’t fit at all: use fat quarters for those.
What changes the answer
- Your fabric’s width. At 40″ wide, selvages off, a fat quarter is 18″ × 20″, and a throw of 3½″ squares needs 20 instead of 16. Measure yours.
- Mistakes and fussy cutting. Buy one or two more than the count, more if you’re centering a motif in each square.
- Pre-washing. Fabric shrinks a little, and a fat quarter has no room to spare. See shrinkage and pre-washing.
Questions
Short answers.
Something else? A real person replies.
hello@quarterinch.app
How many fat quarters do I need for a throw quilt?
17 for a 60″ × 72″ throw of 4½″ squares, with no background. A quilt with a background needs fewer.
How many fat quarters for a queen quilt?
35 for a 90″ × 96″ queen of 4½″ squares. Add yardage for the border, binding and backing.
How many 4½″ squares from a fat quarter?
16, from a 18″ × 21″ fat quarter (42″ fabric, selvages off).
Is a fat quarter bundle enough for a quilt?
It depends on the bundle and the quilt. Count the bundle’s pieces against the chart here, and remember bundles vary in size by collection.
Sources
We checked every fact above against these pages on , and we update this guide when they change. Spotted something out of date? Write to hello@quarterinch.app.
- Moda pre-cut fabric: a complete guide The Sewing Studio