Quilts are a great way to add some comfort and warmth to your home, they also make great gifts for your loved ones around holidays and special occasions.
One of the best ways to make a quilt for someone is by stitching together multiple five-inch squares made of different materials. This is a classic patchwork quilt that can be very sentimental to people.
With that being said, it can feel somewhat overwhelming depending on the size of the quilt that you are looking to make. It can be a lot easier to take on the task when you know roughly how many squares you will need to create your quilt.
In this article, we will look at how many five-inch squares you will need to make quilts of different sizes.
How Many Five-Inch Squares Does It Take To Make A Quilt?
There is no simple answer to this question as it really depends on the size of the quilt that you are looking to make.
When it comes to determining how many squares you need to make for your quilt, you will need to have decided on the type of quilt that you are going to make.
For example, if you are going to make a quilt for a baby, you will need significantly fewer squares than you would need if you were making a full-sized quilt.
Once you have decided on the type of quilt that you are going to make, you will be able to find out the minimum number of squares that you need for your quilt.
The numbers that we will talk about below are the minimum number of squares required to make specific quilts. You will also need to take into consideration the person that you are making the quilt for.
Not everyone will enjoy a blanket or quilt that is on the smaller size, in these cases, you can add a few extra squares on each side.
How Many Five-Inch Squares Does It Take To Make A Baby Quilt?
The smallest quilt that you can make is a baby quilt. This is one quilt size where it is not always recommended to size up. This is because there are certain sizes of a quilt that are safe for babies and other sizes that are not safe.
As a general rule, a baby quilt should measure 31.5 inches by 40.5 inches. In terms of the five-inch squares that you will be using to make the quilt, this is 7 squares by 9 squares. In total, you will need 63 five-inch squares to make this blanket.
If you are using charm packs to make your quilt, you will need two charm packs for this blanket. Alternatively, you can use a single charm pack and half a yard of coordinating fabric.
The fabric will need to be cut into 21 five-inch squares to complete the baby quilt.
If you choose to use multiple charm packs it is best to choose duplicate charm packs of the same pattern, packs with complimentary patterns, or a second charm pack that has solid colors only to add a fun contrast to your quilt.
How Many Five-Inch Squares Does It Take To Make A Throw-Size Quilt?
If you want more of a challenge than a baby quilt, you can move on to a throw-sized quilt. This is a quilt that you should be able to use to cover your legs or wrap around your shoulders to help keep you warm.
The average size of a throw quilt is about 54 inches by 67.5 inches. In terms of five-inch squares, the measurements are 12 squares by 15 squares. In order to make this quilt, you will need to make a total of 180 five-inch squares.
It is also possible to make a larger throw quilt that measures 63 inches by 72 inches. This equates to a total of 224 five-inch squares in an arrangement of 14 squares by 16 squares.
If you are going to be using charm packs for this quilt, you will need to purchase 5 packs. If you want to make the larger throw quilt, you will need at least 6 charm packs.
This is the largest blanket that can reasonably be made with charm packs. Beyond this point, you will be better off purchasing yardage instead.
How Many Five-Inch Squares Does It Take To Make A Twin-Sized Quilt?
Moving on to quilts that are big enough to cover a bed, we will start with the smallest adult bed size. The minimum size required to make a twin-sized quilt is 72 inches by 90 inches.
This will be made up of 16 squares by 20 squares. This should make a rectangular shape that is similar to a twin-sized bed. In total, you will need 320 five-inch squares for this quilt.
If you do want to use charm packs for this quilt, you will need to purchase 8 packs. It is important to make sure that the patterns are all the same, or at least that they complement each other.
You can also use solid colors to create your own checkerboard-type pattern.
With that being said, when you begin to make quilts for full-sized beds, it is much more cost effective to purchase your fabric in yardage rather than in charm packs.
However, if you are more confident using the charm packs, that is still reasonable at this size.
How Many Five-Inch Squares Does It Take To Make A Full-Sized Quilt?
When you move onto a full-sized bed quilt, also known as a double bed quilt, you will need significantly more squares. A standard, full-sized quilt measures 85.5 inches by 108 inches.
This can be made by arranging the individual squares into a grid of 18 squares by 24 squares.
A quilt of this size will need an incredible 456 five-inch squares. If you were to try and make this with charm packs, you would need to purchase 11 packs.
Again, these would need to be duplicates of the same pattern, similar in their pattern, or just solid colors to make a basic patchwork quilt.
With quilts of this size, it is much easier and more cost-effective to purchase yardage instead of charm packs. To make a full-sized quilt from five-inch squares, you will need to purchase 8 yards of fabric.
This will be enough to make exactly 456 five-inch squares.
If you are going to make your full-sized quilt a little bit bigger than the minimum size, you will need to purchase extra yardage or charm packs to make the extra squares.
Remember that you will need to add additional squares to the length and the width of your blanket to ensure that it is the right shape still.
How Many Five-Inch Squares Does It Take To Make A Queen-Size Quilt?
If you are getting adventurous with your quilt making and want to attempt to make a queen-size quilt, you will need significantly more fabric than you needed for the full-sized quilt.
To create a quilt that meets the minimum size requirements for a queen-sized bed, it will need to measure 90 inches by 108 inches.
The squares that you need for this quilt should be arranged in a grid that is 20 squares by 24 squares. This blanket will look a little bit more square than the previous quilts that you may have made.
To have enough squares to complete the smallest size of this quilt, you will need to make at least 480 squares.
In order to make this quilt, you will need a total of 12 charm packs. However, if you want to save some money, you will need to purchase at least 8.5 yards of your preferred fabric.
If you want to make the quilt a little bit bigger to ensure that it covers the whole bed when people are in it, you will need to purchase at least 9 yards of fabric to make enough squares.
How Many Five-Inch Squares Does It Take To Make A King-Sized Quilt?
The final and biggest quilt size that we will talk about is a king-sized quilt. For this mammoth quilt, you will need to make sure that you have enough squares for the finished product to measure 112.5 inches by 108 inches.
This equates to a grid pattern that is made up of 25 squares by 24 squares.
This is the most square blanket that we have talked about in this article.
If you want to make the quilt bigger to ensure that it still covers the bed when people are in it, you will need to make sure that when you add additional squares, they maintain the same almost square shape.
In order to make the king-sized quilt, you will need to make a total of 600 five-inch squares. To do this, you will either need to purchase 15 charm packs or the appropriate amount of yardage to save some money.
For this quilt, you will need to purchase at least 10.5 yards of your chosen fabric to make enough squares to make the minimum size.
How To Calculate How Many Five-Inch Squares You Need To Make A Quilt
Although we have given you the number of squares needed to make the minimum sizes of all of these quilts, there are times when you might want to do the math for yourself.
For example, if you want to make the quilt a little bit bigger to ensure that it is big enough to be useful on a bed with someone in it.
The first step in calculating how many five-inch squares you will need is to subtract the seam allowance from the fabric that you have. The standard seam allowance is ¼ inch for quilting.
Because the seam runs all the way around the edge of the squares, you will need to subtract two seam allowances from the initial five-inch measurement. This should leave you with a square that measures 4.5 inches.
Now that you know what size your squares will truly be, you can divide the dimensions of your intended quilt by 4.5. This will give you the number of squares that you will need to make for your quilt.
Example Equation
We will use the baby quilt as an example because it involves the smallest numbers of all the quilts in this article.
A baby quilt measures 40 inches by 45 inches. To determine the number of charm squares that you will need to make, you first need to divide 40 inches by 4.5 inches.
This gives us 8.88, however, because you don’t want to be working with partial squares, you can round that up to 9.
This means that you will need to make 9 squares that measure 4.5 inches to create the width of the quilt. Technically it will be 40.5 inches instead of 40 inches, but you can trim the finished quilt if necessary.
You will then need to calculate the length of the quilt. To do this, you will need to divide 45 inches by 4.5 inches. This should give you 10.
This means that you will need to make 10 squares that measure 4.5 inches to create the right length for your quilt.
The final equation is to divide the length and width of your quilt together in terms of squares. In this case, you will multiply 9 and 10 to get 90 squares. This means that you will need to make 90 charm squares to make a 40-inch by 45-inch quilt.
If you want to extend your equations further to work out how many charm packs you will need to make these squares, all you have to do is divide 90 by 42. This gives us 2.14 which should be rounded up to 3.
You will need 3 charm packs to make this blanket.
If you want to work out how much yardage you will need to make a 40-inch by 45-inch quilt you will need to take the number of squares (90) and divide it by the number of squares that can be made from a yard (57).
In this case, you would need 1.6 yards of material.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is A Charm Pack?
We have mentioned charm packs a lot in this article. If you are unfamiliar with this term, you might have been very confused. When talking about sewing and quilting, a “charm” refers to a 5” x 5” square of fabric.
A charm pack is a handy pack that contains around 42 pieces of fabric to make 42 charms. These packs will contain fabric that has various patterns or prints that complement each other well.
They are designed to be used to make quilts. Some packs will contain duplicates and even triplicates of the same print because of the number of charms in a pack.
A charm pack can be a great way to begin making quilts because the fabric is already cut to size which takes a lot of work out of the process.
What Size Quilt Can You Make With One Charm Pack?
As we have already mentioned, a single charm pack contains around 42 charms. This means that the largest quilt that you can make with a single charm pack will measure 27 inches by 31.5 inches. This is around 6 squares by 7 squares.
If you are limited to a single charm pack to make a quilt, you can add sashing between the squares and borders around the outside to make it larger.
This can make it more practical as a baby quilt or even as a comfort item for a toddler. A quilt this size can also make a great keepsake.
What Size Quilt Can You Make With Two Charm Packs?
Making a quilt with a single charm pack doesn’t give you results that are particularly practical or useful. However, using two charm packs can make all the difference.
The largest quilt that you can make with two charm packs measures 40.5 inches by 40.5 inches. This can be made up of 9 squares by 9 squares.
Using two charm packs, you can easily make a quilt that is a good size for a baby quilt.
However, if you want to get creative, you can add some beautiful sashing between the squares and some intricate borders to increase the overall size to that of a small throw.
How Many Squares Can You Make From ½ A Yard Of Fabric?
As we mentioned above, it can begin to get quite expensive if you continue to use charm packs throughout the different sizes of quilts. Thankfully, there is an alternative that is much more cost-effective.
Purchasing yardage instead of packs allows you to get as much fabric as you need for a much lower price. The only thing you need to do is cut the squares yourself.
The most important thing that you need to know before you rush out to buy fabric by the yard is how much you will need to make the right number of squares for your quilt.
We briefly mentioned above how many squares you can make with a yard of fabric but because you are likely to want to purchase different patterns for your quilt, a yard can be too much of one fabric.
If you are going to purchase your fabric by yardage, half a yard can be easiest to understand. When making quilts with charms, half a yard of fabric can make 24 squares for your quilt.
To make a baby quilt, the smallest that we have talked about, you will need at least 1.1 yards of fabric for the 63 squares.
Final Thoughts
The number of five-inch squares that you will need in order to make a quilt will depend on the type of quilt that you are making. The minimum number of squares that you will need for the smallest quilt is 63.
This can rise to as many as 600 squares for the minimum measurements for a king-size quilt.
In an effort to get them to avoid excessive screen time ( and arguing! ) I turned to more creative avenues that we have all since grown to love.
I created this website in the hopes of inspiring more families out there to enjoy crafting and enjoy a shared bonding experience over it.
Please enjoy it and hopefully, you’ll find something to make that you can display proudly forever!
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