What quilt can I make with 10 fat quarters?
Quilts you can make from 10 fat quarters, sized to really fit the bundle, how many squares a fat quarter gives at every size, and how many fat quarters a baby, throw, twin or queen quilt takes.
Quick answer Ten fat quarters make a 51 × 60" patchwork throw of 120 squares cut 5", with a border. Add a background fabric and they stretch much further: a 60 × 72" scrappy bow tie quilt or a 70 × 86" bear's paw uses 9 of the 10. Each fat quarter gives 16 squares cut 4½", or 12 cut 5".
A bundle of fat quarters is one of the nicest things to bring home from a quilt shop, and one of the hardest to turn into a plan. Ten of them look like a lot of fabric. They're not quite as much as they look, and how far they go depends almost entirely on the size of the pieces you cut.
What's in a fat quarter
A fat quarter is a quarter yard cut "fat": 18 × 22" instead of a long 9 × 44" strip. After you trim the selvage, plan on 18 × 21" of usable fabric. Cut your strips along the 21" side, so each strip is as long as possible.
Ten fat quarters are about 2½ yards of fabric in total, but in ten different prints, in pieces only 18" deep. That's why big pieces, like 6½" squares or long borders, use them up quickly.
Squares per fat quarter
| Finished square | Cut size | Per fat quarter | From 10 fat quarters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3" | 3½" | 30 | 300 |
| 4" | 4½" | 16 | 160 |
| 4½" | 5" | 12 | 120 |
| 5" | 5½" | 9 | 90 |
| 6" | 6½" | 6 | 60 |
| 8" | 8½" | 4 | 40 |
| 10" | 10½" | 2 | 20 |
Notice how the counts jump around: 16 squares of 4½" fit in a fat quarter, but only 12 of 5". A quarter of an inch costs you a quarter of your squares, which is why it pays to plan before you cut.
What 10 fat quarters can make
These come straight from the What can I make? finder, which takes every pattern, cuts the fat quarters on paper sheet by sheet, and grows the quilt until the bundle runs out:
Three stand out:
A simple patchwork throw. 120 squares cut 5" (4½" finished) make a 10 × 12 layout, 45 × 54" before borders. Add a 3" border and you have a 51 × 60" throw that uses every one of your fat quarters, and nothing but them in the patchwork. The charm square patchwork pattern has the full cutting plan.
Scrappy bow ties. With a background fabric, 9 of the 10 fat quarters make 99 bow ties, a 60 × 72" throw. The background does half the work, so the prints go twice as far.
A bear's paw. Big 14" blocks with sashing make a 70 × 86" twin-size quilt from 9 fat quarters and a background. The prints make about half the patchwork; the background and sashing make the rest.
How many fat quarters for a quilt?
For a patchwork of 5" squares (4½" finished), each fat quarter gives 12 squares:
| Quilt | Layout | Finished, with a 3" border | Fat quarters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baby | 7 × 9 | 37½ × 46½" | 6 |
| Throw | 11 × 13 | 55½ × 64½" | 12 |
| Twin | 14 × 18 | 69 × 87" | 21 |
| Queen | 19 × 21 | 91½ × 100½" | 34 |
Patterns with a background need far fewer: as a rule of thumb, if the prints make about half of the quilt, you need about half as many fat quarters.
Stretch it with a background
Pair the prints with one solid or quiet background fabric and the bundle goes about twice as far. It also makes the prints look better: ten busy prints side by side can blur together, and a calm background gives each one room. Good ways to do it:
- Alternate print and background blocks, like a checkerboard.
- Nine-patches with five print squares and four background squares each.
- Star blocks, where the prints are the stars and the background is everything else.
Choose a background with a clearly different value (lighter or darker) from most of the prints, so the shapes show. Our guide to value and contrast explains why.
What about fat eighths?
A fat eighth is half a fat quarter: about 9 × 21" usable. It gives half as many pieces, and no piece can be more than 9" in both directions. Twelve fat eighths, a common bundle size, make a 48 × 60" throw of scrappy bow ties with a background, or a 59 × 70" churn dash throw using 11 of the 12. See everything 12 fat eighths can make.
Before you cut
- Pre-wash or don't, but be consistent. If you pre-wash fat quarters, they can shrink and fray; give them a light starch before cutting.
- Press each fat quarter and straighten one edge before the first cut.
- Cut the biggest pieces first, then the smaller ones from what's left.
- Keep leftovers organised. Strips from the ends of fat quarters make great binding or scrappy borders.
Common mistakes
- Planning on 22" of width. After the selvage is trimmed, it's 21" or a little less. A plan that needs 22" loses a row of squares on every fat quarter.
- Cutting strips along the 18" side. You get shorter strips and fewer pieces from each one.
- Choosing a size that wastes a strip. 5½" squares give 9 per fat quarter; 5" squares give 12. Check the chart before you settle on a size.
- Forgetting borders and binding. A border needs long strips, which fat quarters can't give. Plan to buy yardage for borders, binding and backing.
Let Quiltkind count it for you
In the Quiltkind studio, add your fat quarters to your stash ("10 fat quarters") and link them to a fabric in your quilt. The cutting plan cuts from the fat quarters first, sheet by sheet, and tells you how many you'll use, how many are left over, and how much more to buy if they're not enough.
Frequently asked questions
How many fat quarters do I need for a throw quilt?
About 12 for a throw of 5" squares (55½ × 64½" with a border). With a background fabric, 8 to 10 is often enough for a throw.
How many fat quarters make a queen quilt?
About 34 for a queen-size patchwork of 5" squares. A pattern with a background, such as stars or bow ties, needs far fewer: often 15 to 20.
How many 5" squares can I cut from a fat quarter?
Twelve: three strips 5" wide along the 21" side, each cut into four squares.
Is a fat quarter the same as a quarter yard?
Both are a quarter of a yard of fabric, but a fat quarter is cut 18 × 22" and a quarter yard is cut 9 × 44". The fat quarter's shape gives more useful pieces for most blocks.
What's the best quilt pattern for a fat quarter bundle?
Patchwork of 5" squares uses every fat quarter with almost no waste. For a bigger quilt from the same bundle, choose a pattern with a background fabric, such as bow ties or stars.
Keep reading
Your first quilt: a nine-patch throw, planned to the inch
A complete beginner's plan for a 52 × 64" nine-patch throw: what to buy, how to cut every strip, the faster strip-set method, the order to sew it in, and the same quilt in baby to king sizes.
Value and contrast: why your star points disappear
Colour gets the attention, but value (how light or dark a fabric is) decides whether your quilt pattern shows. What value is, how to check it before you cut, and where contrast matters most.
Half-square triangle size chart: 2, 4 and 8 at a time
What size squares to cut for half-square triangles, for every common finished size and all three popular methods, with and without trimming, plus how many squares you need.